hinge pics

[cory]

Nice set up , Stig.

On white pine, that internal dutchman don't mean nothing, imo, when felling to the lean.

 

[cory]

I guess I'm wondering, how is a plate superior to a wedge for holding gains? Why not just only use wedges? Maybe plates take up less room on the tool belt?

 

[treebilly]

Two is normally plenty here as well Stig. I might just cut up a cutting board today for shims. I like that belt. Been eyeballing one from weaver leather recently. Need to see it up close though. Does yours have a place to stow your axe?

 

[treebilly]

Cory the plate or shim gives you a flat lift for the wedge. Just adding 3/8 or 1/2” of height with the same angle of taper. If you place one wedge on top of another wedge you double the angle of the taper making it harder to drive. Also they like to spit out that way. At least from my experience.

 

[cory]

Cory the plate or shim gives you a flat lift for the wedge. Just adding 3/8 or 1/2” of height with the same angle of taper. If you place one wedge on top of another wedge you double the angle of the taper making it harder to drive.

Nice! Gotta say I hadn't thought of that but makes perfect sense. Shims FTW!

 

[greengreer]

Check out this wedge pouch.

Custom Sawyer's Wedge Pouch — Incidental Wildland

Customize tools and wedge sizes, MOLLE compatible!

incidentalwildland.com

Hand made by a woodland fire fighter, and reasonably priced to boot. I have one on an old military webbing belt with a miners axe in one of those sheet metal axe holders. I carry two 10" and two 8" wedges along with a scrench. I think she makes a kick-ass product, just want to share.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Yup, Im in Stigs camp... Shims. I think I carry 6 in the truck in case. Most the time 2 - 3 wedges pushes them where I want.

 

[treesmith]

Where would one get these plates or shims? Baileys doesn't list them at least by those names.

 

[stig]

I make my own from a sheet of 10 mm nylon.
I buy one every few years from a local plastic manufacturing plant and cut it into squares to fit my wedges on the band saw.
They usually have some scraps around that they'll sell cheaply.

A simple do it yourself way is to buy some plastic cutting boards and cut those into squares.
Not quite thick enough for my taste, but will do fine.

I came up with the idea of nylon shims about 11 years ago and introduced it here after experimenting with it for a while.
It has caught on really well.
The Danish forestry school teaches the use of them now, after seeing my apprentices use them.
I didn't even think of trying to give them a fancy name or make them secret.

 

[lxskllr]

I've heard of people using cookies for shims. Never tried it myself.

 

[treesmith]

Thanks, Stig.

 

[stig]

Cookies split too easy.
Better to trim off a root flare and cut a shim from that along the grain.
Easiest way is cutting the shim with the root flare still attached to the tree, that way you don't have to chase it around.
That is what I do if my 2 shims aren't enough.

They usually are, though.
Cutting to scale, I try not to spend too much time banging away on wedges, I don't make money that way.
So I'll either find an alternative lay or have a skidder pull the tree or simply ignore it and move on.

 

[Jed]

I use cookies. Nylon is better. Whenever a double stack spits, you have to shim, but, imho, super easy to shim with cookies till a double stack will drive well. Tree still won't go off a double? Rinse, repeat.

 

[ruel]

I've never thought about stacking plates before. Lots of small trees around here, almost always want to spit out double stacked short wedges. Thanks for the idea, going to make some up!

 

[cory]

Da House strikes again

 

[flushcut]

I didn't even think of trying to give them a fancy name or make them secret.

Stig Shims. Stig'ims. Stig'its. Stig Stacks. Stacks O Stigs. Stack Plates by Stig. Stiglets. More Lift Stacker by Stig. That's about all I could come up with.

 

[lxskllr]

I like plain old Stigs®. Short, easy to remember, and rolls off the tongue. "Hey, grab some stigs out of the bucket!" "When we get back in, tell Charlie we need to order more stigs" "WTF's wrong with you?! I've never seen someone tear up a stig as fast as you do!"

 

[ruel]

Seconded. All in favor of Stigs®?

 

[flushcut]

Stigs

 

[stig]

You guys 🤣

 

[biggun]

I think you should called them Murph’s.

 

[flushcut]

Boo hiss booooo

 

[spankywheatjeans]

This is another one that Rifco likes to bust on even though I pointed out that this cut comes right out of Dent's professional timber falling.View attachment 99577

I for one will never understand your insatiable need to continually use unproven, unreliable, and unsafe cutting methods and leave gawd awful looking stumps in your wake...Are you trying to somehow reinvent the wheel Daniel?

I realize its super boring and takes a little more effort, but why not just take the few moments necessary to employ one of the many methods of pushing or pulling that we have at our disposal, make a mechanically sound cut, and watch your tree/wood hit its lay every time...

 

[murphy4trees]

My hinges get the job done. I can cut a straight hinge as well as anyone. But I don't bother taking pictures of them much. And I will usually taper the hinge if even just slightly in order to give some added protection to one side. Is there something special about cutting a straight hinge, like we need to see the same photos of your hinges over and over to learn something or as a demonstration of your cutting ability.

 

[murphy4trees]

I prefer to take pictures of unusual hinges. those that can be a subject of discussion and experimentation, perhaps something that can be learned.

For example what situation does a swing dutchman work and when will it not. What are the factors that make the cut "unreliable"? if we knew all the factors, size, species, lean, width and taper of the hinge, etc. and understood their interplay, then it wouldn't be unreliable anymore. What are the limitations?

These cuts made the lay perfectly