How To Be A Bad Logger!

The step cut, or as I call it, the domino cut, can be useful to a logger, and to landowners who must cut trees.  It is illegal to use per OSHA regulations if you are using it to drop trees like dominoes as one tree pushes the next.  It is a stunt that loggers like to do, just to show that they know how, and it will get you run off of a job real quick if the boss catches you playing dominoes. The usefulness of this cut is that it holds a tree steady for you until you are ready to push it or winch it over.  It is really handy when you have edge trees that are heavy to the outside of the timber, and you need the trees to fall in.  Driving wedges is tiring, especially on a hot day.  Set the tree up and then push it with equipment to make your day run a little easier.  Here is a pecan tree that Susan and I set up, followed by a tree that was harvested several years ago on the edge of our timber.  Jason, our logger, set it up a bit differently than I do, but the mechanics and the results are the same.