Cricket Bat Willow Felling

[TimR]

just found this mooching about old style felling and if you look at the picture of them felling a willow im sure that they have slivered the trunk to make a narrow gob ....

[Quickthorn]

just found this mooching about old style felling and if you look at the picture of them felling a willow im sure that they have slivered the trunk to make a narrow gob ....

 

Hard to tell..they might have simply removed a buttress.

[Mr Ed]

Spoke to an old time feller / timber merchant over the weekend about this - he says that they used to strip the crown completely, pile the brash up as a cushion, and fell the butt onto that. He says they used to put a very shallow hinge, basicly just cutting a flat face in the felling direction. it helps to have a volvo loading shovel or crawler for moving the brash and butts around.

[MattyF]

Like ed said.

they harvest it a bit around here and thats the way ive seen them boys working on stands of bat willow, volvo loading shovels and an old matador with winch to get them over.

they where felling big trees one guy said to me they had been left to long really and where burning 70 80% of the tree and hardly taking any for timber

[swe#kipp]

Did you solve the felling problems ??

[silvafox]

Yes I did. Forget wedges.

1. Bore in from side approximately where a hinge might have been and push cut towards felling direction. Remove saw having left as little attached (say 2 or 3 ") as poss.

 

2. Repeat if necessary from opposite side.

 

3. Place saw back in to cut and cut towards the back of the tree. Be extra sensitive to potential pinching or tree fall/ split.

 

4. Leave just a 3-5" block at the back centre and pull out saw.

 

5. Cut in from back just above previous cut and pop she goes.

 

All being well the only damage will be a 2-3" tongue attached to the underside of the fallen tree about 6" wide and this my friends is neither here nor there!

[Kevin]

Could this work ??

 

That would be the proper way to cut it.

Add cuts to the stump just below the hinge to prevent pulling at the stump.

In extreme cases cinch the trunk with a strap or chain and center bore the hinge.

The lay will be just as important so that the tree doesn't split on impact.

[silvafox]

Swekipps diagram was good but if I'm looking at it right it leaves a hinge. Hinges are unacceptable whether you cut out the ears and/ or bore out the heart.

 

The tree must begin to fall no sooner than all the stem (or just a tiny little on the outside remains) is completely severed.

 

I tried felling this preciuos timber with the slightest of bored out earless hinges and the resulting fractures, however slight, made the log unusable for the cricket bat maker.

 

One big split or even a few providing they where radial may not be so critical as the bat blanks may be cleft around or with these splits. A little damage at the outer edge of the stem is also forgivable as the last 2-3 years growth are later cleft to waste.

 

Hinges seemed to induce fractures both radially and tangentially resulting in a criss cross mosaic of hairline shakes.

 

English Cricket Bat Willow is sensitive stuff and extremely valuable. Its not to be approached as you would poplar or ash. Truth is its a pain in the jacksy.

[Kevin]

That's interesting.

When the 088 became stuck in the cut was it during the felling cut on a head leaner?

To continue in this manner is putting you at great risk.

Are these trees splitting prematurely during the felling cut before a proper hinge can be set up?

Have you tried using the bore and leaving a back strap, maybe the hinge is too wide or too high?

Can you get a rope in the top and take some of the weight off the lean and still use a narrow hinge?