SouthSoundTree
Treehouser
and you only get good at it by practice.
Short bar techniques.
- Thread starter sawinredneck
- Start date
- Replies 271
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and you only get good at it by practice.
Al Smith
Mac Daddy
It isn't a big deal to trip a 30" tree with a 14" bar .The problem comes in when you buck it .
You can cut through as much as you can then get medevil with a sledge and steel wedges and bust it apart but Andy isn't up to that swinging a 10 pound hammer I don't think .Finding smaller stuff should do the trick .
You could "beaver cut " the whole mess but it would take a month of Sundays .
You can cut through as much as you can then get medevil with a sledge and steel wedges and bust it apart but Andy isn't up to that swinging a 10 pound hammer I don't think .Finding smaller stuff should do the trick .
You could "beaver cut " the whole mess but it would take a month of Sundays .
I tried to make some pictures today.
It was raining hard the whole day, so between trying to keep my new camera from getting soaked and a spraycan that was almost empty, I don't know if the results are worth much.
Will have to redo the whole thing on a sunny day, and make some bucking pictures as well.
I used the stump of an oak that Richard had just cut, so any snide remarks about it should be directed at him.
In the pictures I have Spraypainted the areas where the wood has been cut away orange.
After making your face cut, bore into the middle of the hinge and remove as much of the center of the tree as you can reach, w/o cutting too much out of the sides of your hinge to be.
Then bore in a bit behind where the hinge will be and cut forwards untill the correct hinge thickness is achieved.
It is of course possible to bore in directly at the desired hinge thickness, but since it is impossible to restore the hinge to proper thickness if you cut it too thin, this way of doing it has a way of biting you in the ass once in a while.
If the tree is a backleaner, neutral or has only a little headlean, and it isn't a stormy day, you can now proceed to cut your way around the tree, setting whatever wedges you deem necessary as you go.
On a headleaner, leave a backstrap by pulling the saw out of the cut and boring in again , cutting forward to the hinge in the other side.
Cut the backstrap from the outside in.
Andy, be aware that once you master this stuff, you'll no longer be a Sawingredneck, but a sophisticated Euro-faller and may have to change your moniker
It was raining hard the whole day, so between trying to keep my new camera from getting soaked and a spraycan that was almost empty, I don't know if the results are worth much.
Will have to redo the whole thing on a sunny day, and make some bucking pictures as well.
I used the stump of an oak that Richard had just cut, so any snide remarks about it should be directed at him.
In the pictures I have Spraypainted the areas where the wood has been cut away orange.
After making your face cut, bore into the middle of the hinge and remove as much of the center of the tree as you can reach, w/o cutting too much out of the sides of your hinge to be.
Then bore in a bit behind where the hinge will be and cut forwards untill the correct hinge thickness is achieved.
It is of course possible to bore in directly at the desired hinge thickness, but since it is impossible to restore the hinge to proper thickness if you cut it too thin, this way of doing it has a way of biting you in the ass once in a while.
If the tree is a backleaner, neutral or has only a little headlean, and it isn't a stormy day, you can now proceed to cut your way around the tree, setting whatever wedges you deem necessary as you go.
On a headleaner, leave a backstrap by pulling the saw out of the cut and boring in again , cutting forward to the hinge in the other side.
Cut the backstrap from the outside in.
Andy, be aware that once you master this stuff, you'll no longer be a Sawingredneck, but a sophisticated Euro-faller and may have to change your moniker
Burnham
Woods walker
That's great, Stig. I'd never have thought to illustrate the technique that way, well done.
sotc
Dormant hero!!
Burnham
Woods walker
Oh, yeah...Willie still thinks your bar is too short 
.
.
sotc
Dormant hero!!
Basic rule of thumb, the bar should be longer than the powerhead!
Burnham
Woods walker
Burnham
Woods walker
Good to go then, Stig...meets Willie's standard easily .
.
MasterBlaster
Administrator Emeritus
Someday that stump's gonna puzzle someone.
sotc
Dormant hero!!
Good to go then, Stig...meets Willie's standard easily
I think theres a gray area involved, I think Stig is talking about the bar being measured unmounted. If so, it would easily be 3" measured with the side cover on!
Al Smith
Mac Daddy
Well sorry to bust a bubble but that root spread cut with a short bar isn't done any differently in Denmark than it is in Ohio .
