Felling leaning trees

[mikecotterill]

Looking to settle an argument on felling leaning trees, where the lean is in the first few feet and then straight from then on. What cut/method do you use and why?

[Tom2020]

Depends on what way the tree is learning

 

Ive been told is from the base of the tree Or where it starts to learn from the first branch

 

You would either do the dog tooth or Bore out the center and cut on a 45* angle from the back

[3dogs]

you could use the basic fell or if you feel that the tree will bounce or kick back of the bow then the dog tooth which would allow you to sever the stem at arms length and keep a safe distance:thumbup1:

[mikecotterill]

Sorry should of said the trees been felled not in the direction of the lean,

Basically One went wrong today nothing serious but even though not ideal! It

Needed felling 90 degree to the lean, so as your looking at the tree with it leaning left it's been felled towards you if that makes sense. So I've put the gob in as far up as I can so I'm not felling it on the bend, and left a triangular hinge bigger on the opposite side to the lean, but it's still snapped off. The tree was a syc. Another guys said it should of felled at the bottom, although a wider hinge would be achieved you'd have leverage of the tree through the bend if that makes sense?

[Stephen Blair]

i take it you cut slowly to try and get the hinge to hold longer?

[3dogs]

your always going to get more leverage the lower you fell, angled hinges are OK but sometimes your better just offsetting the felling cut and maintaining a parallel hinge to compensate for the weight of the tree. So i would have used a basic fell with an offset sink but i suppose it also depends on the size of the drop zone.

[Stephen Blair]

if the trunk had a bit of a kink in it i would still of felled close to the deck, as 3 dogs says, leverage is key.

Sycamore is tricky to work with on leaning trees, the hinge will hold if you just want it to be used for direction and not holding strength, i would of done a standard back cut, with a long enough bar to work from 1 side, if you cut parrallel to the hinge, nice and quick and just let it go itself it should hold, if you try and get it to hold and work in from the 1 side or dog tooth it then it probably wont work, it also depends on how much lean there is. A pull line helps aswell. \but no rocking back and forward, constant pull.

[Tom D]

Syc is brittle at the best of times, however you will almost always find the wood closest to the ground to be more stringy and more likely to hold. Felling at 90deg to the lean you need to be sure that the tension side of the hinge can take the strain, using a buttress as the tension side is a good idea, even if this means a smaller or larger than average gob.

 

 

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[josharb87]

Think it going wrong was due to species . . .

By the sounds of it, id have gobbed in desired direction, triangle hinge, pull line pulling at 135degree (if lean is 0 degree, fell is 90, pull line another 45 degree round)

[Mesterh]

I would gob it up in the direction you want it to hopefully go but pull it at a bigger angle ie more to the direction against the lean.

 

Big heavy leaners really need a good bit of winching power and big gobs and hinges.Or they just snap and go sideways.

 

Well they do with me.

 

Although if it goes straight why not spike up a few feet and gob it out there?