Snap cuts

Treeaddict

Treehouser
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Harford county MD
Curious. When making the bypass cuts, how much overlap do you do? It seems they would only really need to meet and not bypass much, if any. I believe the ease of the break is more determined by distance between the two cuts. Most of the time I see a snap cut on video it seems like the first cut is 3/4 of the way through and the second cut is 1/2 way.
 
Curious. When making the bypass cuts, how much overlap do you do? It seems they would only really need to meet and not bypass much, if any. I believe the ease of the break is more determined by distance between the two cuts. Most of the time I see a snap cut on video it seems like the first cut is 3/4 of the way through and the second cut is 1/2 way.
I got 70% on both roughly, depends on the limb, real big wood it gives a chance to break in a smaller section (easier)
small limbs I go 50/50 or so, so it has to break at the widest spot, less chance of a limb breaking off before I can grab it

had a guy watch a snap cut I did a few weeks ago and went "he has done this a long time hasnt he?", apperently successful snap cuts can make anyone look like an expert, including myself
 
If you're using your dogs one way but not the other, that can influence it.

If you're snapping vertical trunk wood, you may go farther so that there is less to break.

If you need the tree to hold the piece against gravity, you will adjust the depth of cuts and spacing. Minimal extra cutting is good.
 
I rarely use snap cuts.
If chogging down a stem I’ll go through till it starts to fall back on the chain, then push the log up bit, couple of blips to feather the chain out the other side, then push it off.
 
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I rarely use snap cuts.
If chogging down a stem I’ll go through till it starts to fall back on the chain, then push the log up bit, couple of blips to feather the chain out the other side, then push it off.
I know what you mean. I like that method on stuff bigger than 20” where pushing off firewood rounds.
 
Same than Mick. Most of the time to buck a spar, I cut through with a hand to control the log, either retaining it for a small diameter or pushing a bit at the top to keep the chain spinning until the last remnant of the bark crushes down. It's ok for at least up to 20" diameter. After that, it begins to be heavy to push up with one hand, then to pull to free the bar. So it's mostly for the saws from the ms150T until ms462. It works even with the heavy leaners and the limbs (cutting firewood lengths that is). The forearm comes into play as a help to support the weight if needed. It's handy for me, as I stay usually at the underside of a leaning axis, better stability and control than on the upper side.
 
Vertical wood I go pretty deep to undermine the COG and help line up the cuts. Different species and situations get different amount of overlap and gap between cuts.

Another one of my go-to's is a sawdust cut. Back chain in the front past COG, then bore out and come back in on the same plane with a pulling chain. Tips the piece off the saw and sets it on a big cushy pile of packed sawdust. Makes it easy to slide chunks off.
 
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Vertical wood I go pretty deep to undermine the COG and help line up the cuts. Different species and situations get different amount of overlap and gap between cuts.

Another one of my go-to's is a sawdust cut. Back chain in the front past COG, then bore out and come back in on the same plane with a pulling chain. Tips the piece off the saw and sets it on a big cushy pile of packed sawdust. Makes it easy to slide chunks off.
Thank you for sharing the sawdust cut. I’ve used a similar process to pack the kerf on a stump cut but never thought about that aloft. I’ll give it a go this weekend
 
For vertical wood, basically like reaming a binding kerf, as you are approaching the far side of a straight-through cut, and the section above starts to settle down, creating a bind, you can cut back (back-chaining) opening the kerf in bar area and area local to it, then cut a bit more into the bind, then back-bar the bind open, then cut a bit more, and back-bar ... the right progress, you can end up out the far side, not bound tight. Don't pull the chain off exiting the top of the bar from the kerf.

As well, as you get to the far side, you can insert wedges or sticks or a dowel into the kerf, cut out the far side, and when released the section will tip away from the exit side, pivoting on the inserted objects. Said objects can help you move a section of heavy wood off the far side of trunk with a push, sliding or rolling.
 
On horizontal stuff I'll sometimes do the cuts on the sides, that leaves a vertical strip that I'm less likely to mess up and have it fly too soon. Also easy to do while standing bending over. I'll also sometimes use a snap cut on the back cut as a pull line activated cut where I'm going to want to move before the the piece/tree moves. That way i can also double as the guy doing the pulling, as i usually prefer as I'm usually using my truck, I'll slowly tension and once it has enough force to snap it the tree is fully committed and has a positive tension force towards the line of pull. Simply cut your face, bore your back, and then cut the snap further down (on full trees I'll even set wedges before cutting the snap cut).

If you do it right it'll stay, and then you can move to a better spot before the ground guy pulls it where it needs to go. I don't want to say this part, but it's also handy when working alone or with inexperienced ground crew that might need help. You can tie your rigging lines and tag line, drop and tension and tie everything off, go back and cut, then drop and trigger the limb with the tag line you installed while rigging. Ladders or a lift can really help if you're gonna do it the dumb way :lol:
 
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