davidwyby
Desert Beaver
Itchin to get to try this. Meantime, if someone else can, try it and let me know. Thoughts?
Ed Zachary. I’m a hobbyist (for now) having fun.Oh yes, the good old 'swing dutchman.'
One of the big supporters of this technique was the late, great D. Dent and even he realized that it was not a technique that could be relied upon all the time.
I personally love using it, but only out in the woods and only just to play around with it.
Great book!!Watching some Brennen Miller (top heavy timber) and talking to @Normzilla about it got me referring to Dent’s book, and doing some googling, which brought me here…
I have only had occasion to use a sizwheel/Dutchman a couple times. The one I remember was a small pine leaning uphill. I gave it a siz Dutch and wedge to get it going…swung well over 90°! Away from the fence as desired but hung up in an oak. 😆
Since I first thought of this I also got to experiment with hinging characteristics on a bunch of good sized eucalyptus spars last winter. Trad Humboldt with tall back walls do indeed increase hinge time, even on brittle Euc. This winter I will see if I can swing some…which brings me back to the sizdutch. I suspect that to get max swing, one might cut the Dutchman from the lean side all the way to perhaps 50% of the tree. Then leave the hinge quite thick on the tension side, so the hinge is more of a post than a hinge. Make it tall, a big wide open sizwheel. Theoretically, the tree will fall into the lean and and the but will roll down around the ramp on the stump, swinging all the way around to the pull side. We shall see I guess.