Our Firewooding Equipment

[Graham]

This isn't meant as a criticism but an observation.

 

When I came into this industry I worked with some fallers who had started their careers in the 40s...axes and crosscuts etc then on to saws and powered winches.

 

They felled some big leaners and I never once saw them put a backcut in first. The cable was tensioned, tree was faced and then backcut. If the backcut needed adjustment then the winchman was instructed by hand signal to do this until the faller was happy with the tension.

[skyhuck]

There has and always will be "more than one way to skin a cat".

[Graham]

There has and always will be "more than one way to skin a cat".

 

 

Exactly. My observation was from my experience.

[Pro Gard]

As I say, Ive seen it used before.

 

These days with the focus on professional aproved training we get taught by standard practices hence other methods successfully used in the past get forgotten or frowned upon.

 

Ive always cut the mouth first, never a back cut and in honesty doubt I would risk the back cut first method but this is due to how i was trained. I certainly wouldnt condem it off hand.

[Dean Lofthouse]

There also has to be an understanding of the dynamics and forces involved, you get taught techniques for a reason and sometimes those techniques are used without fully understanding why

 

For there to be tension in wood there has to be an equal amount of compression and putting in a gob first focus's the compression directly into the hinge

[nuggsy]

i thaut the 3 cuts we have been taught for nptc (standard felling, dog tooth and split level) were the safest ? or that is what we are led to believe

[skyhuck]

On a back leaner the gob is being put in the tension wood, not the compression wood.

 

The only way you can make the tension wood into compression wood is to apply too much tension on the winch cable, by putting in a shallow back cut first and seeing if the cut closes you can tell if you have removed the compression on the leaning side.

 

I am not say every one should use this technique, but I do feel it is wrong to condemn it.

[Dean Lofthouse]

I am not say every one should use this technique, but I do feel it is wrong to condemn it.

 

I am talking about that senario where too much tension is on the winch.

 

I am being critical of the whole video, not just the backcut technique.

[Stephen Blair]

I am talking about that senario where too much tension is on the winch.

 

I am being critical of the whole video, not just the backcut technique.

 

i have to agree with dean, i dont want to offend anyone and this old boy has been doing it for years, but i thought that was brutal.

 

i have never heard of doing a back cut first, i understand why some folk agree for the reasonings, but all you have to do is look at the tree and you will see it move the minute you put tension on the winch, without putting a saw near it. the tree came over but it looked as if it went nearly at right angles to the winch.

 

when i first started i got a lot of work from estates that had old boy tree cutters, i would turn up to take the trees down that they wouldnt touch. they would all mumble and laugh when they saw i was so young and had fancy trousers and helmety thing on, just because you are old doesnt make you good. sometimes i think people can just be lucky.

[Pro Gard]

Yes the tree turned as it fell and landed slightly to the right of the winch but at the end of the day there was nothing for it to harm. If there were buildings near or similar then I guess the bloke would have done things differently.