Collectively Critique (Pic's &Vid)

[czar800]

 

[~WBF]

I think that one video was 5-6 years ago now actuall[emoji51]

That 2nd had another sycamore ointertwined in the stump is the reason for the tall cut. It had been cut long before I cut that one.

I really like that lifter rafting axe for small work like that. It is 3.5 lbs. I have a 5 lb Council with a 28” handle as well. It will splatter a wedge if you don’t hit it square. K&H stick in hardwood in the winter better than anything else I’ve tried.

I have tried to do the face cuts and back cut from the same spot and can do it a lot better now and use my right hand on the wrap. It’s been almost a year now since I’ve done any falling besides brush work. I’d like to go cut a couple semi loads just to get some practice in again.

5-6 yrs? That's going back a ways.
Seems a little grabby that wood.
Ok it's just a 3.5 axe. my phone is on self adjust light and It was getting dark. long handle. yes I know the heads from Ron. They look good. Yes, 5lb head now that is a wedge melter. Yes I used K& H in -40 in hardwood. (Cotton, Aspen, Birch ,pine, Larch, black & white Spruce, balsam.
I have had to just very slightly rough up the bottom 2" a little. Only a few time in the 12 winters I worked in the North. They don't come any better.
Well right on you have graduated. Yeah It would be nice if you can get at it and get some loads. lay out some wood.G et in the wing of things. I don't seem to get rust or out of shape for it. I get stage freight on the coast. It's gone by the time I'm on the hill. It's leading up to going I drive slow and take it all in and wonder...
You don't have a choice Heli-falling. You have to cut in the body position the ground allows. It happens often side hill falling that you find your self 'right hand front handle' starting an undercut and you have only room on a root for your right foot so you lean on the tree and rest the other foot onto your right boot.

 

[mdavlee]

It was a lot longer than I thought. It’s some kind of elm and it was tough and stringy. I broke a Fiskars trying to split some of it by hand.

 

[~WBF]

This was a big old ugly maple that I’ve wanted to take out for years. It was a extremely off balance. That a 36” bar on my 660.

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How are you? Looks like a nice and private spread out there. What is that a big smoker?

I guess I didn't have the vid adjusted the first time I thought you were blowing off a top and I was looking for you in the tree
Then all the tree I could see on my phone started to falling so I scrolled down and It was over.
I failed.

I see you dealt with the stems on the front side first. Sometimes you are better off.
In this case the tree would have still went easy? As it appears from a 'lookers view' anyway. Keeps your mess closer to the driveway for sure.
Certainly had the pro (proper) body positioning going on. Down on the knees, nice straight back position and looking at your top for movement as you near the end of your cut.
A+ on that Brother, And that's the way she's done.

*Almost looks like the tree was in a fire when it was 6" dia. looking at the black ring.

 

[~WBF]

I'm trying to do a danish pie. Doh, I undercut the wedge.
Hell I even do a little dance around the elm.

It's taking me a few day to figure out what is going on anyways.

Think I got it now.

You were trying to 'do' a 'Danish Pie'
Pulled out 'The 'ol Wonky Donkey' and you undercut the 'wedge' "Doh"
ended up giving her the 'Greek Uppercut' then took a dance around the Elm tree?

You know the difference between a Danish Pie and a Greek uppercut now don't you?
.
.
.
.
.
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About an inch

 

[Wonkydonkey]

What’s the Greek upper cut, I guess it’s a fudge up cut like I did ?

Success at last.

 

[~WBF]

Thoughts?

 

[~WBF]

16” bar on a 461. Tryin to do a danish pie. Doh, I undercut the wedge.
Hell I even do a little dance around the elm.
I milled the elm aftwards

Edit, I will have to upload again, for some reason it ended short (missed the leaver fell)

What are those..red nikey high tops? j/k. You look like a pretty tall guy. South England?

