Tree Felling Technique Thread

[Deets066]

Found a large and surprisingly healthy soft maple in my stand the other day. Expected heart rot or at least very large heart wood at this size but I think because it was a single trunk it was doing well. It had 51ft of clean trunk before the first limb.

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Take your face a little deeper, release your trigger from underneath the back cut, and try not to cut through your hinge wood.

 

[XP_Slinger]

Left the hinge a little too fat on this big ash. But it went right where I wanted it and didn’t split. Win. This old girl had 60’ of clean trunk before the first branch. Good time to take it down, heart was becoming irregular at the stump and there is slight discoloration in the sap wood. It reached its life span. I have one more this size, maybe a touch bigger to take down.

 

[XP_Slinger]

Take your face a little deeper, release your trigger from underneath the back cut, and try not to cut through your hinge wood.

Yup that wasn’t my best stump. All excellent points deetsy. That’s part of the reason I posted it. Thanks for the I suck...lmao!!!!!!

I did release the trigger from under the back cut though. My criticism on it is I was to far below the back cut. Should be an inch, and I was about 2” below on that one.

Edit: I used the root flare like a spur trigger on that maple. Which worked very well might I add. It was the ash in post above that I cut trigger too low. Woopth

 

[Deets066]

Yup that wasn’t my best stump. All excellent points deetsy. That’s part of the reason I posted it. Thanks for the I suck...lmao!!!!!!

Easy to point em out from here, not always easy to do. Looks like your havin a good time, keep em comin and stay safe

 

[huskyboy]

I screwed up a tree last week because I was lazy on it and didnt watch my over cut on my face cuts. That’ll lead you to cut through your hinge even if your not trying to. Not good and lesson learned. If you screw up the face cut... the rest of the cutting will be screwed up.

 

[XP_Slinger]

This ones moebetta

 

[XP_Slinger]

Easy to point em out from here, not always easy to do. Looks like your havin a good time, keep em comin and stay safe

Make no mistake I welcome the critique brochacho. And yes I’m having a lot of fun fine tuning all the things I’ve learned lately. Safety first and I love wedges.

 

[XP_Slinger]

I screwed up a tree last week because I was lazy on it and didnt watch my over cut on my face cuts. That’ll lead you to cut through your hinge even if your not trying to. Not good and lesson learned. If you screw up the face cut... the rest of the cutting will be screwed up.

Ain’t that the truth. If you’re lucky you don’t see your mistake until the tree is on the ground. Then you see you blew out half your hinge and think “that was close.” I’ve found that rocking my saw on the dogs leads me to cut too much hinge out on the far side of the bar. Have to remember not to do that because I’m not great at picturing the bar swing inside the wood yet, even while watching my face to mach it.

 

[huskyboy]

Ain’t that the truth. If you’re lucky you don’t see your mistake until the tree is on the ground. Then you see you blew out half your hinge and think “that was close.” I’ve found that rocking my saw on the dogs leads me to cut too much hinge out on the far side of the bar. Have to remember not to do that because I’m not great at picturing the bar swing inside the wood yet, even while watching my face to mach it.

The boss sure gave me the evil eye . Live and learn...

 

[XP_Slinger]

The boss sure gave me the evil eye . Live and learn...

It’s happens brother. Use the lesson learned to build your confidence, not tear it down. Hard to do sometimes but I’ve found confidence to be critical in safely getting a tree down. I wouldn’t have touched these trees 2 months ago and would’ve had massive adrenaline rush just walking up to them. I still get a rush, but now it’s after they’re on the ground and nearby tops have stopped swaying 20 feet.

 

[hseII]

Found a large and surprisingly healthy soft maple in my stand the other day. Expected heart rot or at least very large heart wood at this size but I think because it was a single trunk it was doing well. It had 51ft of clean trunk before the first limb.

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You would love love love a 32” on that saw in that wood.


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[hseII]

Make no mistake I welcome the critique brochacho. And yes I’m having a lot of fun fine tuning all the things I’ve learned lately. Safety first and I love wedges.

RandyMac always said Step & Deep on the face cuts.

I have been using a larger face whenever possible, & so far they work better for me.


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[Skeans1]

This ones moebetta

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Deeper and try chasing the back cut you’ll never have to worry about having a thin enough hinge.


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[XP_Slinger]

Deeper and try chasing the back cut you’ll never have to worry about having a thin enough hinge.


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Define chasing the back cut please?

 

[XP_Slinger]

RandyMac always said Step & Deep on the face cuts.

I have been using a larger face whenever possible, & so far they work better for me.


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I’ll work on deeper but don’t want to go steeper for dropping a saw log tree. But I’ll get clarification on how the face affects trim and bdf from Tim when I grade my logs with him again. In my mind it shouldn’t matter because the scaling is done at the small end so there is bdf lost as the taper grows larger going toward the butt flare anyway.

 

[woodfarmer]

I screwed up a tree last week because I was lazy on it and didnt watch my over cut on my face cuts. That’ll lead you to cut through your hinge even if your not trying to. Not good and lesson learned. If you screw up the face cut... the rest of the cutting will be screwed up.

Which do you overcut, the angle or flat cut?

 

[huskyboy]

Which do you overcut, the angle or flat cut?

Top I think. But it’s possible to do with the bottom cut too.

 

[junkman]

Define chasing the back cut please?

Leave your saw in the back cut running,as the tree starts to go over the direction you want ,keep cutting the hinge as it goes over ,it gives less chance of fiber pull ,only do if you know what your doing.

 

[XP_Slinger]

Leave your saw in the back cut running,as the tree starts to go over the direction you want ,keep cutting the hinge as it goes over ,it gives less chance of fiber pull ,only do if you know what your doing.

Thank you. I’ve done that many times just wasn’t familiar with the proper term. Haven’t done it using a trigger though, I get the hell out of dodge when it starts to go. I need to get better at setting the hinge before cutting back to set the trigger. My hinges are often thick because I’m so cautious of gutting the hinge. Well, except for that maple above lol

 

[XP_Slinger]

You would love love love a 32” on that saw in that wood.


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Reading my mind a bit there Heath.