Whizzy

[stig]

I tried it out today on a side leaning beech.
Worked great. Instead of the hinge breaking, it pulled about 4 feet of rootflare out of the ground.
That indicates a very strong hinge. It might actually work better than my vertical cut.
I'll do some more experimenting with it. Unlike Murphy, I don't expect something to work everytime, just because I got lucky once.

With 6 months of logging ahead theree'll be plenty of opportunity.

 

[Burnham]

Most excellent, Stig. Please keep us informed on the outcomes.

 

[TreeDimensional]

And take the camera and tripod to get some pics!




Please

 

[sotc]

Cool Stig! Just as I had imagined!

Possibly even tearing down the sap wood if it swung far enough

 

[SouthSoundTree]

Interesting.

 

[stig]

I wanted to take a picture, but the camera was in the truck and it is a very looooong hike in to the stand of trees.
I'll do better next time.

 

[sotc]

We were rounding up some volunteer knee whackers if you didn't!

 

[woodworkingboy]

When you think about it, it seems like what is being created with that technique is somewhat like a 'gap' on one side of the hinge, the gap giving the properties of hinge wood better folding before breaking, as opposed to a tight apex. Normally a gap isn't used on only part of the hinge, but all the way across. Unless I have it wrong again...

 

[sotc]

First post Jay

 

[TreeDimensional]

Referring back to Willie's diagram, the amount of the whizzy across the face will determine how much rotation/swing the trunk will do? What do you guys see as the maximum across the face would/could be? I am aware of the difference in the fibres of different species, even the different reaction of the samen species frozen vs not frozen.

I would like to see some video!

Please!!!

Willie, you gotta have a tree out in the boonies you could practice/video, don't ya???

 

[sotc]

Maybe one of these days!

 

[stig]

What do you guys see as the maximum across the face would/could be?

This is one of those points where I do things a little different from the rest of you here.

When I want to use a tapered hinge to swing a tree or counteract side lean, I'll always bore the middle of the hinge out.

Having the tree hinging over two separate "blocks" of wood , one small and one bigger, works better than a full width tapered hinge IMO.

That way, when i use the vertical cut or the whizzy to swing a tree, I only apply it to the "strong" side of the hinge.

 

[sotc]

So you went half way with the whizzy?

 

[stig]

Yes, made it in front of the "block" of hinge, I wanted to hold and counter the lean.
That would be about 1/3 of the width of the tree, since I bored the middle 3rd of the hinge out.

 

[Ax-Man]

I would like to see a pic of this myself.

I have a tree in our woods that is similar to the picture in the thread. It doesn't have to be turned quite as far but it does have to be felled (hopefully) in a direction other than the natural lean.

This tree is no small tree . A 36 to 40 inch Red Oak with a heavy head and a hard natural lean. This tree means business . I have been clearing around it when I have had time so we can at least get some trucks close to it to harvest the firewood. I had our 55 ft boom truck down in the woods today to try and top it. No go on that one. I only got the three lower limbs off because of the height and didn't want to risk clobbering the truck making big limb cuts that could go bad. The wood just didn't look good to me to make those big cuts. The risk to the truck just wasn't worth it because the truck was virtually right under the tree. The limbs I did mange to get off were pretty much dead. Now I don't have to worry about widow makers coming down on me when I attempt to fall the rest of the tree. At least now the thing is a little more manable but is still going to take some skill getting it down without hanging it up in other trees.

With our new computer I am going to try and make a video of falling this tree. A vid will be a first for me. It is going to be awhile before that happens as we have more clean-up to do in the proposed LZ mostly cutting down potential spring poles and have to fall a few smaller trees so we avoid a hang-up.

 

[squisher]

I've yet to meet a tree that isn't tameable with a line or two in it if there's room to fall it.

 

[woodworkingboy]

I'm wondering if the desired effects of the whizzy wouldn't be enhanced by trying to leave more wood on the tension side as you make the back cut to the point where the tree starts to go over? In other words, the back cut is somewhat angled in itself, acuter towards the compression side. Not cutting beyond what is necessary at the tension side would be a good thing, i.e. more holding wood there in the hinge width from the back as well.

 

[lumberjack]

Wizzy?

 

[sotc]

Yessir, I do like Stig's theory of gutting the hinge too

 

[lumberjack]

Yeah, his logic seemed sound. I'll do up a German model soon as well. Yes, that was on purpose.

 

[sotc]

Har!

 

[Ax-Man]

Interesting

 

[lumberjack]

Wizzy with a tapered and gutted hinge. The model is 10" in diameter, the notch is 3.3" deep, the hinge is 1" on the thin side and 3" on the thick side and gutted in the middle 1/3rd. The wizzy is 1.5" deep. Are the wizzy proportions correct or should it be deeper/shallower? Seems like a typical wizzy would be the width of the bar, as a minimum.

Still trying to figure out how the German Cut looks in my head so I can model it.

 

[sotc]

Looks real! I would think the dimensions would vary tree to tree

 

[lumberjack]

Yeah, makes sense. On a 10" tree a 4-5" (bar width) wizzy would be huge. On a 40" tree, it'd be small.