I realize that you had some leeway with the aim on this tree but get in the habit of 'leveling blind' and then aiming from behind the saw. In all my experience, the one 'thing' that holds us back the most is us relying on our eye sight when we should be using our sense of feel. This took me years and year to figure out there is a better way. That's the Holy Grail of Timber Falling right there. That's Key.
If you use the same saw then this should be easy to memorise the level feel in almost any position. Different bar does not real matter as it's not about the weight so much but feel of the grips in the proper position as well memory feeling of the body position. I use a saw with wrap handle and it doesn't have the same ballance from one side to the next but it doesn't interfere with 'leveling blind' at all.
You don't have to be cutting trees to practise that.
It doesn't take very long to dial it in either.
Just shut your eyes and open them. Get your main position dialed in and then dial in another. You will be able to go to every position in practise from standing to taking a knee to full extension ect.
I didn't even realize I practise. It's just what I do when I pick up saws. I have a very vivid imagination. I once though I was a Timber Faller you know.
If I have to reach out and set my dogs first then I have to use my eyes. All the big tree when falling from the right side of tree , I can set free hand on the fly. I don't put the dogs in the corner. I get a rough aim from off my right shoulder I wing it into the centre of tree as soon as I plant my feet.
I don't look, and I don't slow down. It's a very fast thing then I go to the dogs then finish off behind saw to set aim.
Now I pull the saw out real fast in the level and aim position established from the flat cut. Nothing moves. Feet, wrist elbows, shoulders all stay locked. It's just a lateral sway. So I'll set my angle width half the distance of my depth on a Humboldt. I may have to chase my cuts back a bit and reset aim. When I am in my zone, I can go 40 or 50 good sized trees before I miss a set and have to reset. 100 - 150 sets 100% by feel.
On large trees from the left side I still set freehand. Although sometimes it's convenient on your approach to swing in and set but because your left arm front handle is on the outside then it has you facing slightly in to the tree with only neck movement so its a little hard to get a rough aim. So I end up starting behind site line right hand forward.

Get right behind the sight lines and tight up to the tree. Keep in consideration the distance from the sight line to the centre of the tree. If it happens to be 1/2 a metre. (20") on a straight tree. Then tree top is always that distance either left or right of your sight mark.

I'll quote you again and finish this.
I will tell you how to knock the undercut out from one side using the sense of feel.
See if you can figure it out in the mean time. keep in mine the bar length on the side you start of the undercut apex is true flat.
Anyway, If I can do all this I speak off then you guys can do all this also.

BTW, the tree tipping pry you used by lifting and not pushing down? I have only seen then designed to work the other way?
It worked.

 

[Wonkydonkey]

Well that’s lots to take in Cheers. I will digest it slowly and probably many times over.

The boots are Andrew some Italian make. Yes 6.4, so I find I get an one knee for a better positioning. But this tree was on a bank which was different by about 2-2.5ft on each side.

also I’m lefty handed so I can use a saw in what I would say is normal which others can find it hard, but normal is only what one practices. The leaver is a standard stihl felling leaver, which only works on small trees
I’ve only been cutting trees a short time, so still lots to learn So Thanks for the long informative reply.
The place was not tight, but had to fit in just next to the path but not block it. And also I wanted to mill it afterwards (elm) and did not want to put it to far in the brambles bushes,

I live in Sussex by the sea.
I was born here, unlike a lot that moved here because it’s a popular place with two universities

 

[~WBF]

Oh nice on the water. sweet. you can't get anymore south than that Not on Englang's main Island. I was thinking Sussex or Essex for some reason. I flew into Essex and it has a lot of trees down in the south east and I knew that wasn't a northern accent. I'm a Scouse but raised in Canada. I'm not to far away from you at all. South east London. I can't see any reason you can't have some free private lessons one of these days. And if you have Jet Ski's then lesson's all Summer. Haha.
It's been some nice whether here the last 10 months. T-shirts and shorts already some days. I figured you were on the higher end of 6'3" - 6'6"

I don't believe the lever is intended for use in that manner. That way you can hurt your back. You put your weight on it.
Before Faller Certifications I renewed my saw ticket in 2003 I believe and the instructor introduced and demonstrated one.

I had a light duty one without the hook with a wooden handle. I tried it for falling beetle infested pine trees for a helicopter in the rockie mountains in 2008..
It was fast and convenient on the little guys but I broke it in about two days on about a 16" green tree.

