Tree Felling Technique Thread

[huskyboy]

Yes sir a humbolt would’ve prevented it. But what I’ve experienced with humbolt on ash is that it pulls deep fiber almost every time. If I were cutting this for firewood it would’ve been a humbolt, but this was for the mill.

By small step I assume you mean using a snipe cut on the under cut??

We punch out the centers on certain trees after cutting the notch to prevent fiber pull and splitting. We don’t do it on all of them though and I wouldn’t bother doing it on firewood, only saw logs. Attempt at your own risk. It works well on ash and hickory. It also helps you out if the tree needs to roll off another one, breaks off the stump and rolls without tearing fiber. I wouldn’t do this on white pine or hemlock though, the wood is weak and you need the hinge strength. Getting out of there fast and to the side of the tree is always a good practice as you found out sir.

 

[Willard]

XP, as you said about the tree landing on a 20 foot tall stump, no Humboldt or any kind of notch even with a back step is going to keep that stem in place.
Preventive clearing in the lay of chicots, snags or what ever is the upmost importance.

Chicots is still a word in the forest.

 

[Skeans1]

Yes sir a humbolt would’ve prevented it. But what I’ve experienced with humbolt on ash is that it pulls deep fiber almost every time. If I were cutting this for firewood it would’ve been a humbolt, but this was for the mill.

By small step I assume you mean using a snipe cut on the under cut??

Put the face at a steeper angle, by a stepped back cut I’m talking a 1/2” to 1” up from the face. Another trick to prevent fiber pull is a small full faced Dutchman it’ll pop the stem off the stump very quickly we’ll still allowing the face to work.


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[Skeans1]

View attachment 222510
Chicots is still a word in the forest.

Hazard or wildlife trees more like do not touch trees that you hammer stuff into it once crippled.


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[chipper1]

View attachment 222510
Chicots is still a word in the forest.

Around here we call that firewood .
Lot's of dead ash in the river bottom that won't be cut, it will become new topsoil, most are too far gone to mess with even for firewood.

 

[XP_Slinger]

We punch out the centers on certain trees after cutting the notch to prevent fiber pull and splitting. We don’t do it on all of them though and I wouldn’t bother doing it on firewood, only saw logs. Attempt at your own risk. It works well on ash and hickory. It also helps you out if the tree needs to roll off another one, breaks off the stump and rolls without tearing fiber. I wouldn’t do this on white pine or hemlock though, the wood is weak and you need the hinge strength. Getting out of there fast and to the side of the tree is always a good practice as you found out sir.

View attachment 222510
Chicots is still a word in the forest.

Put the face at a steeper angle, by a stepped back cut I’m talking a 1/2” to 1” up from the face. Another trick to prevent fiber pull is a small full faced Dutchman it’ll pop the stem off the stump very quickly we’ll still allowing the face to work.


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All great advice guys. Glad to see this thread is still on everyone’s radar...it’s one of my favorites.

 

[Junk Meister]

New word/term for me. Explanation will be appreciated. My imaginated definition will have me in far left field.
should have read the rest of the comments

 

[RI Chevy]

All great advice guys. Glad to see this thread is still on everyone’s radar...it’s one of my favorites.

HARRUMPH.
Good learning experience for me as I am just a "Forum guy" [emoji3061][emoji57][emoji6]

 

[XP_Slinger]

HARRUMPH.
Good learning experience for me as I am just a "Forum guy" [emoji3061][emoji57][emoji6]

Aren’t we all brudda

 

[Willard]

Hazard or wildlife trees more like do not touch trees that you hammer stuff into it once crippled.


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Yep,
I'm still thinking of the broken off 20 ft tall stump XP Slinger fell that tree onto causing the butt to fly rear wards.

 

[XP_Slinger]

Yep,
I'm still thinking of the broken off 20 ft tall stump XP Slinger fell that tree onto causing the butt to fly rear wards.

Yup. Oversite, the butt getting pushed back by it didn’t cross my mind. Expected it to break when hit. Would’ve been easy to knock that stump over first or give it a face and back cut so it knocked over when hit.

 

[RI Chevy]

Oddly enough I have had same type of thing happen a couple of times. I use the step cut because I only cut trees for firewood.
It opens your eyes real fast. I had the escape route set like Josh did.

 

[XP_Slinger]

Oddly enough I have had same type of thing happen a couple of times. I use the step cut because I only cut trees for firewood.
It opens your eyes real fast. I had the escape route set like Josh did.

Lessons like this prove the necessity of having layers of safety. I honestly hadn’t thought of that happening the way it did because the stump was mostly dead. That’s the last time I make an assumption about something being weak.

 

[~WBF]

Preventive clearing in the lay of chicots, snags or what ever is the utmost importance .

Roger that.
Humboldt,Swanson or anti kickback steps are still back
up, for a back up, for a back up...

You go out of order or miss 2 or 3 consistently then you won't fall very long.
If you are really good at being bad then
Maybe 5 or maybe 10 yrs. Not very long.

 

[Willard]

Roger that.
Humboldt,Swanson or anti kickback steps are still back
up, for a back up, for a back up...

You go out of order or miss 2 or 3 consistently then you won't fall very long.
If you are really good at being bad then
Maybe 5 or maybe 10 yrs. Not very long.

