Tilting the back cut?

[davidwyby]

A faller on another forum said he angles his back cut to pull/swing trees sometimes. Maybe 4" high on the pull side. I'm having a hard time visualizing it but I guess like a backside sizwheel/sizwell. What are your thoughts? I read in FOGTW about tilting the face and back cuts and the tree will pull to the high side, and I used it once ealy on in my falling. Burnt salt cedar hanging hard over the trail. Tapered hinge, angled back cut, lots of wedge sledging. But I kept it out of the road.

Thanks

 

[stig]

Mills don't look kindly at logs that are not cut square.

 

[lumberjack]

It doesn’t make much sense to me, the compression side of the hinge is still there, keeping any “swing” from swinging.

 

[davidwyby]

It doesn’t make much sense to me, the compression side of the hinge is still there, keeping any “swing” from swinging.

I will be cutting this weekend, I’ll try to at least get some visual.

 

[davidwyby]

I think I see something. Might only work with a gap face. A taller back cut makes a taller hinge that flexes more and holds longer.

 

[davidwyby]

Can you enlighten us @gf beranek ?

 

[gf beranek]

Normally I never angled my backcuts, or made them lower than the face, but there are circumstance where both methods can prove useful / wise.

Old trees with a spiral twist in their grain a square backcut (following conventional wisdoms) will almost always result in the corner with the twist running towards the face to pull out. You can lose that corner. Lose the tree. Particularly if the tree is hollow. Because all you have is the corners.

Where-as an angled backcut, kept purposely low on that particular corner, can leave contiguous grain running into the stump. That can hold a tree, rather than the corner pulling out.

It's looks like hell. Makes for an ugly stump. Very unprofessional looking. But if you understand how grain runs in the stump the wisdom could be your saving grace with a particular problem tree.

Little things.