Cutting the GOB out

[rowan lee]

yes it is. Stops fiber pull and allows you to fell a big tree with a smaller bar.

 

It must of been big Larch or very valuable to have to stay and chace the hinge? I've done it some big and expensive Oaks & Chestnut. Its a rather scary experence and not exactly best practice.

 

Any pictures of an 'old bird's beak' cut mate. Haven't seen this type used before. Presumably used on sloping or uneven ground, does it help break the fall of the tree? and would it be used more commonly if the felling direction is up slope or down? (or does this have no bearing whatsoever).

 

Rowan.

[Brushcutter]

Any pictures of an 'old bird's beak' cut mate. Haven't seen this type used before. Presumably used on sloping or uneven ground, does it help break the fall of the tree? and would it be used more commonly if the felling direction is up slope or down? (or does this have no bearing whatsoever).

 

Rowan.

 

I do 3' Beech we felled yesterday. Had a nasty case of Kretch. Yea it's used on sloping ground or anytime you need the hinge to hold for a long time. Commonly used down slope as the bottom cut which would normally be flat is made at the angle of the ground.

[Taupotreeman]

Brushcutter; funnily enough the Larch weren't that big but everyone of them were splitting up the stem, some of them had over a 10' split right through the centre of the stem. There was nothing wrong with the felling cuts as the other more experienced feller was having the same issues. In the end we lost so many butt ends the boss started chasing the hinges but even if you got half way through the hinge the butt would still tear. As for best practice; yeah, tell me about it. I lasted until the end of the job and that was it. Some scary stuff going on on that job I can tell you.

[Xerxses]

Did you try to do the gob and then bore behind it and make the hinge ready and quite thin? If you borecut from one side say half the DBH and then cut straight back and out the back you can insert your wedge and then move to the other side. Borecut and make the other half of the hinge, make sure it's lined up with your first part of the hinge. When the hinge is ready cut straight back through the other half of the tree and leave 1/2" of holdingwood in the back. Cut the bit thatholds the tree slightly below your backcut to lelease the tree. This will make your felling very safe and absolutely free of fibrepulls and splits!

[Taupotreeman]

Cheers xerxses but it was a long time ago now. Actually, WAY too long. I feel old all of a sudden. I don't do felling anymore for timber production so don't need to worry about the timber spltting but then since those trees I've never had timber split on me again. I actually tend to use the letterbox cut quite a bit on some of the gums here because that part of the tree seems to hold more on a big Euc. I only generally use a straight back cut on smaller trees otherwise it's an assortment of bore and plunge cuts depending on how adventurous I feel that day.

[blazer]

Did you try to do the gob and then bore behind it and make the hinge ready and quite thin? If you borecut from one side say half the DBH and then cut straight back and out the back you can insert your wedge and then move to the other side. Borecut and make the other half of the hinge, make sure it's lined up with your first part of the hinge. When the hinge is ready cut straight back through the other half of the tree and leave 1/2" of holdingwood in the back. Cut the bit thatholds the tree slightly below your backcut to lelease the tree. This will make your felling very safe and absolutely free of fibrepulls and splits!

 

I did something simular with a well leaning old ash about 2' dia at about 45 deg lean, I wrapped the tree with slings just in case but not needed. Cut the 'gob' as normal, then plunged behind the hinge to leave say a 1.5" hinge, then cut out either side at 90 deg to the hinge from behind the tree leaving say a 6" strip at 90 deg to the hinge now taking all the load in tension. Then slowly reduced the thickness of the back from each side in turn untill I could hear fibres starting to go, then took a walk. The tree slowly went down, pulling out fibres from the back, like a massive rope breaking. When down the fibres on the back were pulled out say 6" deep. Don't know if it's a technique but I worked it out as I went and it worked safely.

[Brushcutter]

Did you try to do the gob and then bore behind it and make the hinge ready and quite thin? If you borecut from one side say half the DBH and then cut straight back and out the back you can insert your wedge and then move to the other side. Borecut and make the other half of the hinge, make sure it's lined up with your first part of the hinge. When the hinge is ready cut straight back through the other half of the tree and leave 1/2" of holdingwood in the back. Cut the bit thatholds the tree slightly below your backcut to lelease the tree. This will make your felling very safe and absolutely free of fibrepulls and splits!

 

Is that a Danish cut or a variation of?

 

I've used the cut you've described and it works very well.

[Xerxses]

No its the technique beeing taught according to the best practice in Sweden. I belive Soren Eriscon came up with it when he was training americans how to fell big trees safely.

 

Just done a refresher course.

 

The trainers were taught by the man himself!

Refilled the bag of tricks and fitted a fair new ones in there aswell...