How would you drop this? What saw?

[Hedgerow]

I threw a couple of pieces in this evening. The wood has quite a few small branches growing all over they break off very easy if that helps

If it indeed, is Burr Oak, the upper limb wood may well burn decent, but will get higher in Moisture content as you carve down toward the trunk.. The limb wood should split rather easily, and it will be sort of tan in color when fresh and have a tight, straight grain.. It will be much better wood next year after being cut, split and stacked for a year. All bets are off on that trunk though.. It'll be wet, twisted, and lord knows what else though, being an old, multiple trunked, field tree...

Oh, and get someone to put that standing section out of it's misery for ya...

 

[Terry Syd]

"I think he was going back to that, trimming a little more off the hinge, bar was pretty well buried as soon as he started cutting. Still scary no matter when it happened. He looked nervous from the start of that segment, I thought."

It was apparent from the video that he was taken by surprise. When he cut that last section of holding wood, it was time to LEAVE. 18 seconds earlier, he just might have cut that last bit of holding wood when he was behind the tree with the bar buried. Hard to tell without looking at the stump what information he had to go on.

 

[Red97]

If it indeed, is Burr Oak, the upper limb wood may well burn decent, but will get higher in Moisture content as you carve down toward the trunk.. The limb wood should split rather easily, and it will be sort of tan in color when fresh and have a tight, straight grain.. It will be much better wood next year after being cut, split and stacked for a year. All bets are off on that trunk though.. It'll be wet, twisted, and lord knows what else though, being an old, multiple trunked, field tree...

Oh, and get someone to put that standing section out of it's misery for ya...

I done know how it is still standing either. Went and looked at it today from a safe distance and it seems to be laughing at the windstorm40 mph gusts. I have some of the 16-20" rounds that just wont split with the fiskars or 8 lb maul. Get half way through with a wedge and it shoots it out the side. Very gnarly stuff for sure.

 

[northmanlogging]

i just about jumped outta my chair here..........

what exactly happened? can't see the face.....

If you look close when the tree goes over its got no limbs, So I would guess that it was a snag, and being as the bark peeled off like that sort of reaffirms the idea, there was smaller tree that goes by on the way down, so could hazard a guess that he had tossed one into the old snag and was trying to clean up his mess when all Hel broke loose.

That or its just a ****ing snag and they will always try to kill you anyway.

 

[treeslayer2003]

huh.......closest thing here is pine, they will not chair when dead.......they don't even want to fall unless cut the hinge off..........come to think of it, don't think i ever saw a dead tree chair.........wood sure is different in other places.

 

[Gologit]

That or its just a ****ing snag and they will always try to kill you anyway.

Yup. If we got into a bunch of snags I always tried to bump the money up when I could. Falling snags for regular pay always seemed a little dumb.

 

[2dogs]

It seems like all I do is cut snags. Then again I'm a little dumb.

 

[northmanlogging]

haven't had the honors of dealing with any big fir snags, but the little ones can tear apart on ya, they don't rot in any real pattern, just sorta wherever... the pines seem to hold their shape a little longer, cedar from the inside out, alder just goes punky all the way through, like a week after dying, hemlock either center out or scattered like the Fir.

Big Leaf Maple snags are probably my least favorite to deal with... bunch of sketchy limbs even when alive they tend to shed spears on ya, they will have big hollow rotten spots on the sides, cracks, completely hollow just one whole side rotten and a tiny rind on one quarter holding up a 70' tree... and they have a habit of hanging on long enough to make you feel comfortable and BOOM grenade on ya

 

[Hedgerow]

I'll have to admit...
My biggest worry, is cutting the only good wood out of a face cut, and having the rest of the tree just explode under it's own weight...
No guessing....
No predicting..
Just bam!!!
But then I'm just paranoid I guess..

 

[treeslayer2003]

I'll have to admit...
My biggest worry, is cutting the only good wood out of a face cut, and having the rest of the tree just explode under it's own weight...
No guessing....
No predicting..
Just bam!!!
But then I'm just paranoid I guess..

iv thought about that to........why i go shallow on a shell...........and all ways ready to run

 

[Trx250r180]

I'll have to admit...
My biggest worry, is cutting the only good wood out of a face cut, and having the rest of the tree just explode under it's own weight...
No guessing....
No predicting..
Just bam!!!
But then I'm just paranoid I guess..

