I recently spotted a big dead oak out in our woods. Probably killed by the drought. Most likely either Pin or Post oak. Earlier in the week I cleared out all top branches that had already fallen and bucked up the keepers. I cleared a large work and fall zone as well as escape paths. It's pretty brushy back there. So today I went out with a new RSC chain on my MS390. First time to use RSC. Wow! Loved it (but I digress and don't want to end up in the Gear Forum...)
I cut my notch to aim the tree near the edge of the work zone I had cleared. My aiming point was a couple of three inch saplings. I made my back cut to what I figured was about an inch from the notch. Nothing happened. Instead of cutting some more I pulled my wedges out and hammered them in. I could hear an occasion cracking but the tree did not want to move. I just about buried those wedges. The tree moved just a wee bit, groaned a little more, then nothing. I couldn't get the wedges out and the tree was going nowhere without the help of a really strong wind. I decided to get the saw and cut a little more on the face. Well, of course the bar and my new chain got pinched when the tree settled another half inch or so. But it had now moved enough that the wedges in the back cut were all freed. That bar and saw were going nowhere. Thinking I'd rather lose the bar and chain than the whole saw, I disconnected the power head of the saw and set it aside. Next I doubled up with two wedges on top of each other and started driving them home with a ten pound sledge.
At this point, I laid a big metal wedge in the face notch next to the stuck bar and chain. My thinking is that when the tree came down and the notch closed it would roll off that wedge and not crush the bar and chain. After a few mighty whacks with the sledge I heard some loud cracks. I stepped way back into my safe zone and watched the tree come crashing down. My scheme to avoid damage to the bar and chain worked. The wedge and bar/chain were still sitting on the stump with no damage to the bar or chain!
I still have a tendency to make my back cut NOT perfectly horizontal. Tends to angle just a wee bit. Need to work on that.
You can see by the following picture the hinge was pretty good but at about one o'clock in the the pic you can see that the hinge is thicker on that end which probably accounts for why the tree didn't want to fall. That thicker part of the hinge seems to be all that was holding it up. The hinge on the other end only got thinned out when I reapplied the saw before it got pinched. This shot is looking straight down on the stump.
The next shot show the butt end of the fallen tree with most of the hinge still in tact.
Below are two shots of the tree on the ground. It's right at 35 feet to the 'Y' and another 15 feet or so above the 'Y.' A great deal of the crown had already fallen and has been cut up and cleared away.
Remember those saplings I said were my target spot? I couldn't have been more precise (and lucky!) I figured I would just smash them. That 'Y' is nudging right up against the saplings which are inside the Y!
There's a lot of wood to be had in the remaining top that came down today.
Below is the product of today's work. The double stacked rounds in the back are two rows deep but you can't tell that from the photo.
There are 23 rounds, 20 inches long, most of them are 16 to 18 inches diameter. I didn't get into the tree top that fell today. This is all up to the 'Y' and one round, 20 inches long, above both sides of the 'Y."
The nice part is that this tree fell across one path in the woods and is about eight feet from the intersection of another path. I rolled the rounds up to the path. I can set up my splitter right on the path next to this stack of rounds. I'll split vertical and toss the splits back toward the other path where it is easily accessible with my lawn tractor and small trailer. This will be the first time I split 'on site.' Should be a lot easier this way. I'll leave the mess out there, plus I won't have to move those big, heavy rounds.
I might put my sons to work as splitter assistants when they are here next weekend.
By the way, I counted 105 rings on this tree. Most are no more than 3/16 to 1/4 inch wide. That is one slow growing, dense tree. It was back in thick woods with lots of competition which would probably account for the slow growth. The stump is about 20 inch diameter. Twenty inches wide in 105 years!
I cut my notch to aim the tree near the edge of the work zone I had cleared. My aiming point was a couple of three inch saplings. I made my back cut to what I figured was about an inch from the notch. Nothing happened. Instead of cutting some more I pulled my wedges out and hammered them in. I could hear an occasion cracking but the tree did not want to move. I just about buried those wedges. The tree moved just a wee bit, groaned a little more, then nothing. I couldn't get the wedges out and the tree was going nowhere without the help of a really strong wind. I decided to get the saw and cut a little more on the face. Well, of course the bar and my new chain got pinched when the tree settled another half inch or so. But it had now moved enough that the wedges in the back cut were all freed. That bar and saw were going nowhere. Thinking I'd rather lose the bar and chain than the whole saw, I disconnected the power head of the saw and set it aside. Next I doubled up with two wedges on top of each other and started driving them home with a ten pound sledge.
At this point, I laid a big metal wedge in the face notch next to the stuck bar and chain. My thinking is that when the tree came down and the notch closed it would roll off that wedge and not crush the bar and chain. After a few mighty whacks with the sledge I heard some loud cracks. I stepped way back into my safe zone and watched the tree come crashing down. My scheme to avoid damage to the bar and chain worked. The wedge and bar/chain were still sitting on the stump with no damage to the bar or chain!
I still have a tendency to make my back cut NOT perfectly horizontal. Tends to angle just a wee bit. Need to work on that.
You can see by the following picture the hinge was pretty good but at about one o'clock in the the pic you can see that the hinge is thicker on that end which probably accounts for why the tree didn't want to fall. That thicker part of the hinge seems to be all that was holding it up. The hinge on the other end only got thinned out when I reapplied the saw before it got pinched. This shot is looking straight down on the stump.
The next shot show the butt end of the fallen tree with most of the hinge still in tact.
Below are two shots of the tree on the ground. It's right at 35 feet to the 'Y' and another 15 feet or so above the 'Y.' A great deal of the crown had already fallen and has been cut up and cleared away.
Remember those saplings I said were my target spot? I couldn't have been more precise (and lucky!) I figured I would just smash them. That 'Y' is nudging right up against the saplings which are inside the Y!
There's a lot of wood to be had in the remaining top that came down today.
Below is the product of today's work. The double stacked rounds in the back are two rows deep but you can't tell that from the photo.
There are 23 rounds, 20 inches long, most of them are 16 to 18 inches diameter. I didn't get into the tree top that fell today. This is all up to the 'Y' and one round, 20 inches long, above both sides of the 'Y."
The nice part is that this tree fell across one path in the woods and is about eight feet from the intersection of another path. I rolled the rounds up to the path. I can set up my splitter right on the path next to this stack of rounds. I'll split vertical and toss the splits back toward the other path where it is easily accessible with my lawn tractor and small trailer. This will be the first time I split 'on site.' Should be a lot easier this way. I'll leave the mess out there, plus I won't have to move those big, heavy rounds.
I might put my sons to work as splitter assistants when they are here next weekend.
By the way, I counted 105 rings on this tree. Most are no more than 3/16 to 1/4 inch wide. That is one slow growing, dense tree. It was back in thick woods with lots of competition which would probably account for the slow growth. The stump is about 20 inch diameter. Twenty inches wide in 105 years!
