Wedge Injury

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