Rich: O.k, now I'm just plain spooked... how in the WORLD could you possible know that that was the "Sammamish Job." Dude, there's only like, .02% of the population who could even spell that.
Oh... and yeah... My job was just brushing and topping. They boys got to handle all of the wood... entitled, little bastards!
I?ve got my sources. Looked like a nice gig. Also looks like they?re getting used to that crane. Looked a lot like the job Willie did when August did the video for him.
Are you not seeing the branch coming off the lead his saw is resting against? I don't need to see a pic of "what" kickback is. And he's using the top of the bar, not the 'mid-bottom.' If he were to do that, the tip would hit the other limb.
You've heard, Don't trust a fart, passed 60 years old... Don't trust one at 60', after being sick.
I came down because it was time to go to a consult, not time to change pants.
I have to unlace branches between the leaders split at the base.
Two more trunks to go, and it's closing up an 11 tree project, and I've got lots of short logs.
I want a dump trailer, and a
16' flatbed, but not both in one. 12' trailer or 11' chip bed for log hauling.
I'm thinking if I can haul 16'10" or some 18'10 or 20'10", I can haul them myself to the log buyer.
Coordinating and paying my hauler eats up the log value. He only carries 20'10" max.
Hi Sean,
How do you judge that these split leaders/co-dominant stems will hold and not split up under rigging or even climber load? I trust my bounce/pull on the stem prior to climbing but I am interested in different opinions, approaches and comments about the question.
Are you not seeing the branch coming off the lead his saw is resting against? I don't need to see a pic of "what" kickback is. And he's using the top of the bar, not the 'mid-bottom.' If he were to do that, the tip would hit the other limb.
I am not following Butch. He is cutting with the underside of the bar not the top. I follow you on if he clips the branch above then there is a chance of KB. But you are saying he is using the top of his bar.?
I am not following Butch. He is cutting with the underside of the bar not the top. I follow you on if he clips the branch above then there is a chance of KB. But you are saying he is using the top of his bar.?
I don't want to beat a dead horse, but I do want to learn & glean from the experience here, so I'm really trying to understand what you're seeing. Here is the photo with distracting background removed.
I am guessing the reason he is cutting that far out on the bar is to miss the growth behind his cut -- if the body of the saw was against the limb (doggin' in), levering down could make the 16" bar tip hit the branch behind and kick. He could be better positioned (higher), but I'm also guessing he was not wanting to risk hitting the metal edge of the basket on the down stroke if the branch gave way during cutting. Again, first cut in the tree, testing the integrity of the wood. Brand new sharp chain, cutting like a hot knife through butter.
But the cut didn't look to bad to me besides working to high, shoulder/head height if the lift could simply have been raised more. I see the potential for kickback if the zone contacted the limb that's there in MB's pic but that would just take some care and attention to ensure it didn't. As it obviously.......didn't.
Yes, Adobe Photoshop -- as mentioned: photo edited to remove the distracting background and enhance the contrast to show the saw bar & chain in relation to the limb being cut. I'm sure we'll gain further experience with lifts as we rent it from time to time and re-familiarize with buckets as we purchase ours -- and apply the advice offered here re: bucket positioning.
Yup, he's too low for that cut, boom back, jib up, turn around and cut level or just below waist heightand let that stuff drop clear, he had to muscle it over the boom and basket as well as hold the weight of the saw on the other side. Ok he got it done, but a few more seconds and it makes it a lot easier!
Also working one handed, (which is ok) better to have the saw so it can be held level or drop down clear. Having to hold it up high like that, while thinking about keeping it clear of your body with the chain still spinning after the cut, while also muscling that limb over the other way, it can add up to a 'situation'.
Agree on Fi's analysis, but I honestly fail to see the kick back danger unless he is unused to handling chainsaws, which he obviously ain't.
Now I'm going to carpet bomb you with pictures from our 7 week logging camp job, which we finished yesterday, after a 50 hour week.
Talk about being beat, logging big hardwood trees for 50 hours in a 5 days.
The last trees were some very old Ash and Beech, bordering the castle park.
Large enough that thirsday I drove home and picked up the MS880.
It was worth a 3 hour drive to have old " Crazy 88" on the job.
Butch, excuse me for this, but I'm going to break the pictures up in several posts, to be able to put in the
circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one is.
Spank me later.
Green shirt is Mathias, yellow is me. We teamed up on them. Bucking the first one took Mathias 4 hours and 1 and a half gallon of gas. He has really turned into a first class, super productive faller. I've done good on this one.
On the Ash in the first picture, I started the two back cuts from both sides of the tree, that was over 6 feet apart.
I had less than an ich difference between them.
All of the others complimented me on that.
Old, but not quite useless
We had one with a BAD side lean over what is probably the oldest sweet chestnut in the country and no room to set a line to offset the lean.
So we had to get smart, which ain't easy for loggers.
Since it also had front lean, I decided to apply the triple hinge method that I have been experimenting with since somebody posted an annoying video about it here.
It exceeded expectations.
That tree fell completely true to the face.
We were bragging it up at dinner, so the whole team ( 5) went out to look at it after we'd finished eating ( hell, evening entertainment is scarce in a logging camp, gotta make do with what you have)
They were all pretty impressed.
Mathias did the cutting, with me talking him through it.
I see the little bypass in the middle of the facecut, sloppy, but doesn't really matter anything when it is in the middle and the hinge has been gutted.
Still, sloppy ( Just thought I'd forestall Daniel)
We had the barberchair that ate Cincinatti come after us.
My fault.
I've always made a habit of gutting the hinge on ash, since they will barberchair if given a chance.
Since I was cutting this one PNW style with a long bar on the MS880, I didn't and this is what I got for it.
No danger. There was so much shit coming down from above from those trees that we had adopted a " get the hell out of Dodge" tecnique, also known as" Cut and run", so we were way gone when it blew up.
Still, it surprised me that it would barberchair on such a thin hinge, but that is European ash for you.
The last trees were some large Beech.
Too old to be for the logs to be worth much, but if left to die and fall by themselves, they would wreak havoc on all the new second growth.
So we took them out.
It has been an interesting week.
Like slaying the last of the dinosaurs. We rarely if ever get to log trees like that, At times when I walked into the site, I had a west coast feeling ( Not the Danish west coast, biggest tree there is about 15 feet high).
It was a fantastic forest to work in, hadn't seen a saw for 3 generation of owners.
A lot of the trees we felled were infested by fungus, Meripilus giganteus, Ganoderma aspidum, Polyporus squamosus and Fomes fomentarium ran rampant in the beech trees and Armillaria mellea had attacked the weakened Ash trees, so sometimes setting a hinge was pure guesswork.
We'll most likely never have a job like this again, a fact that we were well aware of while doing it, and talked about in the evenings.
Those 7 weeks have been some of the hardest I've ever worked, but also a great experience.
The new apprentice did really fine.
The 3rd week he was so exhausted that he fell asleep over dinner most evenings, but he has never complained and has done a great job and learned a lot.
So, even though they have a trial period of 3 months before being hired for good, we have told him, that if he wants to stay with a crazy outfit like ours, he is in.
He is the guy in red, setting and beating wedges for Mathias.
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