Felling cuts

[Jason James Gairn]

picture post card stuff:001_smile:

 

Thats quite something from a Scotsman. Scotland is eye candy

[Xerxses]

45 degrees is old school! The reason for the angeled cut is for safety! Beeing back from a course (Ive been many years in the buisness and still learning!)

By the book....; Stand on right side of tree, use lines on saw to aim in the desired direstion - do a 70 degrees cut on the stem at least 2/3 of the stems width. Still standing on the right hand side do the horizontal cut and look into the first cut, this will enable you to see when your horizontalcut meets the first cut, do a borecut from righthandside, adjust thicknes of hinge, if no wedges is needed (the weight of the tree is in the desired felling direction) simply rew the saw and cut fast and distinktly towards the back and step away from the tree. This will allow any tree to be still attatched to the stump and hence avoid kickback and so forth. Safest and the modern way to do it!

Since Swden has been and till some extent still is the leading country for felling technique and chainsaws (Huskys) its worrying that NPTC still states that you should use techniques that was modern back in the 60:ies!

And yes! In Sweden you would be failed if youd put horizontalcut in first. Its dangerous!!!!

[nepia]

Willow felling for cricket bats is by all accounts the most differcult. The gob is about 10 degrees and very shallow, then the back cut comes in at the same height very quickly, This prersumably is to get the most out of the tree and to ensure less damage to the fibres as it goes over. Bit daunting tho, with out directional pull. Anyone else have any willow felling insights?

 

 

More an aside than an insight but when I was a kid my dad bought a large house and garden (4 acres, 700 planted trees) in East Sussex. Every year Gray Nicholls would turn up (cricket bat factory only 20 miles away) and take one or two 'bits'. Their spec was minimum 16' of straight trunk with no major branches and minimum girth of 48". They took that out of an 80'-100' tree and left the rest in a heap for dad to clear up with his 8hp Wheel Horse!

 

Wish I'd been old enough to be interested in that operation...

[Graham]

And yes! In Sweden you would be failed if youd put horizontalcut in first. Its dangerous!!!!

 

Just wondering why it's dangerous. Surely if the face is good it matters not which order they're cut?

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

A mixture; normal notch most of time with the angled top cut first. If felling downhill, tend to make the gob upside down so to speak. When wasting wood is a no-no, bottom cut first and as close to the ground as poss, then a v small gob angle (suitable for small trees ime) and yankee style back cut - keep going till it starts to go and maybe even a bit more! All bad habits developed long after NPTC! Use the top of the bar a lot too in small wood harvesting...

[Mesterh]

By the book....; Stand on right side of tree, use lines on saw to aim in the desired direstion - do a 70 degrees cut on the stem at least 2/3 of the stems width.

 

That is new stuff to me!

 

I do the angled cut first because its easier to line up the horizontal (for me anyhow and thats the way I was trained)

 

Getting the cuts to meet up is the most important bit whatever way you start with.

 

I've seen a couple of bad and fairly lucky fells where they have gone in to far with the horizontal and more or less done a step cut!

[Quickthorn]

Surely the angle depends on how far you want the tree to fall before the gob shuts and breaks the hinge..so the angle varies, within reason, depending on the situation. For example, on valuable hardwoods, you need the hinge to break before it hits the deck, or it's more likely split. You'd set your angle depending on the ground conditions where you expect the tree to land.

 

On cricket bat willow, I read about one contractor who seems to miss out the gob cut altogether..he has big saws with very long bars, and controls the fall with cables, winches, tractors, whatever. I can see why you'd want to do that: all the test match quality bats are at the bottom, and they can retail for £hundreds..putting a big gob cut in would lose at least one of those bats per stem.

Edited March 10, 2009 by Quickthorn

[Yorkshireman]

its the strength and direction of ur hinge thats the key........poor hinge tree goes astray

the order of cuts is really a matter for the cutter the result should still be the same crisp cuts good dimensions & postion

[Xerxses]

That is new stuff to me!

 

I do the angled cut first because its easier to line up the horizontal (for me anyhow and thats the way I was trained)

 

Getting the cuts to meet up is the most important bit whatever way you start with.

 

I've seen a couple of bad and fairly lucky fells where they have gone in to far with the horizontal and more or less done a step cut!

 

This is exactly my point Graham!

[josharb87]

about 4 or 5 years ago now, had to fell willows for cricket bats-told to do lowest, shallowest gob safley possible-less wastage, side cut the ears of the hinge, bore in letterbox cut, and as the tree falls, cut remainder of hinge so none of the fibers are pulled out, damaging the wood in the trunk

 

as for angles of cuts, a nice big open one to hold the hinge for aslong as possible, or a shallow one when you need the hinge to break early

order doesnt matter, although doing the angle cut first, when you do the horizontal cut, you can look down the 1st cut, watching the chain cut so as not to cut to far