Or maybe only a few weeks.
Happened to a young cut & skid apprentice I was training in the mid 1980's.
He was in his early 20's not much younger then me. (I was 16 when I broke in falling). He was a natural on the saw, could easily see things happening before they happen.
He had setting up the strip's face with the lean down perfect and knew how to work it in a different direction if a bad wind came up. Trees always laying straight in his swaths.
He even had time to help pull out the skidder's mainline and set a few chokers.
But soon enough he had some bad luck.
As he told me later... when felling a 16" spruce he could see the butt popping up when the upper half was going to hit some uneven ground, but his brand new 064 got pinched in the back cut when he cut through the hinge.
He stayed with the saw trying to save it and the butt got him right under the jaw. Luckily the butt went about 10 feet in the air giving him and the saw enough time to get thrown backwards without getting hammered the 2nd time.

Nothing got broke but just a hairline fracture in his jaw.
Never saw him again after that. Heard he headed out to the BC coast.

 

[Loony661]

I just stumbled onto this thread and, wow! Lots of great information sharing going on here. I must admit, that I have been on the forum a lot in the last week or so because I had a stroke of bad luck that cost me a broken foot.. I, like a lot of you, have cut LOTS of trees, for saw logs, ROW, residential removal, etc.. The site I was on has some steep ditches/ravines with some beautiful timber that I needed to harvest for the landowner. Hardwood forest here, cutting a lot of Red Oak, Hickory, White Oak, Bur Oak, etc. The particular tree that got me was on a steep bank - I made my face cut and knocked the notch out, plunged from the downhill side, then the uphill side. My mistake was already made at that point, but I’ll circle back to that.. As soon as I touched my saw to the trigger/back cut, the tree barber chaired. As I was slipping and trying to scramble away, up the steep bank in the snow, the tree broke free of the stump and bounced off my right foot, crushing it, and then lifted and settled away from me... Now, where I went wrong was this: I DIDN’T DOUBLE CHECK MY FACE CUT. I always do, but I can tell you I didn’t this time because I was distracted, my head wasn’t in the game, and it cost me. ..My hinge was beautiful, the perfect thickness. What happened was when I made my face cut (conventional) I came up short on the far side from me (down hill side) by about 2 inches. The tree was already a leaner, and when I hit the trigger, that obstruction tried to hit the brakes but the tree was going anyway... Lesson learned the hard way for sure! Lucky it wasn’t worse, and thankful I will heal and be back at it in a month or so.
I am completely confident in my felling abilities and skills, and I have thought about what happened everyday since - it’s been a long week! If I can offer anything from this, it’s to slow down, and do it right. Double check your face cut, make sure you don’t undercut it, and keep your head in the game. My 2 cents.

 

[Skeans1]

I just stumbled onto this thread and, wow! Lots of great information sharing going on here. I must admit, that I have been on the forum a lot in the last week or so because I had a stroke of bad luck that cost me a broken foot.. I, like a lot of you, have cut LOTS of trees, for saw logs, ROW, residential removal, etc.. The site I was on has some steep ditches/ravines with some beautiful timber that I needed to harvest for the landowner. Hardwood forest here, cutting a lot of Red Oak, Hickory, White Oak, Bur Oak, etc. The particular tree that got me was on a steep bank - I made my face cut and knocked the notch out, plunged from the downhill side, then the uphill side. My mistake was already made at that point, but I’ll circle back to that.. As soon as I touched my saw to the trigger/back cut, the tree barber chaired. As I was slipping and trying to scramble away, up the steep bank in the snow, the tree broke free of the stump and bounced off my right foot, crushing it, and then lifted and settled away from me... Now, where I went wrong was this: I DIDN’T DOUBLE CHECK MY FACE CUT. I always do, but I can tell you I didn’t this time because I was distracted, my head wasn’t in the game, and it cost me. ..My hinge was beautiful, the perfect thickness. What happened was when I made my face cut (conventional) I came up short on the far side from me (down hill side) by about 2 inches. The tree was already a leaner, and when I hit the trigger, that obstruction tried to hit the brakes but the tree was going anyway... Lesson learned the hard way for sure! Lucky it wasn’t worse, and thankful I will heal and be back at it in a month or so.
I am completely confident in my felling abilities and skills, and I have thought about what happened everyday since - it’s been a long week! If I can offer anything from this, it’s to slow down, and do it right. Double check your face cut, make sure you don’t undercut it, and keep your head in the game. My 2 cents.

It could be said by setting a hinge thickness that’s what caused it to blow out into a chair. It’s not that uncommon to have mismatch especially if you’re swinging timber a Dutchman is a useful thing when used correctly.

 

[RI Chevy]

Ouch. Get well soon. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Loony661]

It could be said by setting a hinge thickness that’s what caused it to blow out into a chair. It’s not that uncommon to have mismatch especially if you’re swinging timber a Dutchman is a useful thing when used correctly.

Although I have witnessed this in my experiences also, that was not the case this time.. On leaners in the hills here, if I leave a hinge, I will typically leave it a bit thinner than usual in order to prevent the hinge from causing any split. This works great a majority of the time. On heavy leaners, a lot of the time I won’t hinge at all - bore cut through the center for most of the heart wood, then nip at the front until it settles, then cut the trigger on the back and let her sail down hill.. This prevents a split, and these leaning trees usually won’t be steered in another direction to begin with, so it works out well, is quick, and safer.

 

[Skeans1]

Although I have witnessed this in my experiences also, that was not the case this time.. On leaners in the hills here, if I leave a hinge, I will typically leave it a bit thinner than usual in order to prevent the hinge from causing any split. This works great a majority of the time. On heavy leaners, a lot of the time I won’t hinge at all - bore cut through the center for most of the heart wood, then nip at the front until it settles, then cut the trigger on the back and let her sail down hill.. This prevents a split, and these leaning trees usually won’t be steered in another direction to begin with, so it works out well, is quick, and safer.

Just for giggles instead of nipping the heart try nipping the corners like a coos bay back cut that’s where that chair showed it’s face from.