Hard head wedges.

[davidwyby]

See how the break follows the edge of the weld? The HAZ (heat affected zone) at the toe of the weld is often brittle.

I’d suspect the plastic started to deform away from the head plate, and so the strikes worked it side to side

 

[Tree09]

Yup, when you break steel that's what it looks like. The haz is where most welds fail (if they're done properly), that was likely fatigued by bending slightly back and forth. It looks like you got your money out of it at least!

 

[Nutball]

That line was probably just a hinge line, the last little bit holding it together until it snapped.

 

[flushcut]

No doubt it’s been beaten. A few times!
I was also wondering if when the insert was stamped before welding if that didn’t add to any internal stress?

 

[Tree09]

Nah, i bet it's just mild steel. Any cold working like punching the parts out would have slightly hardened it, but mild steel doesn't have enough carbon to really harden. It just bent back and forth slightly til it broke, it happens.

 

[Gypo]

My opinion those thick green wedges won't drive for shit, they're too thick. Red heads drive good because they're thin, imo there's nothing better, at least for conifer. I don't generally wedge hardwood, we cut a hole for it and fall it where it leans, or where we can make it go without a wedge.

When I work around buildings we pull everything that won't free fall. Rare to not be able to use a pull line someway or another.

I pack wedges all day, and hard heads are heavy.

 

[flushcut]

See how the break follows the edge of the weld? The HAZ (heat affected zone) at the toe of the weld is often brittle.

I’d suspect the plastic started to deform away from the head plate, and so the strikes worked it side to side

No obvious sings of the plastic smooshing out of the way.

 

[davidwyby]

No obvious sings of the plastic smooshing out of the way.

It’s prolly somewhat rubbery/resilient

 

[Nutball]

Get The Slo-mo Guys to film your wedges getting beat. I bet it moves a lot.

 

[davidwyby]

steel is rubber

 

[davidwyby]

My opinion those thick green wedges won't drive for shit, they're too thick. Red heads drive good because they're thin, imo there's nothing better, at least for conifer. I don't generally wedge hardwood, we cut a hole for it and fall it where it leans, or where we can make it go without a wedge.

When I work around buildings we pull everything that won't free fall. Rare to not be able to use a pull line someway or another.

I pack wedges all day, and hard heads are heavy.

Yeah the green are just for “finishing off” or light back leaners or spars that need more travel but aren’t heavy.

I would not carry hard heads if I was…carrying them.

 

[davidwyby]

Story time with Dave

 

[davidwyby]

Oh hey look

Felling flops 😆

 

[davidwyby]

Now as for the process of which wedges to carry and use when, I don’t remember… @gf beranek ? @BIGTWIG ? @Burnham ?

Seems like I’m always doing something different, but I tend to use as many wedges as I can fit in the back cut and give them one whack at a time, then start stacking - when I’m close to the truck. Not enough time with belt wedges only repetition yet. When I do wear my belt I think it’s the two blue Madsen’s and a larger and smaller KH with some
Variation on the size of the KHs.

 

[SeanKroll]

Many wedges makes light work.