Aluminum felling wedges

[Woodslasher]

Metal is metal when you hit it with a chain , Bad idea imo.

I may or may not have nicked the aluminum roof on a Komatsu dozer with my 562, no cutter damage whatsoever. New Oregon #72 square ground chisel chain, fresh off the roll the night before, peeled a pair of aluminum curlies but no chain damage.

What I want to do is prevent wedges popping back out, can’t do it with plastic.

Dirt. Sawdust and dirt. When I have wedges try to pop out I dump a bunch of dirt/sawdust on them and beat them like they owe me money. Hasn't failed yet!

 

[Woodpecker]

I may or may not have nicked the aluminum roof on a Komatsu dozer with my 562, no cutter damage whatsoever. New Oregon #72 square ground chisel chain, fresh off the roll the night before, peeled a pair of aluminum curlies but no chain damage.

Dirt. Sawdust and dirt. When I have wedges try to pop out I dump a bunch of dirt/sawdust on them and beat them like they owe me money. Hasn't failed yet!

Was gonna tell @davidwyby to clean the loob off his booger pickers before he handles his wedges, but yea that trick works. Really any textured plastic wedge is going to cure most pop out problems. Pine pitch helps too…

 

[Czed]

I have some old steel wedges
They kept your concentration
On point.

 

[davidwyby]

Been forcing some gnarly leaners over, my have to go steel or jack…wood is wet and somewhat compressible too.

 

[Philbert]

What I want to do is prevent wedges popping back out, can’t do it with plastic.

You can make all kinds of ‘dimples’ with a soldering iron.

Philbert

 

[davidwyby]

You can make all kinds of ‘dimples’ with a soldering iron.

Philbert

I intend to do something like Tiger Tooth Stippling...you can google that.

 

[ray benson]

Plastic wedges with spikes. They make them 5.5", 8" and 10"

 

[davidwyby]

The stippling spikes are “one way”.

 

[Ford3000]

You can make all kinds of ‘dimples’ with a soldering iron.

Philbert

Or use an angle grinder to cut what ever pattern you want on a plastic wedge.
I would not use that soft aluminium, you could even break it if you hit it
hard enough from the wrong angle, it will keep on swelling if you hit it straight
on though, but I would not trust it.
Make a good wide steel wedge, and put a soft point on it, build up the point with
aluminium, or epoxy, best of both worlds.

 

[davidwyby]

The intent was to prevent wedges popping back out. Worked well this morning forcing a side leaner over to the left. Well, closer to 180° with messed up limb weight too. The thicker ones in place of stacking are a winner. I nicked one and didn’t hurt the chain…sliced my thumb with the wedge though.

Now that I know my wedges work I’m going to start using to winch to pull and swing things, at least in the summer! It was pretty miserable fun this morning. The axe tears the wedges up pretty bad but the sledge doesn’t as much.

 

[Ford3000]

The intent was to prevent wedges popping back out. Worked well this morning forcing a side leaner over to the left. Well, closer to 180° with messed up limb weight too. The thicker ones in place of stacking are a winner. I nicked one and didn’t hurt the chain…sliced my thumb with the wedge though.

Now that I know my wedges work I’m going to start using to winch to pull and swing things, at least in the summer! It was pretty miserable fun this morning. The axe tears the wedges up pretty bad but the sledge doesn’t as much.

As long as they work, that's what matters. Cut thumb, happens me when I change from wood to steel, or plastic to steel, the neurons need re calibrated.

 

[Catbuster]

Aluminum wedges were the cat’s meow back in “the day,” which is to say shortly before I started working in the woods. Plastic wedges were too soft and expensive at the time to really be any good, which is interestingly the opposite of today. They won’t wreck a saw chain if you hit one, and they are fairly durable to beat on if you can square up the pole if your axe with the wedge.

Today the best wedge on the market, IMO, is the K&H Redhead. Lots of lift for the length of their wedges, and their wedges stack beautifully. Their triple taper wedges are great too, and even stack okay back to back, even if they’re more of a bucking tool than a felling tool, at least as I was taught. The biggest thing with them is to hit them square with something that will hit the whole length of the wedge face, like a big flat head axe. My wedge beater has a five pound head and weighs about six pounds overall. A maul will obliterate a plastic wedge no matter the brand.

I haven’t had any luck with stacking the Hardhead wedges. It seems like they pop right out when stacked, and eventually the steel insert cracks its way out of the end, which sucks.

 

[davidwyby]

Do they make a big fat plastic wedge like my alum one so as not to have to stack? I like it…

 

[Catbuster]

Do they make a big fat plastic wedge like my alum one so as not to have to stack? I like it…

I have not seen a plastic wedge that is any thicker than my big 12” K&H wedges, which are probably 1.25” thick at the head. The thing with these is that they stack so well that starting a few together really isn’t that hard.

The other problem I could see with a fat plastic wedge is similar to that of using a maul on a plastic wedge, you’d drive on it with any striking tool just to have it crush in the center with the edges flaring out.

One thing I have thought about but never tried is using an auto extrication wedge to fall a tree. I believe the ones on my unit have 2 or 4” of lift of 12” of length and are manufactured by Turtle Plastics.

 

[davidwyby]

They also make those ones you power with a cordless impact or whatever. Haven't investigated.

I have some yellow oregon I think 12" with dimples. They popped out doubled but I didn't know about the dirt trick. I have some KHs that are maybe 10", same.

The nice thing about the thick wedge is that it does not protrude far into the backcut in case you need to cut more.

Square corners on a Fiskars are super hard on wedges...

 

[crowslayer17]

It might not be ideal, but the best thing I can think of is putting a metal cap on the back to prevent damaging the aluminum. It would probably be okay if you didn't need to drive them completely in. This is how they are able to drive steel and wood pilings into the ground with a 5000 lb drop hammer or diesel hammer without damaging them.
Another option may be to taper down the back of the wedge to a small size so it will more closely match the size of your sledge or axe head. Tapering the edges definitely helps prevent damage with steel and wood, I'm not sure if aluminum chips or just cracks and smashes.

 

[davidwyby]

That ole pine knocked the spikes down.
The fiskars took chunks out if my strike was off, the sledge mushroomed them a bit.
I agree with the hard head modification.

 

[davidwyby]

pic

 

[Catbuster]

My experience with the triple taper wedges has been as such:

If you stack them like this:


Or this:


You’re screwed. It just doesn’t work.

This works okay, but the standard wedge works way better.


And yeah, I have better wedges but these were on top…

 

[davidwyby]

I think if you’re gonna stack ‘em, they gotta be a slight single taper. Stacking them combines the angles and makes it too steep. If the tree is already tilted far enough that the force required is reduced, you’re ok, but if not…

That’s why I like my thick aluminum one. Thicker but same angle. I guess you can get the same effect with shims but I haven’t tried shims yet.