alanthis trees going "right"

murphy4trees

TreeHouser
Joined
Nov 28, 2008
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Location
Philadelphia PA suburbs
Buddy of mine cut 400 alanthis trees yesterday.. called up to ask why they could have all been going "right".. so if they were gunned to 12 oclock, they were going to 1-2 oclock...
He was freaked out by it... said it didn't matter how the tree was leaning, or where the pull was .. makes no sense to me either.. says he knows how to cut a clean notch and back cut..

Any thoughts???
 
Sounds like operator error. He needs to recalibrate his sights. :|:

If you make the same error 400 times in a row then what is the constant?
 
There seems nothing apparent in the wood of that species that could cause that. Apparently it's a very fast growing tree, one of the fastest if not the fastest in North America.
 
I cut a few Ailanthus myself, skinny and tall, on a bank, leaning over a house. Basically, it's completely unpredictable. It's a shitty wood with no hinging capability at all. A pure back leaner can be done with a pull line, with luck, but if there is a slight side lean or sided crown, you are in trouble. I can't see how the wedges could be efficient with them, so I used only the Maasdam. This one saved the day, really.
Actually, the tree just begins to move, and crack, it breaks free and falls where it wants. The hinge even doesn't pretend to work a little, no, it's just like a big log standing up on its butt. Scary.
 
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I suggested he try a peel cut or a 4"+ hinge .. he said there was a lot of center rot and when he tried the peel cut he ended up ripping out the top... ... nothing wrong with that if there's no one in the danger zone.. still not much of a solution. The guy works with his two sons and is completely sober and legit.. Told me he couldn;t sleep all night just trying to figure out why this happened or even come up with a plausible idea of how this could have happened... I believe him..

I think we've all been there trying to figure out how some unexpected event could have happened in a falling or rigging tht went off course.... this is a real stumper though (bad puns allowable online)
 
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