Dutchman/soft Dutchman

[steve collins]

Thats not a soft dutchman though ....

 

yes you are right nut the cornetto is a standard dutchman, ive seen a variation to the "soft dutchman" where instead of the two cuts in the scarf a vertical cut is made behind the hinge. Il Post a vid up is bet way to explain

[steve collins]

supposed to say yes you are right but!!

 

Hope this link works

 

[steve collins]

this is the soft dutchman

 

[Stubby]

this is the soft dutchman

 

 

Yep . Seen a lot of his vids . Old hand and skilled with it .

[steve collins]

what you think of the other one? Its a different way but same result but seems more technical to me!!

[Stubby]

what you think of the other one? Its a different way but same result but seems more technical to me!!

 

Not seen that before . Very cleaver !

[daltontrees]

Here's a couple of pictures of a successful Soft Dutchman from Monday. I have chopped the top off the stump (obviously) to take it home for photos.

 

Looking at it side-on you can see a series of near horizontal cuts. These allowed the butt of the stem to sink temporarily into a soft compressible scoop formed by the overall amount of wood removed by the kerfs. The cuts don't go so far around as they get lower. There is a good reason for this.

 

Imagine you are standing at the base of a gangly tree. The tree leans slightly to your right. You want it to go left. Without wedges or winch or pushing. Let's say it's too big to push and too tall to put a line onto an upper branch to pull.

 

You basically have to put a humboldt sink in 25% (american style, sink is upside down). Then do a deliberate dutchman on the horizontal cut on the side away from you. Just to achieve another 10% of the diameter.

 

Then you have to do a series of progressively less deep cuts into the underside of the sink. See photo

 

Then you have to put your normal back cut in but with a tapered hinge (narrowing away from you). At the last moment and the hardest bit to do is swing the saw round to the offside and cut through the thinnest tip of the tapered hinge. You know this is gouing to trap the bar but it doesn't because of what happens next. Pull the saw out sharpish and stand back and watch...

 

The stem starts to fall right and slightly away from you. Then it's weight causes its butt to sink into the scoop created by all those cuts into the underside of the sink. Those thin layers of wood bend or crack, converting the rightward drop of the stem into an away-from you drop, held by the thickly tapered hinge. By now, you should be marvelling at the graceful arc of the stem as the rightwardward weight converts to leftward momentum.

 

As the stem gets to the most away-from-you point, the slices run out and the scoop gets smaller, eventually turning into a normalish left-sided sink. Now you can watch and wonder as the stem stops going away from you and its weight and momentum pull it round to the left.

 

Then the hinge gives way as normal and the stem plops down on the left side as planned. It's a blessed miracle. Right lean becomes left fell.

 

I am thinking of it this way. The equivalent of a series of cornettos. Each one tricks the stem to go a little further left than it would. But once it starts moving the trickery becomes easier. And when you add up all the tricks, it has gone 180 degrees.

[daltontrees]

The tree was an Alder, characteristically going a screaming orange colour when cut. Sorry if you can't make out the tapered hinge.

[daltontrees]

What? Not one single comment? Sorry to tell you this Paul T (you can probably tell anyway) this thread is dead.

 

Just one cornetto, give it to me!

Not a soft dutchman, it's easy.

I'll make i swing, through 45 de-grees

who needs a SD, and a 180ee?

[Tom D]

Thanks for taking the time, someone posted this on here years ago and I meant to try it then, still haven't.. and I have had plenty of opportunities too. I will try it soon.