First Coos Bay cut and dealing with broken limbs

Good to hear the work can ease up this winter. I'm hoping for a more restful winter than normal, and spending part it with Little D doing fun stuff, and hopefully part of it turning and working wood.
 
Bump... Great thread, first time reading it. Love the Coos Bay cut discussion...known about it for years, but only tried it a couple times, rarely do much felling...... and the turn the thread took with Cold Logging! He mentioned P-Tex plastic (what all modern skis use) for a sled runner surface. I drove through Glen Allen on my way to Valdez from Anchorage back in 1996, when I was there with a whole mess of big mountain skiers, and one other photographer, who sadly died later. Some of the best times and best skiing of my life... we earned a bunch of turns, did the Thompson Pass van assisted road shot, and took several helicopter rides.

Article about Carl Skoog's death and life.... a good friend, as are his two brothers. Gordy, in his 60's was filmed doing a double black flip.....I recently skied with both Gordy and Lowell for a few runs at Crystal.....they're living legends.
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Carl-Skoog-dead-at-46-Adventure-skier-also-1185828.php
http://www.alpenglow.org/carl-skoog/
 
Very good bump. Must have been busy and missed this thread first time around. Appropriately timed aswell. Removed a large split limb on a mature oak today. The limb must have been 45-50 foot to the tip and the split running about 6 foot up the trunk from the union. Initially I was gonna rig the thing down using itself as a redirect but wanted to get a bit of weight off first. So I climbed up installed rigging block, swung out to the limb and realised I could get about 30 or so feet off in one hit.

Out came the coos bay! Chogged a couple of 4 foot sections and then rigged out a couple of the lower branches over an outbuilding. Couple more choggs and removal of rigging kit.

Job done in a couple of hours after a bit of a clearup. Result!

I must admit I have felled quite a few dodgy trees with the CB but I probably use that sequence of cuts more, to drop long heavy limbs whilst climbing. 3 cuts, very easy and quick to do.
 
Best choice for heavy lean red alders, by a very wide margin. Those nasties LOVE to split and barberchair on you, worse than any other species I have cut. If they are big enough, which frequently is not the case, a bored back cut works a treat as well, unless the lean is extreme.
 
Best choice for heavy lean red alders, by a very wide margin. Those nasties LOVE to split and barberchair on you, worse than any other species I have cut. If they are big enough, which frequently is not the case, a bored back cut works a treat as well, unless the lean is extreme.

I think a sidehill takes the prize for head leaning Alder. Good chance of getting it to swing.
 
If they are big enough, which frequently is not the case, a bored back cut works a treat as well, unless the lean is extreme.

Do you know the trick of making the bore cut slanted if there isn't room enough for the bar?
 
Sure do, and that's a great trick for the toolbox...but plenty of the ones I dealt with along roadways were in the 4 to 6 inch dbh range, 30 to 40 feet tall...big enough to kill a man if they 'chaired up under your chin, but too small to bore any which way.
 
Duane, at SP, PNW treeman since his teens, told me not to fall them to the lean, take it sideways some. And use a razor chain. He did some alder logging round here, amongst other things. Keeps the log. The hard leaning CB'ed one still split a bit.

Maybe what NGDave speaks of.


Stig, do you slope it upward ("homeowner chair-cut") or downwards toward the stump? Does it matter. Never had reason to do it, but might.
 
Upwards, but I don't think it much matters, it is basically a question of severing fibers in the middle of the tree.
 
Yeah, I'm a wuss on Alders. I've bored the wood out of the middle of the tiny ones, vertically, like Stig is describing, until the darn thing just folds over, nice and safe. Takes me a while, but I'm an arborist... That might be the only tree I cut all day. :(
 
Sure do, and that's a great trick for the toolbox...but plenty of the ones I dealt with along roadways were in the 4 to 6 inch dbh range, 30 to 40 feet tall...big enough to kill a man if they 'chaired up under your chin, but too small to bore any which way.
When they are too thin for a standard bore, you can bore first, then make the notch, can be a tiny notch 1" or less.. then back release...
 
I've done some nearly verticle bores on heavy leaning poplar, cottonwood, willow and alder. When I was scared it would pinch my bar with the bar being horizontal. As Stig says its just to get some of the fibers severed. Usually I make 2 or 3 cuts back to back. It does the job and I haven't had a bar stuck yet. . But the CB works great for most of the ones I fall.
 
Can you describe this one please, Dave? I know you have spoken of it before, but I've not yet been able to get the clear picture.

Think holding wood like a Coos Bay, oriented to the head. Your "face" is super steep going sidehill to the head and the "backcut" is real steep as well coming from the top. Seems nuts but works like a charm, keeps you from blowing it up and having to chase the bastard down the slope.
 
Think holding wood like a Coos Bay, oriented to the head. Your "face" is super steep going sidehill to the head and the "backcut" is real steep as well coming from the top. Seems nuts but works like a charm, keeps you from blowing it up and having to chase the bastard down the slope.

Can you describe this--not for Burnham--but in terms that an inbred arborist could understand?
 
Think holding wood like a Coos Bay, oriented to the head. Your "face" is super steep going sidehill to the head and the "backcut" is real steep as well coming from the top. Seems nuts but works like a charm, keeps you from blowing it up and having to chase the bastard down the slope.

A picture would be great.
 
Both you fellas know I am not a tech guy. so can't do the Photoshop cool line and arrow things. So let's see.....From the back looking at a clock, the holding wood is right where the pin on the hands are (thickness is gauged by diameter). The bottom of the face is right around 4 o'clock the top of the face cut about 3 or more. Real narrow, and as deep as you would go for the strip on a Coos Bay, Backcut is coming in from about 10 or 11, matching up with the hinge. Seems crazy, but that thing will start to go to the head and the drop into the face, have always gotten at least 30 degrees of shift off the head, no slabbing, no dynamic action. Pretty smooth.
 
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