Level Stumps on Steep Ground

[Jed]

Actually Jer: There are guys at my work who won't accept any other means of learning, and to be perfectly honest: I'm highly inclined to agree with em. Pain--much as it sucks--has GOT to be the most effective teacher.

Still........... I love to steal a few tricks here and there from the old-timers. I know, I know... Who you callin old? Etc.

 

[gf beranek]

I am old.

Learning by hard knocks will get you killed. Suck up as much info as you can and while you can.

 

[Jed]

Point taken Jer. Will do.

 

[forestryworks]

As long as you don't do those horrendously sloping backcuts like the nincompoops here do, I'd say you're doing alright.

Saw this stump last year while cutting firewood in northern NM. WTF?

 

[stig]

It is obviously a whizzy with a side facecut and sloping backcut.
Quite a standard tecnique.

Have you really never seen one of those before?

 

[MasterBlaster]

I thought it was some kinda oddball stump vise.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Wow!

Which way did he go George? Which way did he go?

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/bs-Q0JmWjj0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Jed]

Hey Forestryworks: Northern New Mexico!! What kind of a goofball treeguy would cut firewood there. (Willie's getting a good LOL on that one.) That's where I lived and worked for about seven years. Probably says a great deal about why I have such a hard time at the stump. I actually learned--so to speak--to cut there.

Yeah, I'm not really sure what the locals got goin' on there. EVERYBODY's got like a 029 Farm Boss, and just about everybody has some conception of a face cut. It's the back cut that doesn't make any sense: they start about 18" above the face on the backside of the tree, and then cut nearly straight down--or rather at a diagonal--until they've achieved some kind of a hinge. I have speculated that the idea is somehow geared toward preventing a setback, though how this could be accomplished, I don't know. I've seen some incredibly weird stumps cutting permitted firewood in the Pecos National Forest, but I'll confess, none as weird as the one you happened across.

I'll say this for Northern NM though: You haven't burned firewood till you've burned that stuff. I felled (normalish back cut) a 309 year old Doug Fir that was only 35" DBH. When the Vivash forest fire went through that place, in about 1999, it baked the pitch into those sticks so that you can still get up there and cut to this day, and there are still areas where there's hardly a hint of rot in them.

 

[forestryworks]

Hey Jed... We go to Red River a lot. Almost every summer. I had my saws with me last year and got the itch to cut and went and dropped some doug-firs for firewood.

 

[Jed]

Thanks a ton FW. Really great shots. Makes me miss my Mom and Dad. It's really good to see some shots of someone falling in N.M. who actually knows to keep an eye on the top of the tree. Not a local custom. I had heard stories about some of the local boys going up to fall the Vivash forest fire sticks, and having the tops bust out and get flung back on em'. Not all that hard to believe.

 

[gf beranek]

Beautiful scenery shot there, Jameson.

 

[forestryworks]

Thanks fellas.

My pops took most of those pictures. He still uses his old Olympus camera. Film. From the late 70's or early 80s that camera is.

That second picture is at the top of Greenie Peak (11,250ft elev.), just north of Red River, NM.

While falling the doug-firs, I remember he was having trouble finding good light. Clouds kept coming and going pretty quick that day. I need to get more of those pictures, only have a handful of them on my computer.

 

[rfwoody]

Jed, you may not be making any mistake in starting level. It could be improper technique in powering the saw through the back cut.

It's very easy to push the bar off line as the kerf progresses if you are applying uneven pressure to the handles. Look at that aspect of how you are moving through the back cut, make sure you are gripping in a balanced manner and not above center of effort. If your grip and point of pressure on the powerhead is high, relative to the bar and kerf, you will push the bar into a lowering line through the back cut.

With only a quarter inch of stump shot, it only takes a smidge of over-topped push to drive the bar under the far corner.

I can't wait to try to be aware of this, and focus on this next time I get a chance to fall a tree.

 

[Burnham]

 

[ruel]

What a bump!

 

[Burnham]

There are more nuggets of wisdom sitting here and there on this website than can be imagined. Most of them are not mine .

 

[MasterBlaster]

I need to stick the more popular killer threads... I stuck this one.

Don't be shy to suggest a thread be stickied!

I don't want a shitload of them, but at this moment we have plenty of room.

 

[Altissimus]

I can't wait to try to be aware of this, and focus on this next time I get a chance to fall a tree.

... Fell , Fall ... Tomato , Tomato

 

[Jed]

Yeah, thanks Burnham... I wanna start throwing up some pictures of us tree service guys trying to cut level stumps on the next cow face that we get. I would try to show the top of the stump with a bubble-level over it. It's unreal how hard of a time the brain has in attempting to conceive what true level is reletave to one's surroundings. Gotta be some kinda life lesson in there.

 

[SeanKroll]

Lean is harder than level, sometimes, on a steep slope, especially in a grove, imo.


Probably, a lot of people don't hold the saw at the balance-point.

 

[lxskllr]

Straight cuts are the bane of my existence. If there was any single thing I wanted to improve in my tree work, it would be my cuts. The last ash I dropped, I had a picture perfect face cut. Bore the center, go look at the other side, and my bar's too low :^S I've thought about getting a magnetic fisheye bubble to stick to my bar, but I suspect vibration would shake it up too much.

 

[SeanKroll]

Start the cut, a little. Stop. Look. Adjust, cut a little. Stop, check. Adjust. Calibrate little by little.

 

[Jed]

Hopefully, he'll correct me if I'm wrong, but I wanna say that Mr. Gerrald F. Beranek himself had, at times, packed a small bubble-level out into the woods to place on the guide-bar, to see what was what. I could be wrong.

Sean: Yeah. I suck at swinging leaners. I usually just cut em level, and calculate for how far the top is out of plumb.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Can't believe a level isn't built into the larger saws.

 

[Frankie]

I guess if a guy wanted dead nuts on larger trees that aren’t round you could (after making the face cut of course) tie a string round the tree at the desired height (or use string/ bungee cord to accommodate different diameters) and spray-paint the string - remove string and you should have a nice template that’s right on the money ! Quick set-up and accuracy !