Trees you've cut

[Hoser]

There’s less and less guys around here who want to cut ash with a saw due to them chairing.
Most of them are coming down now with a harvester or a big hoe.
I have neither so I just gut the hinge and haven’t had an issue since (knock on wood).
Talking to my cousin from across the pond he also said ash doesn’t have that reputation, which I found surprising.

 

[Normzilla]

@TheDarkLordChinChin hoping to generate some learning discussion - @Woodpecker @Catbuster @chiselbit @Normzilla

I’d wager the nick (red) maybe made it break off, and I think it would hold better if the vertical cut (green) was parallel to the grain - what say ye?

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Who cut the tree? And what was the overall outcome landing etc.

 

[Normzilla]

There’s less and less guys around here who want to cut ash with a saw due to them chairing.
Most of them are coming down now with a harvester or a big hoe.
I have neither so I just gut the hinge and haven’t had an issue since (knock on wood).
Talking to my cousin from across the pond he also said ash doesn’t have that reputation, which I found surprising.

I’d be willing to say it’s technique.

 

[Normzilla]

Yeah your hardwoods all look taller and straighter. Most of ours are shorter and with a bigger spread.
Pics related.


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Any tree can barber chair. In the right circumstances. Defects, mostly improper technique. To say otherwise would be living on a false sense of security. Treat any tree like it can barber chair, yes some trees are more prone too. Apply the same skill and cut every tree like it matters apply everything.

 

[davidwyby]

Who cut the tree? And what was the overall outcome landing etc.

It was fine, just didn’t swing as much as wanted.

 

[Normzilla]

It was fine, just didn’t swing as much as wanted.

Oh gotcha I wasn’t sure if it was one u cut or someone else. I do that too when I have low stakes good time to try stuff

 

[TheDarkLordChinChin]

There’s less and less guys around here who want to cut ash with a saw due to them chairing.
Most of them are coming down now with a harvester or a big hoe.
I have neither so I just gut the hinge and haven’t had an issue since (knock on wood).
Talking to my cousin from across the pond he also said ash doesn’t have that reputation, which I found surprising.

It will chair if it's tall, straight, has no lower branches and the grain is straight. Often see branches splitting when cut but the main stem is unlikely to chair if its all gnarly and forks out fairly close to the ground.

Spruce often tries to chair because it's tall, straight and has a long and straight grain. But it usually fails at chairing because the timber is also very flexible and full of branches that hold it together. It usually splits up a few feet max then stops splitting or tears off.

Sycamore and beech are notorious for barber chair, if they're growing in a forest where the competition from growing so close to other trees forces them to grow tall and straight.

 

[TheDarkLordChinChin]

Any tree can barber chair. In the right circumstances. Defects, mostly improper technique. To say otherwise would be living on a false sense of security. Treat any tree like it can barber chair, yes some trees are more prone too. Apply the same skill and cut every tree like it matters apply everything.

I think the two main causes of barber chair are dull chains and stopping cutting when the tree starts to move.
If your chain is dull you can't keep up with what the tree is doing.
I barber chaired a small willow a few years back. My saw was dull, the tree started to fall and I couldn't cut fast enough to finish my hinge so the tree split under it's own momentum.
Same happened with a tall and straight ash a few weeks later.
Since then I'm very diligent about chain sharpness.
I cut with a fairly hooked side plate and rakers high enough not to bog the saw when dogging in and also high enough that I don't get kickback when boring but still low enough to cut fast.
We are cutting different trees all the time and have to file chains to be able to cut various different trees on the same day.
Our hardwoods are softer than US hardwoods I think and our soft woods are a bit harder from what I can tell.

 

[Normzilla]

I think the two main causes of barber chair are dull chains and stopping cutting when the tree starts to move.
If your chain is dull you can't keep up with what the tree is doing.
I barber chaired a small willow a few years back. My saw was dull, the tree started to fall and I couldn't cut fast enough to finish my hinge so the tree split under it's own momentum.
Same happened with a tall and straight ash a few weeks later.
Since then I'm very diligent about chain sharpness.
I cut with a fairly hooked side plate and rakers high enough not to bog the saw when dogging in and also high enough that I don't get kickback when boring but still low enough to cut fast.
We are cutting different trees all the time and have to file chains to be able to cut various different trees on the same day.
Our hardwoods are softer than US hardwoods I think and our soft woods are a bit harder from what I can tell.

As I mentioned technique. Rule number was is always a sharp chain from day one of cutting. Lots of guys want to blame the tree, and have been cutting for 38 years now, numerous species. And many Eucalyptus trees. I’m be of our more dangerous and unpredictable trees. Few times I have seen barber chairs from tree defects, almost none. I’m f you learn what to look for you can usually compensate. Most always it’s improper technique. Yes as u mentioned many guys hesitate. Anyway who does this work green enough should find another career. Same as anyway who is ever cutting certainly felling with a dull chain. One of the biggest problems is too many guys think they are skilled tree guys or good cutters and they aren’t. Bottom line like any other trade ny everyone is cut out for it.

 

[davidwyby]

If it might chair, bore it.

 

[TheDarkLordChinChin]

Some conifers from today.
No wind today, made for a nice change.

Stripped this spruce of its branches, took the top out and 1 section of the trunk then felled the rest.





Look how it pushed the logs we laid out into the ground. Very soft ground, I think it had been resurfaced and never packed in.




Nice straight lawson cypress. They usually develop multiple stems.





They're notorious for developing rot down near the butt.






Someone mentioned ivy, heres some ivy for you. There's 2 Scotts pine trees in there somewhere. Luckily all we had to was fell them, God help the poor man that has to cut them up.

 

[Catbuster]

If it might chair, bore it.

Hardwood trees, yeah.

Softwood trees the coos bay or triangle backcuts work just fine.

JMO.

 

[TheDarkLordChinChin]

Back to storm damage today.
Cut up a few fallen bog birche trees.
The land owner brought his trailer to fill with chip. He's going to use it to bed cattle.





This was the biggest.





Fair bit of weight to it for it to not start lifting up when we cut most of the limbs off.




Peeled all the way down the root flare and into the ground.
It was weird watching a tree lying horizontal swing over to one side.

 

[TheDarkLordChinChin]

Back to storm damage today.
Cut up a few fallen bog birche trees.
The land owner brought his trailer to fill with chip. He's going to use it to bed cattle.


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This was the biggest.


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Fair bit of weight to it for it to not start lifting up when we cut most of the limbs off.

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Peeled all the way down the root flare and into the ground.
It was weird watching a tree lying horizontal swing over to one side.


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The only standing tree of the job.
Another big dead ash.

Note how the next tree to the right looks a bit better and the next one again looks pretty good





It fell nicely for such an ignorant dead tree.
A stem had tore out of it few years back. The wound was where I had to put my face cut.





The tree split into its three remaining stems from the impact of hitting the ground.
Shows you can't always trust those unions to hold together.





Here's some timber from near the top. Do you think it would have been safe to climb?