Freeing trapped saws..?

[skyhuck]

When I first started dropping trees for firewood, nearly 30 years ago, I only had one saw and only one bar and chain. I don't recall ever getting the saw so stuck I could not get it out with a bit of wiggling.

[agg221]

If you're not sure which way the forces are going, banging in a plastic wedge behind the bar as soon as the saw is deep enough in to allow it will stop the cut closing up - best done in anticipation as once the cut starts to close up you can't always drive the wedge hard enough to re-open the cut.

 

Worst one I had was the first thing I felled. A parkland grown dead oak for milling. I needed 7' lengths and it was 14'2" from the ground to the crotch, so I was cutting dead on ground level, through all the buttresses, around 4' across.

 

I had a 25" bar so it was tight. The only reason I was tackling it was that it was completely open so it didn't matter which way it fell. I picked what I thought was the heaviest side, cut a textbook gob, then worked in from the back. I had picked the wrong side. I was most of the way through when the tree sat back to one side and no amount of driving steel wedges was going to shift it. It was getting dark by then and my only other bar and chain (36" with ripping chain for milling) were about 65 miles away so I removed the power head and left the bar and chain. The tree was pretty unstable but there was nothing I could do. I taped up around the fall zone with hazard tape and put up signs in case anyone walked by. I rang the farmer to warn him (he kept cows in the field) but he just laughed and said if it fell on them they were insured!

 

Following morning I went back and re-cut, veering about half an inch downwards. This time I drove wedges as I went and got through fine. The tree eventually went, at right angles to the hinge! It was a perfect 1" wide hinge, absolutely parallel, the tree just wasn't having it. Since then I have always driven wedges as I go if something is not absolutely certain and have not had another stuck saw since.

 

Alec