Dealing With Storm Damaged, Extremely Bent Over Trees

 Occasionally you will have to deal with trees that are big springpoles, loaded with energy and ready to knock your head off if you cut one of them wrong. Nipping in the inside middle of the bend works if you don't have to work above your shoulders. Take too big of a nip and you will have your saw pinched, so that can be a problem. I have been using a different technique that has worked for me every time. Make a face cut down low on the inside, and then make a vertical bore cut behind the face cut to establish the hinge without taking out much of the tensioned back strap. As you do this, go easy and work the saw in and out, because the compression will try to come down on your chain and bar. You will feel it, but you can stay in charge. After you have the hinge made, stand back as far as you can and cut the back strap. Do not stand in line with the stem, because it might kick back. Practice this on a safe tree and you will be ready when a real challenge comes along. 

BTU Obsession!

 

                                     Back To The Old Grind!

Anatomy Of A Chainsaw Accident, How To Avoid Becoming Newsworthy

Note that Timber Kutter eliminated most of the hinge when he cut out the center. Taking out the center is a useful tool, but you must leave enough hinge for safety. The yellow-poplar hung up and then rolled when one end of the hinge let go.  Timber Kutter remained by the stump and when the tree rolled off the stump it landed on his saw. An adequate hinge, or making his escape from the stump would have prevented this accident. There is a list of 25 chainsaw safety rules on the left side of this blog. It is good to review them once in a while. Many of them carry the death penalty if you ignore them! I made the video below to review your falling plan. Every step is important.

Easy Black Oak Snag.

Great Safety Reminder From Living With Wood Fires, in the U.K.

 Accidents are unplanned events. You must plan and prepare to avoid them. A full comp .375 chain has 10 teeth per foot, and at 45 miles per hour, the chain can cut you 660 times per second. Big, Bad Cuts! Take a class, use your safety gear, plan every cut.

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Leaky Logs Won't Blow

 They get it, but it takes a little work at the end.

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Making Wood For Winter: Big River Birch, Dropping And Bucking

 I think this is the final firewood tree that the power co-op topped. Now that they are all down, I just have to pick up and split these, and stack them in the barn. I am splitting small so they can dry quickly.  We put a set of forks on the tractor's loader, and it sure is useful. I can put a big load of rounds in the bucket now, enough to fill the Kubota RTV after I split it all. Anyhow, here's the drop, and then most of the bucking. 

Poles Are Different To Drop...

 ....Not necessarily difficult, but the top way up there has a lot of leverage to pull the tree over. Take that top off and the normal hinge does not work as easily. This was mentioned one time in the several classes I had, and I never forgot it. You will remember it, too after watching this video.

I See Dead Hickories!

 The hickory in this video has been dead for about a year, evidently struck by lightning during one of the many thunderstorms. I found another one near the north barn, so we will have some high Btu wood in the barn for cold days. The speed with which hickory rots after it dies is stunning.  Don't waste time thinking about it, Get it down, buck it, split it, get it under cover!

This One Was Past My Limits,,,,

 ...but with nothing to lose, I went for it. This tree showed me that my limits make sense, and I partially won, keeping the tree from going straight into the pond. 

Chainsaw Kickback And Your Chain Brake

 I saw a video the other day where a fellow was complaining that chain brakes are useless. He was demonstrating how he formed his opinion by doing kickbacks with his saw with his bar vertical. That launches a kickback right at your face, and luckily, he never made a serious kickback, because a bad one is powerful. His brake probably was fine, and he wasn't hitting wood hard enough to make it set. Sometimes when doing a demonstration you may have to hit several times to get the effect you want, but if you do, you must have your saw turned so it launches to your right, not vertically at your head. A strong hit will swing the saw several feet.  Here's instructor Joe Glenn demonstrating a kickback at one of the classes he taught.

The next video shows me out in the woods to cut up a black oak, and I show how to check your brake to make sure it operates correctly. 

Slo-Mo Recap Of Snag Hinge Failure

 

Here's the hinge failure video slowed down to 1/4 for us to examine. You can see the one that failed swinging toward the camera as it pulls the other stem over. It comes through the mulberry tree that was growing in the fencerow. Note the stump at the end. The left side was punched down when the master snag was pulled over. The branches coming down are impressive! Hinge failure AAR: https://youtu.be/sixSbZ5SRDo

Hinge Failure After Action Review

 I am in the process of cutting up this snag now, and it is a disappointment. Pin oaks standing dead rot much faster than other oaks, and this one is really punky. I am going to load it out into the woods and dump it because it will not make good firewood. It is too soft and too light. Oh Well, or words to that effect. Take your pin oaks down early while they are solid. 

HINGE FAILURE! Snags Write Their Own Ending!

 I am glad I have this recorded! I had it set up the way I wanted, but while I was working away on the backstrap of the in-leaning tree, the hinge failed on the out-leaner! I did not see that because the tree I was working on blocked the view. The chain swung it over to our side of the boundary fence, and then the in-leaner dropped on top of it. You can watch both hinges fail, going sideways. Snags always have extra risks. The wood had lost some strength on these stems and I am lucky the hinge on the out-leaner held until the other one was able to go.

One of the things to do when making your falling plan is to figure out where the tree will go if the hinge fails. You can tell that within a 90 degree quadrant. That is the worst place to be during your cutting. These trees fell almost 90 degrees from where I intended because of the first hinge failure, and knowing where NOT to be turned out to be vital to me remaining vertical when it was all over.

Dangerous Red Maple Photos!

 Our neighbor lady took some great photos of the drop and shared them with us today.  Here are my picks!

IT'S GOING! Dangerous Red Maple!

 Our neighbor's red maple was getting more dangerous by the day, with a dead, rotten top, plus many dead limbs. The wind was from the southeast to help us, so today was the day. It was a 44 segment tree, and it tipped with two 1" wedges, minus the saw kerf. So about 1 1/2" times 44 segments equals moving the top over 66" to the tipping point. Susan heard it pop while I was bringing up another wedge, and warned me. Glad she did that! I did not hear it!

Why Do I Make Chainsaw Videos?

 The fellow in this video is a certified arborist out on the west coast, and he does a lot of tree removals, and makes a lot of YouTube videos. He should know how to drop a leaner without it barber chairing, but west coast fallers, and it seems most arborists won't bore/plunge cut the trees they cut. The primary key to prevent barber chairs is to establish a hinge of proper thickness before the tree is released and set into motion. That requires bore cutting.  There is real resistance to bore cutting, even though it is an easy skill to learn, and it is a technique that sets us apart from the axe and crosscut saw methods. I hope to keep preaching the use of proper, safe methods while I can still crank a saw.

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Here's the link to the full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhYggnpWYJs

And the video embedded.

Assess Weight and Lean Properly

 I have heard through all of my forestry years to go up to a tree, hug it and look up to see which way it leans. You will see trees going in unexpected directions on YouTube videos when people listen to that advice. Put a heavy nut on a string, or use a straight stick for a plumb to assess where a tree wants to go.  View it from two sides and you will have the info you need to drop a tree where you want it, and be in a safe place when it falls.

A Good Stiff Drink...

....for work well done! Here we have a very nice young walnut surrounded by lesser trees impeding its growth. Look at your timber with a critical eye and these decisions are easy. The sap running from the grapevine was a nice little bonus.

 

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Dropping A Tree; A Review Of The Steps

I recycled a couple of videos from last year, trimming them down and focusing on the process.  An after action review is at the end, to reinforce the lesson.