Wedge Injury

[sotc]

Untill you get a heavy one

 

[woodworkingboy]

Willard, if you have a problem with the cap breaking off on the 'Hardheads', try the Hardhead juniors'. They have a steel plug in the head instead of a cap. I like them, lighter to carry around, and they drive well. Bailey's doesn't sell them anymore, but you can order direct from the company in Oregon. I have the link somewhere.

 

[HolmenTree]

Thanks WWB I'll look into it.
I'm still looking for those orange Stihl tooth wedges too.

Willard.

 

[SouthSoundTree]

http://www.baileysonline.com/itemdetail.asp?item=DTW+A106&catID=

Barbed Wedges.

 

[woodworkingboy]

The company that makes the hardheads. They sell direct. You can see the junior type as well in the photo.

http://www.beaverstateplastics.com/tree_faller_wedges.html

 

[sotc]

I didn't know anything was made in Drain, OR!

 

[woodworkingboy]

You just thought it was a place that people pass through?

 

[sotc]

Yup, thats what I do!

I keep laughing at this thread cause I keep thinking wedgie accident and how Darin would explain it at the hospital

 

[woodworkingboy]

That might be a tough one to get across to laymen. Plastic wedges....why?

 

[Al Smith]

Well now there is a difference between and a wedge and a wedgie . The later was called an " undy grundy " back in the day .

 

[SouthSoundTree]

How's Mike faring?

 

[gf beranek]

Why is it most people get hit in the chops when a wedge goes bad? Why not the big toe instead? It must be a universal law I guess.

 

[Nutball]

Any more tips on how to keep wedges from backing out? I only have the problem when stacking them. I hit one in a half inch or less, and the other backs out twice as much and sometimes goes flying. If I hit both at the same time they may or may not go deeper, and I loose the extra leverage of hitting them individually. I had a hard time with the last tree I wedged over. I guess I need some thicker and longer wedges and with little teeth on them.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Dirt and saw dust rubbed in-between them or cross stack them. Always a second wedge or stack for back up.

 

[stikine]

Dirt and saw dust rubbed in-between them or cross stack them. Always a second wedge or stack for back up.

This. Also plastic shims are useful.

 

[SeanKroll]

Keep your heads cleaned of mushrooming (pound into a kerf and back chain, with no delicate things "downwind").

Less taper, less popping back out.

Many pairs of wedges.

Yes, saw chips and dirt between.

@sotc Willie had a criss cross style I'd never seen. IIRC, he said it was normal where he logged, back in the day.

 

[flushcut]

I like a farriers file for wedge grooming. One side has a course rasp and the other is an aggressive mill bastard type. They work great!

 

[Sven]

Been written about a bunch, Sean K posted pics a while back I think here or TB, but boring in under the back cut and putting extra wedges in there reduces the spit out. If I use that technique I always bore two slots (3 wedges total) as you loose some lift to kerf and better more than less. Some trees or frozen wood just don’t like double stacks period.

 

[Tim_B.]

Any more tips on how to keep wedges from backing out? I only have the problem when stacking them. I hit one in a half inch or less, and the other backs out twice as much and sometimes goes flying. If I hit both at the same time they may or may not go deeper, and I loose the extra leverage of hitting them individually. I had a hard time with the last tree I wedged over. I guess I need some thicker and longer wedges and with little teeth on them.

Thanks for reviving a great old thread. I don’t think I’ve ever read this one before.

 

[Jed]

Just cut wood shims.

 

[Burnham]

That plan is all well and good if you have the time, Jed. But when a tree wants to set back, and the wind is coming up, a smart sawyer would be ready with a quicker to deploy strategy, imo.

I even carried some wedge sized sheets of 60 grit sandpaper in my wedge pouch, for a while, when I was not inexperienced, but not as experienced as I grew to be. Thought I was a genius .

Gave that up after a few years...used them so infrequently that they melted under the day to day wet we PNW woodsfolk labour under.

Sawchips works pretty well, sandy dirty grit even better, if available. No go on anything like muddy dirt...slippery as snot on a doorknob, that. Counterproductive in the extreme.

 

[stig]

Plastic shims, folks.
Take care of that problem.
I've never in 40+ years of logging stacked wedges.

 

[Frankie]

They do make these wedges , matched pairs .

 

[Burnham]

True, but those can still spit out.

 

[stikine]

I detest the rifled wedges.