I was have a hard time figuring out what was going on in the video. It looked like you cut a textbook conventional undercut
Like a 12/12 pitch 45 °, 1:1 ratio
Then you went on a real steep angle? what were you doing? trimming something or marking something?
Then it looks like you cut right in the front above where you were cleaning out the undercut? I was having hard time following. I watched it a lot of times too.
You must have known you were undercutting your wedge as you could have cut from either end of the back cut and it would not have happened. Just weren't thinking about what it was going to do? Seems I have more questions than answers. It did fall in the right spot anyway.
You have to be careful when the ground is high like that. You were all twisted up like a pretzel. you got those mega legs. Ideally you want your body to the side. you are better of laying out on you side out of the way. If there is a better way find it.
If the saw is going to cut through the pants then it will be when the material is tight like a bent knee like that. You can't react in that position at all. When a saw shoots out and people are caught in vurnerable positions they tend to squeeze the throttle. That's true. especially one handed backhand . (Back barring)

The difference between chaps and faller's pants. Chaps are looser fitting so they will pull the material away from the skin as the saw bites. Because they are loose then they end up in the saw all the time with me.
It's a game of millimetres. I have worn chaps in the day but I usually wear faller's pants. I never really have a choice.

 

[Czed]

Discuss...lol

"hinge failure"

 

[~WBF]

"hinge failure"

I know, right.

What we have here, is a hinge failure to communicate.

 

[beaglebriar]

"hinge failure"

He started off so well...wedges who needs em? Lol

 

[Czed]

He started off so well...wedges who needs em? Lol

His downfall was cutting through the backstrap
Without wedging first
Appears to have cut against the lean also
Yep he's one to teach other's.

 

[~WBF]

He started off so well...wedges who needs em? Lol

Not Supper Dave. I have another one of his. He is trying to reinvent the wheel now.

His downfall was cutting through the backstrap
Without wedging first
Appears to have cut against the lean also
Yep he's one to teach other's.

Lol well this is just it. If a random guy just putting up a video and Its full of screw up then that's completely different. If he can't teach to set wedges and 'fence post' down a hung up tree then what is the point. It can be only self satisfying I suppose.
As soon as it sat back you heard if crack.
both sides of the sapwood
He would have heard that. he could have bored another kerf in the centre out of the trunk after the fact and it would have lifted easy. There was not weight to that.

 

[Czed]

He started off so well...wedges who needs em? Lol

He makes up for wedges with this one
Even uses a sledgehammer.

 

[~WBF]

Thoughts?

A horizontal bore cut? And he only stopped doing it
because people thought it to be the starting of a split? It won't split if the hinge isn't too thick. Its like water, it will always take the path of least resistance. It can still split above the horizontal bore cut in the crosscut at any time after cutting the tension wood at top area. So this is exactly equal to crosscutting straight down to the hinge. The complaint should have been....HOW IN THE HECK DOES THAT MITIGATE THE BARBER CHAIR POTENTIAL IN ANY WAY WHAT SO EVER?
That is as useless as tits on a bull. The scary part is there is people out their doing it now and think they are preventing a barber chair. well thought out engineering.
I would have just treated it like a buck. I would have reached underneath and cut out the sapwood on far side then a little under buck and cut the front side and down from top. It's not really dangerous on that angle as on trees the branches are close to the ground and the back section will go up and not outwards, up and then separate above you. I have no issues of the method he showed in the video. Very safe for once. Inconsistent guy

 

[~WBF]

I wonder what helicopter they are using

The CH- 46 (Vertol 107-ll)
Payload of 10,000 lb on an empty tank.
S-61 will do the same.
Ka -32 will do 11,000 lb empty tank.
That's would be pushing it close.
He said 8ft? 21ft (6.3 metres) And have the Riggers come and rip it in half ("rippers")
A bit of a flare on the butt. If it was a 7ft average over 21' then you are at 22,000lb
11,000 each half
The CH -47 Chinook (Vertol 234) will do 26,000 lb. but you wouldn't rip it.
(S-54, payload 18,000 lb or S-64 E payload 20,000)
Then you could fly a full log at 5.1 metres
Sometime you can go random length on cedar saw log to a 15" top or to the break and clean it up.

Pretty easy buck. Its when the cedar has many splits and you can't see everything inside. That's when it can be humbling on big bucks.

 

[~WBF]

And many people think finishing at the back can only be about barber chairs. That is one of four reasons. This is another big concern in west coast production. Much safer positioning and minimising product damage being the other two.
He was just starting the back cut and it had enough forward sag to pop the roots. It's freaky when you feel and hear roots pop. No way you could go back to that if it didn't go. You would have to set a blast in the roots.

 

[Wonkydonkey]

Skip the first 2 mins of the last vid, as I don’t need bbq sticks.. but a very good vid.

I’ve been watching this same guy for a while. When I get time