Remember it's a poor sawyer who blames the shortness of his bar, 'tis how you use it that counts .
Remember it's a poor sawyer who blames the shortness of his bar, 'tis how you use it that counts .
sawinredneck
Treehouser
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #64
That was awesome Stig! Thank you so much! It's about what I figured, but watching the videos in a language I don't know makes it hard to decipher everything that is going on!
gf beranek
Old Schooler
Short bar felling techniques are to be admired. But to me it's too much buzz sawing and running around to fall a tree when just a few more inches of bar length could do the job more easily.
To each their own.
To each their own.
Burnham
Woods walker
You don't want to be bucking and limbing an oak like that with anything above a 30" bar; Jerry.
With all the bind and chrushed branches, you'd be throwing your chain both left and right.
It is also way easier to use the tip of the bar for undercutting a branch with bottom bind that is close to the ground, with a short bar.
But I don't have to tell you that.
I use a 24"-30" for felling the bigger hardwoods and switch to an 18" for working in the top of the tree, once it is on the ground.
Since it is a pain to drag two saws around ( except when you get one of them stuck) I'll use the 18"er for felling as large diameter trees as I can get away with.
Because of the huge firewood market in the colder parts of Europe ( Heating oil costs $8,5/gal!!) we buck an oak like this one out to about 5 inches diameter. So there is a lot of cutting branches.
And just to clarify: That oak was NOT felled with an 18" bar. Richard used the 24".
It was this winters finest veneer log, so he wanted to cut it as low as possible, hence the beavering away of the butresses.
With all the bind and chrushed branches, you'd be throwing your chain both left and right.
It is also way easier to use the tip of the bar for undercutting a branch with bottom bind that is close to the ground, with a short bar.
But I don't have to tell you that.
I use a 24"-30" for felling the bigger hardwoods and switch to an 18" for working in the top of the tree, once it is on the ground.
Since it is a pain to drag two saws around ( except when you get one of them stuck) I'll use the 18"er for felling as large diameter trees as I can get away with.
Because of the huge firewood market in the colder parts of Europe ( Heating oil costs $8,5/gal!!) we buck an oak like this one out to about 5 inches diameter. So there is a lot of cutting branches.
And just to clarify: That oak was NOT felled with an 18" bar. Richard used the 24".
It was this winters finest veneer log, so he wanted to cut it as low as possible, hence the beavering away of the butresses.
Al Smith
Mac Daddy
I used basically the same method last year when I stumped out a big hickory that was over 5 feet at the root flare .As it was I had nothing of any size because all my large saws have west coast wrap handles .Couldn't get low enough .
So it fell upon a pair of souped up 038's ,a Av and a mag with 20" and 24" respectively .The job got done even though it was a monumental pain in the buttocks .One of those big Macs would have done it grand style but you have to use whatever you have on hand .
So it fell upon a pair of souped up 038's ,a Av and a mag with 20" and 24" respectively .The job got done even though it was a monumental pain in the buttocks .One of those big Macs would have done it grand style but you have to use whatever you have on hand .
gf beranek
Old Schooler
Since meeting so many Euro-fallers I have come to the conclusion that they take pride, and a sort of one-up-man-ship, in falling the biggest trees they can with the shortest bar possible. Bravo! It's fun to prove a point that it can be done, but why go through all the toruble when a few inches more bar length can eliminate all the un-needed buzzing around?
Stirring the pot. Come back..
Stirring the pot. Come back..
sotc
Dormant hero!!
Stirring the pot would be more like telling them that the reason they can't run a longer bar is because they get tossed on the weak brew at their pubs so they can barely stand up let alone pack a man sized saw around
sawinredneck
Treehouser
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #71
Easy Willie! I resemble that remark right now!
sotc
Dormant hero!!
That was just hypothetical
MasterBlaster
Administrator Emeritus
Hahahahahaaa. Youse guys...
HolmenTree
Banned
I invite you to come to Manitoba and work alongside me [you don't have to go to Europe]
You can use your 30" b/c and I'll use my 18". We'll each cut on opposite ends of a strip face of spruce, on level ground. Timber will be around 8" to 24" dbh, we'll fell, limb and top then buck up into 8 ft.
You will look real funny working with that long bar being alot slower then me
Willard.
CurSedVoyce
California Hillbilly
:roll:
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