Felling

[Rowski]

I've got a job coming up that requires some tree felling among other things. Most of the time I can fell a tree where I want it to go, provided it is sitting fairly straight and not side heavy /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif. In this job there are a few to several trees that are leaning and/or side heavy. They aren't in any danger of destroying anything (house, etc.). Just I don't want a tree to to get hung or make more of a mess for clean-up. In the past I have used my wrecker from work with 100' of cable, 50+' of chain and snatch blocks to tension the tree to help me but this time I'm in the woods and it is not practical. I am familair (don't claim to know it all, my feeling is you can always learn something) with the different types of notches and leaving a thicker hinge on one side than the other on the back cut to help pull the tree during felling.

My question is...

Is it worth using a feller bar or fellar wedges? If so is one better than the other or do you use both together. I was told the wedges are better for control but the bar gives you more power. The wedges appear to be made out of chain saw freindly material /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif.

Any thoughts, comments or suggestions. I understand the danger level involved with chain saw operation. I use chaps, helmet and face and ear protection. Most of all, I use common sense.

Does anyone have any good links to web pages regarding use and/or purchase of the felling wedges and bars

 

[beenthere]

<font color=blue>
Is it worth using a feller bar or fellar wedges? <font color=black>

To me, I always use a wedge in the back cut to keep the tree from setting down on the back cut and the saw bar. If you don't keep that kerf open, and the tree sets back on the cut, you may have to figure out a way to remove your saw, bar, and chain. As well, you will have to raise that side of the tree to get it to fall in the direction you want it to fall. None of these things are pleasant to have to deal with, when it is so easy to put the wedge in while cutting (providing the tree is big enough to get a wedge in the cut behind the bar). I am not sure how you are measuring "worth", but I feel foolish (or worse) if a tree I am cutting gets away from me because I have not placed that wedge in the back cut.

Do you have trees that are leaning a lot? If so, know how to cut them differently than the conventional methods (v-cut on side you want tree to fall, back cut about 1" above the v-cut up to the hinge for directional fall, with wedge to keep the back cut open) or know what the tree may do (barber-chair) before it happens.

 

[Rowski]

<font color=blue>I am not sure how you are measuring "worth", but </font color=blue>

I guess that most people that I talked to (loggers) don't use them much, or at least that's what these guys said. So I asked the guy at the saw shop. He says they aren't used much but some people use them. I think they aren't to concerned with how tree falls because they have to hook them up to the skidder any way. I'm sure there must be a someone around here who does it right, I just haven't talked to him yet. My first concern is safety for me, the surrondings, and my saw. My second concern is not making more work for me than I have too. I fell that felling a tree in the target area can keep your clean up time to a minimum. I no nothing about these wedges or bar. I can figure out how they work on the principle of the simple machine "the wedge". But I'm sure there are proper ways to use them. I have ruined a few chains and a bar due to pinching during a fell.



<font color=blue>Do you have trees that are leaning a lot? If so, know how to cut them differently than the conventional methods (v-cut on side you want tree to fall, back cut about 1" above the v-cut up to the hinge for directional fall, with wedge to keep the back cut open) or know what the tree may do (barber-chair) before it happens. </font color=blue>

What are different ways? What you mentioned above is one of the conventional ways, right?

 

[knucklehead]

Some people don't like this, because it can generate false confidence, but you said you had a good head on your shoulders, and it seems you want to keep it here, so.....

I use a good ole come-along, some rope, and a strap for the anchor tree - you didn't say how big those trees are - but a piece of rope up even a modest distance will exert many times the force of the come along at the base, and more the further up you go. So if you have a little 2000 lb puller, you're still putting lot of bending force at the base. A lot more than a bar, which is for smaller trees. I still plan on getting one (crowbars are too thick - at least mine are). I make wedges out of hardwood, or you can buy plastic ones. I subscribe to the "more is better" theory of keeping trees off my body. By the way, I use a small limb or 1"-2" straight young tree, forked, to slide the loop up a branchless tree, or to pass it over a branch - throwing is fun the first 10,000 times, but takes time and challenges my sense of humor.

