Patron Saint of Bore-Cutters

[cory]

Very few people will file my saw except me - especially anyone still in training.

+1

Dave, I too bring extra saws, no sharpening on site.

Lots of stumps residential can be flushed and stay sharp if you Jed it. Granted, that nite I will file but usually no problem to cut stumps and stay sharp, barring cavities etc as mentioned above by Marc.

 

[Brock Mayo]

Hey, can I get some instruction on how to properly Jed a stump? Sean that blower trick sounds awesome!

 

[stig]

Very few people will file my saw except me - especially anyone still in training.

They would of course be using their own saw.

We all have individual saws here, a 50 cc, a 70 cc and a 90 cc.

Makes for a ridiculous amount of saws, but necessary for logging.

 

[cory]

Hey, can I get some instruction on how to properly Jed a stump?
!

Start with bar tip in a clean spot on stump, cut with a pulling chain and keep the tip inside of the stump and work your way around the stump till you get to where you started and the stump is cut free. The sawdust blowing out of the kerf from the pulling chain will remove all the dirt from the bark before the cutting teeth get to the bark so the teeth are only cutting clean wood.

Then, take a picture of the perfect felling cut you made and post it here

 

[stig]

If, of course, you are able, after going around a 6 foot stump, to hit the exact spot where you started.

 

[cory]

Yup, that is an enviable result

 

[stig]

Actually, that is what I require from my apprentices.
Can't be a bore-cutter if you can't match cuts.

 

[cory]

Matching cuts is very much preferred but plenty of trees go over just fine without perfect matching cuts, afaik.

 

[Marc-Antoine]

It isn't obvious to keep the chain sharp when alaping the stump, even with a clean stump and the proper technique. I discovered some times ago that the side hole of the muffler continuously blows loose stuff and dirt directly where the back chain enters in the kerf.
I want to modify the muffler but I'm not sure where to put the new exit.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Word, Cory.

I guess it's a training thing.

 

[stig]

Sure as shit, Cory.

To me it is more about mastering a trade.
Making perfect cuts with very sharp saws is part of that.

I spend a lot of time installing the pride of mastery into apprentices, which is why I'm such a stickler for the small stuff.

God ( Or whoever) knows we don't get paid very well for logging, so pretty much all we have going for us is the pride of being good at trade that is rapidly disappearing.
The harvesters are breathing down our necks in my part of the world.

Cory, it is all I have to give them. Pride!
We are a dying breed.

Richard, my partner, has woved to have me stuffed when I die, and donate me to the Field museum of natural history in Chicago, so they can display me next to their other dinosaur: Sue, the T-rex.

( If you don't know about her, look her up, and especially the woman, who found her).

 

[Tree09]

The little things add up to big things. Nothing wrong with taking pride in perfection. Too bad I'm not even close

 

[Altissimus]

... yes , sadly it is true what Stig said about the day of hand falling w cable skidding ending in our time. Only need is for the odd trees that are unreachable or too big for the shears , as long as it comes down they are happy , no craft necessary ... as Boring Cuts go I will swing by the Chapel and light a candle for the Patron Saint on the way home

 

[cory]

Good post, Stig

So Dave, cable skidding is rare in VT these days?? Geeeeez

 

[treebilly]

Man someone I look up to once told me, I don’t care if you shovel shit for a living. If you do, you do it to the best of your ability and keep striving to do it better. You will always have a job. That’s one reason I’m on this website every night. I want to be the best. I know I’m not but I’m learning from everyone here every day.

 

[MasterBlaster]

No sense in half-assing anything.

 

[stig]

Anything worth doing is worth doing well

 

[biggun]

Some of my dads old mantras...

If a job is worth doing, do it properly.

No such word as 'can't'.

Do it once and do it right.

Everyone can make a mistake, give people a second chance. If they wrong you again don't even give them a chance for a third go.


He can be a cantankerous fella now and again but I try to emulate the things he did well in my parenting style. The things I didn't like, i try to do differently.

Those 3 or 4 sayings though are hard to shake.

 

[Burnham]

What a pity Burnham is off travelling, we can usually get a good banter going about this.

All I want to add to the early back and forth about long vs. short bar felling is that here in my part of the world felling timber is not only about big diameters and fragile egos .

I think perhaps the more driving reason for the development of longer bars is the fact that the ground is so commonly quite steep. That keeps the cutter from being able to readily access the tree from all sides, and to my eye, it seems that is usually needed to fell using short bar techniques.

When you are cutting the face at ground level on one side of the tree, and the base of your face is over your head on the other, you'll be very glad you have 4 feet or more of bar to wield .

I'll also add that we fallers here in the PNW commonly use a 3 or 4 foot bar on 5 or 6+ foot stems in the same ways that Stig and his crew do on those 2, 3, and 4 foot stems there. We bore cut too.

And of course he is right...dragging a long bar through the mountains all day is very difficult work. Doing so when it is not needed and is counter productive to putting scale on the ground would be foolish in the extreme. I don't know any skilled sawyers here who are so enamored of their long bars that they would choose to do so just for impressive looks.

 

[Mick!]

To quote Ed.

“I’m mediocre at everything, and struggling to give a shit anymore”

 

[Burnham]

Easy for Ed to say, though evidence would lead one to believe he is mediocre at very little to do with tree work.

 

[Mick!]

Or fabricating, he just knocked up a great grab lorry.

 

[Burnham]

There you go.

 

[Mick!]

I was quoting him in reference to myself.

 

[SeanKroll]

I'll also add that we fallers here in the PNW commonly use a 3 or 4 foot bar on 5 or 6+ foot stems in the same ways that Stig and his crew do on those 2, 3, and 4 foot stems there. We bore cut too.

Anything more than a 36" bar on a MS660 is a pain in the neck/ back. I'd much rather run a 36"/660 than the 50" and 60" cannons/ MS880 we had at Parks. You need a smaller saw for a pilot-kerf because the bow of the bar. Humboldts work better than conventional in long bar territory for not throwing a chain. I was eager to have try with it, and then fine to leave it be. Mighty PITA on a springboard, but they wanted a tall stump.

I prefer to practice double-cutting with a small bar, so when I need to, I've practiced. I'll double-cut logs out of trees sometimes with a top-handle because its faster than changing.