Wedge pounders for big trees.

[Cold Logging]

I believe in letting trees fall the way God

intended them to fall.

When I can get away with it, at least.

On this job, one of the goals was to Not pull the guts out of them so doing a lot of swinging was out. I could have put that tree down the hill but Dan wanted it where I put it. I don't really beat wedges too often. But its important as a faller to know how to and when to wedge a heavy tree over. Course I've been known to say. Show me a lean and I'll show you a lay!!

 

[stig]

That is an old joke of mine. I've been teaching apprentices for 20+ years. In thinning dense hardwoods it can be a major challenge to get the trees down on the ground.
Especially if you are a rookie faller and decide to wedge one against the lean, so you don't get much speed on it as it starts to go.

So to teach them to look at lean before looking for a lay, I coined the phrase: " Talk to God" to teach the kids that if in anyway possible, they should fall trees the way God intended them to fall. So before starting out on a tree, ask God what way he intended it to go, by letting it grow lean in that direction.
Doing otherwise would be going against the will of God, and we all know the consequences of that.

Since you don't know me that well, I should probably mention that I'm an atheist.

But I've found that putting a catch phrase into the minds of students often works really well.

 

[Tucker943]

Those are some seriously true words. Everyone thinks falling big soft woods on the west coast takes a faller far superior to those fallers found working in hardwoods. I cant say who is who and what is what. I can say from my own experience that working in crowded hardwoods is a challenge. Inches matter. Speed is often important, and banging your harvest trees into trees that stay adds up to split logs, and butts that will chase you like a dog. I know of MANY dead and maimed fallers, and it wasn't because they sucked. Hardwood logging can be mayhem and hell in an instant. They may not grow 180 feet tall, but they are just as eager to kill you or split themselves.

 

[woodworkingboy]

There are crowded soft wood forests as well.

You could say, "Talk to the great spirit". You do believe in the great spirit, I mean the same one that brought you back in touch with your Swiss lady friend. It wouldn't seem so paradoxical like an atheist referring to God.. On the other hand, with no Indians there, maybe you don't have a great spirit?

 

[Tucker943]

I have seen softwood forests that were extremely crowded. No doubt about it. Its safe to agree that the crown of a hardwood tree adds a unique dynamic to falling process.

 

[woodworkingboy]

I'm particularly good at getting trees hung up. maybe working in a hardwood forest would teach me better. It sure doesn't take much to hold up a tree when it nestles against a conifer limb. I didn't think this one from yesterday would get stuck, looks like it would crash through, right??? The usual, "Oh gee". Pretty big at the base, around three feet. Quite the pain.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

I have seen softwood forests that were extremely crowded. No doubt about it. Its safe to agree that the crown of a hardwood tree adds a unique dynamic to falling process.

Agreed.... You have to really be able to assess weight, not just lean. More so than a conifer IMO.

 

[Tucker943]

Judging the lay of a hardwood tree in the woods challenges me sometimes. I think it always will. Especially when the trunk has a bit of sweep in it. Crown weight is one way, and trunk weight is another.....

 

[woodworkingboy]

Come to think if it, a guy got killed up in these parts dropping a large Oak. I think it was two winters ago. The story I got is that he was working in snow and the tree went the wrong way. Maybe if he had been a proper tree guy and not a carpenter filing in during his slack period, it wouldn't have gone bad. I go by his wife's parent's house everyday. Risky sh@t, sorry about the somber note.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Judging the lay of a hardwood tree in the woods challenges me sometimes. I think it always will. Especially when the trunk has a bit of sweep in it. Crown weight is one way, and trunk weight is another.....

Yup...
Have had those where the damn thing just stands there on a smidgeon of wood, you could of sworn on a bible it would fall thata way, and it just balances there, making you pull out a wedge and bang on it just for spite.

 

[Al Smith]

I wouldn't know anything about anything but hardwood trees because that's all we have .I doubt seriously if I've in my lifetime ever tripped as much as a dozen pines .Lawdy that resin/pitch gets all over everything .

 

[woodworkingboy]

It isn't so bad, Al, certain times of the year, like from now on to early spring in these parts. Just don't go touching the end grain, and add a bit more time to saw clean up. I know what you mean though, I don't much care for the sticky when it is pumping.

 

[SouthSoundTree]

Judging the lay of a hardwood tree in the woods challenges me sometimes. I think it always will. Especially when the trunk has a bit of sweep in it. Crown weight is one way, and trunk weight is another.....

TRUE

 

[SouthSoundTree]

Judging the lay of a hardwood tree in the woods challenges me sometimes. I think it always will. Especially when the trunk has a bit of sweep in it. Crown weight is one way, and trunk weight is another.....

TRUE

 

[woodworkingboy]

I think Sean has been cloned. Two of the same posts at another thread as well.

 

[Tucker943]

He stutters, that's all.

 

[Cold Logging]

Anytime your falling timber thru timber whether its big or small even the most experienced faller can and sometimes does get stuff hung up. But Stig definatly has it right. God wants people to fall timber. And the best way to do that is with the lean.
Not gonna get much done beating wedges all day. .

 

[Cold Logging]

This hemlock was blown into the one its resting on. It was hard to tell whether it would hang or foll out. . I faced it so it would start to fall away from the bole of the tree it was in. . Made a good run trail so I could get away from itand backed it up. . I didn't want.it.to go so far that it would slam into the spruce and possibly break and the top come back and get me. . It all worked out fine and according to plan.

 

[stig]

That picture reminds me of an old faller I worked next to once.
He managed to hang one of the two last trees in a clear cut strip up in the other and had to call in a skidder to pull it down.
He never lived that one down

 

[Cold Logging]

Several of the dead limbs got thrown back and smacked the stump and the area I was standing when I was cutting. Ya gotta Know when to cut and when to run. !!

 

[Cold Logging]

That picture reminds me of an old faller I worked next to once.
He managed to hang one of the two last trees in a clear cut strip up in the other and had to call in a skidder to pull it down.
He never lived that one down

That tree was blown into the other. Partly uprooted. . No mistake on my part

 

[stig]

Even if it wasn't, it is hard to get the dead ones to go down.
Not enough weight in the top.

Seeing that picture, I just had a flashback to that frustrated dude and his hung up Doug fir.

 

[Cold Logging]

Not that I haven't made a few thousand mistakes while falling timber. Just not with those trees.

 

[stig]

Show me a guy that has been logging for years and I'll show you a guy who has made mistakes. Part of the game.
We are just lucky none of our mistakes have been of the deadly variety.

On the ash logging job we just finished, my partner and I didn't have a single hang-up between us, but the apprentice had four he couldn't get down. So he had to come back and buck them after the forwarder had pulled them down for him.

Brought him down a few notches

That said, I let him log unsupervised for 2 weeks on that job. Yesterday I checked his logs and in the evening took the dog for a walk through the area he had worked.
I couldn't find a single thing to complain about.

 

[Cold Logging]

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