With the come along, and some 3/4" minimum rope, I put tension on to start, then notch and take up more tension. You may already have a feel for how much more you can move a tree with just a notch. It's better with two people, one taking up tension on the rope. Once I start the back cut, I try to stay with it, ie, make sure I am not close to running out of gas, or have to stop for any other reason. Granted the rope isn't all that strong, but it's enough to "tip over" something that wants to fall anyway. And it really isn't a matter of the whole weight of the tree on the rope - we've all seen professional arborists haul a large branch or whole trunk over as it fell just using one man and a ground line - it's more a matter of tethering, not pulling. Sometimes I put a rope on and let the thing act as a leash, swinging the tree over as it falls, in an arc defined by the rope moving around the anchor point.

As far as cutting tricks, if you think about it, your hinge sorta "holds" the butt on the stump as it falls (which is why you don't want a lower back cut, or even a level one, as it may break and slip backwards at you). Angled cutting, in my opinion, is a more subtle thing, for gentle leans and swinging a straight tree around an obstruction. If you want to try to make a tree fall away from the lean, you back cut at an angle to the front notch so there is a thicker hinge on the side you want it go TO. Sometimes I cheat the front notch over a bit toward the lean, so hopefully the notch will tease the tree toward it, and that stronger hinged side will "pull" the tree over further in that direction. It isn't magic, and all bets are off with hard leaners. I've seen them swing in quite an impressive arc as they fall, cut this way, though. Notching squarely in the desired fall direction doesn't seem to work as well the further you get away from the lean, probably because of the final hinge being at a harder angle to the lean. I've seen (looking back over my bouncing shoulder!) them fall backwards because I notched too hard toward the line I wanted it to take, and the hinge was too close to being "lined up" with the lean. Duh!

You already know this, but the most important thing I keep in mind is where I am going to go, especially if the tree breaks the hinge as it falls and rolls or slides butt first back at me. I like to be over by the come along, sorta hiding behind the anchor tree off the to side when those "iffy" ones go down. And that come along is also helpful with the hang ups, too. Sometimes you are in the right position where you can just take up slack and get it off another tree; sometimes you have to reposition your anchor - but the rope it already on it, in any case, so you don't have to sneak up on it and hope you don't hear crrraaaack!, just as you get right up to it. /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif/w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

The site has <A target="_blank" HREF=http://international.husqvarna.com/node235.asp>working techniques you may find helpful. I know I just learned some stuff reading it - select "chainsaw techniques", then "felling techniques", and page through to the one you want. I found the techniques faster than on the USA site - they may not even be there; I'm guessing liability concerns, /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif but I may not have "dug" enough.

Maybe some more seasoned hands can comment better on offset notches and cuts. Hope you took note of the liberal application of "sometimes" and "maybe" in this reply. /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

 

[Rowski]

Thanks... You explained it well.

<font color=blue>Hope you took note of the liberal application of "sometimes" and "maybe" in this reply.</font color=blue>
That 's kinda like "always" and "never " /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif.

 

[hayden]

The only use I've ever found for wedges is bailing me out when I mis-judge the lean of a tree and is starts to come back on the second cut. It's then a race to fight gravity and get the tree back over far enough in the other direction to fall where you originally planned. Otherwise I never use them.

 

[gordon]

Derek here are a couple of others as well on this page.

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.forestryforum.com/directory/Chainsaw_Operation_and_tree_felling.shtml>http://www.forestryforum.com/directory/Chainsaw_Operation_and_tree_felling.shtml</A>

I always have the wedges with me. Don't use them in every cut but I do always have them with me. Any other questions just ask.

Gordon

 

[jyoutz]

Derek, most professional fallers use wedges and use them often. particularly in mountainous terrain. It's critical on steep slopes to put the trees so they lie on the slope and don't take a plunge downslope. Our timber sale administrators at my agency require every faller to carry and use wedges when neccessary. Putting the tree where you want it in rough terrain greatly improves skidding efficiency and reduces breakage. Not to mention the huge safety factor that the proper use of a wedge provides.

 

[Rowski]

Thanks Gordon.

If I have questions, you bet I'll ask.

 

[Chuck52]

Derek,

I recently got an issue of Missouri Consrvationist which describes an "improved" felling proceedure. Naturally, I can't find the magazine now and I didn't memorize the article. However, it involved notching as usual in the direction you want the tree to fall. This was followed by a plunge cut entirely through the trunk, but leaving an uncut part close to the notch. The final cut was made at a downward angle to intersect the plunge cut. All this was said to give improved control of the felling. It still seems to me that mis-reading the lean or weight of the tree, my particular specialty, could leave you with a stuck saw after that final cut. However, it does seem that wedging in the plunge cut could prevent that fairly conveniently. Anyone else better at decribing this method, or even heard of it?

Chuck