Logging pics

[FireFighterZero]

Yeah, kinda like "your comfortable life is brought to you by....."

 

[cory]

Don't scare em when you go home to the subdivision tonite!

 

[MasterBlaster]

Too cold for me!!!

 

[Buddy]

Haha funny, thanks guys

 

[flushcut]

There is nothing worse than working in wet snow IMO.

 

[pantheraba]

That's real work there...great picture. Tell your mama she was right!

 

[cory]

Buddy, are those glasses a pita in that kind of weather?

 

[Buddy]

Yes and no cory. They are protected fairly well by the brim of my hardhat and a lot of times the snow will roll right off them. They tend to fog up a little too but not real bad. Rain is the worst, everytime you look up they get a drop or two of water on them. I carry a couple paper towels in my radio pouch so I can wipe them off occasionally. I don’t like screens and the bugs goggles cut down your peripheral vision. The oakley m frames don’t have a full wrap frame around the lens so they shed debris really well. Part of it must be learning how to live with whatever you wear.

 

[Graeme McMahon]

[ATWorking in alpine ash (wooly butt its a Euc). They pull heavy and are prone to split. Even though we sissor cut them sometimes they just want to go.TACH=CONFIG]90811[/ATTACH]

 

[flushcut]

Interesting stump. Is it normal to make the backcut so high?

 

[cory]

Cool pic!

Are those trees in the background big ones like the stump shown, or are they whip poles, hard to tell.

A scissor cut? New term to me, maybe a common technique by a different Aussi name?

 

[SeanKroll]

Looks like a lower than bore-cut, backstrap-release (looks like scissors with the two parellel cuts going past one-another.

Looks like a small bit of the backstrap is cut, then tons of fiber-pull from the holding wood of the backstrap.

Is that so, G?


With that high-back-cut, it looks like you have to account for some spiral grain, from what I see in the bark. Is that so? I was also naturally curious about the height of the backcut.

 

[stig]

Biggest split off backstrap I've ever seen.
Pretty spectacular.

 

[August Hunicke]

interesting

 

[cory]

Biggest split off backstrap I've ever seen.

That is a honker.

You ever BC such a huge tree, and so high up, that you have no idea how to get it down even with a skidder there? Um, I might have.

 

[Graeme McMahon]

The shaggy thick bark is deceptive regarding the grain of the wood. Most people can't get their chains to cut it.
The trees in the background are like the one in the pic, they are thick on the ground and tall. The problem with the “alpine ash" is they are free grained and prone to pulled wood on the stump. If you see pulled wood on an ash stump it has downgraded the log and an indicator that the faller is down on competence and close to ripping one up (barber’s chair).

I find a good step decreases pulled wood. I consider the hinge as a board. Its performance assists to determine the height of the step. A longer board can be thicker and bend further before it must break. Little steps will pull much more wood because they only can bend so far before they must break. The wood fibres at the rear of the hinge must pull. The pics don't do justice to the substantial pull of most of the trees. Very fine hinges are vulnerable to being squished.
I don't normally have a camera in the bush but I have been falling on Sunday's over the landing. The contractor pulls all the gear off the landing and I fall and slide them down to where he can round them up. In the distance there is a John D 990 with floppy plus other machines. There is too much rock and steep for access. Falling on Sunday's means I have to have someone with me all day for safety. They tend to take a couple of pics.

 

[Graeme McMahon]

Steep, rock and bridged wood. At least the undergrowth is light here.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Gnarley!!!

 

[Graeme McMahon]

I tend to Humbolt scarf the bigger wood. Holding wood this side. You can see the result of the battle in the fibres with the bit pulled up near the exit time. Chain grabbers.


Falling near the boundary in steep stuff. Heavy leaner, held wood enough to keep it in the patch at the cost of a long butt. At least we could fall the trees behind it. No danger of splitting up but not for the faint hearted.

 

[treebilly]

Would a blocked out notch perform the same as the higher back cut plus preserve more of the timber value? I’m no logger by any means. I try to preserve “good” logs for some value but that’s usually low on my priority list. Just asking for the education. Could be another tool in the box. I do get what you’re saying about bending a board as well. Makes sense.

 

[cory]

Great pics, G. Thanks for posting. I'm sure I speak for all of us here when I say I really hope you stick around and keep posting. There's plenty to learn and take in on all sides.

So you are doing a clear cut there. Do those trees respond well to clear cutting, meaning is that one of the best ways to get them to regenerate, rather than trying to selective cut it? Is there much environmental controversy over there with clear cuts like that? Thanks.

 

[Raj]

Nice pics!

 

[squisher]

Clearcutting is the best way to make money logging. And that's why it's done here and I bet that's why it's done pretty much everywhere. I'm betting the decision to clearcut isn't based on how the trees respond, it's based on how the pocket book responds. The whole point of logging, milling, etc is to make money.

Cool pics.

 

[cory]

True enough but if perchance, over the long haul , the resource could be more productive by being more continuously or frequently yielding as opposed to one-shot yielding, selective might be in order.

Certain places in PNW are now into thinning, true?

 

[squisher]

Pre commercial thinning is all I've ever seen/heard of. That's what happens before the clearcut.

I understand your point Cory. Industry and governments, economies don't though. I think.