That may smash your fancy saw

 

[DarthTater]

Half a Stick of Dynamite and a Long Detonator Cord.

 

[RAS61]

Explosives, bulldozers, are we overthinking this thing? I'm no expert, but it seems like some heavy duty rope or cable tied to that pickup and problem solved. If it's rotten the truck will drag it down straight out, if it's not (as seems to be the case) a little tension will make sure it goes the right way while being nipped at. I recently dropped a tree about that size in a tight space, and a rope made sure it went exactly where I wanted - and I didn't even have a pickup or tractor to pull it with.

 

[RVALUE]

I'll have to admit...
My biggest worry, is cutting the only good wood out of a face cut, and having the rest of the tree just explode under it's own weight...
No guessing....
No predicting..
Just bam!!!
But then I'm just paranoid I guess..

GENERALLY, these warn you seconds before the fail...... Hence, knowing when to quit.

 

[CapitaineHaddoc]

I had cut a lot of trees like this one (but not in a field, in steep terrain with cliffs everywhere ), you just have to be careful and it's really esay to do it safely.

For this one, ("40 ?), i'll take a saw with a "20 bar or bigger, made a wide open classic notch, a bore cut on each side, from the notch to the rear, and then i'll cut the rear as fast as i can, and leave. The biggest tree i cut like this was a huge beech ("70) with a big broken fork like this one.

 

[treeslayer2003]

i think some of you are forgetting or didn't see the pic that shows its nothing but a big shell. not much holding it up and don't need a rope, its leaning and top weighted hard.

 

[lone wolf]

i think some of you are forgetting or didn't see the pic that shows its nothing but a big shell. not much holding it up and don't need a rope, its leaning and top weighted hard.

Imagine if you had to take it down over a house and you could not get machinery in!

 

[watsonr]

1.5 months later we're still talking about this tree.. If it were in my backyard, it's be down by now!




OK, six days but still

 

[lone wolf]

1.5 months later we're still talking about this tree.. If it were in my backyard, it's be down by now!




OK, six days but still

Yup but the Op is still in one piece. And if he was my neighbor it would also be down.

 

[Oliver1655]

First a lot of great information provided.

For burn ability, Hedgerow pretty well nailed it. Smaller upper limbs are probably dry enough to burn now with the wood becoming wetter as you work you way down the limbs/trunk.

Split everything 5" in diameter or larger so it will dry faster. Since you are needing wood for this year, keep you splits smaller to allow it to dry as fast as possible. Once you have enough for this year, then you can start having larger splits for future years needs.

With all the big wood you plan on working with, a hydraulic splitter would sure be an asset for you.

As far as the first tree in question:
- Clean up what is on the ground first then work on the standing portion.
- Shallow/open face cut
- Cut part of one side first, then part of the other taking care to listen for wood cracking & the cuts opening up. If you notice either happening, move way back & see what the tree is doing. I have had trees which were hinged, wedges in place & I would just move out of the way & wait for gravity & wind to do the rest. Sometimes it will take a few minutes to happen.
- Keep alternating side to side cutting part way until it starts to go making sure you are cutting from each side & NOT standing behind the trunk. The reason for cutting partway working one side then the other is there is no telling if there is anything in the middle which will help hold the tree up. So by not counting on it & relying on just the sides to have holding power, you will decrease the risk of it doing an unexpected twist catching you off guard.
- Remember when the limbs hit the ground, they will most likely act like springs & sent the butt of the trunk up & backwards maybe to the side so make sure you are far enough away to allow a lot of space for it to move.

On the trees on the ground with root balls:
- Agree the root ball in the photo will want to fall towards the trunk.
- Would start from the top & work towards the root ball.
- Try to position/push as large of chunk of wood as you can under the trunk about 4-6 feet from root ball. Then as you remove the top, it will help hold the trunk off the ground as you work you way down. Once the trunk is off the ground you can just cut from the top off the log downward. Until it is off the ground, cut down from the top, use wedged to keep the cut open. When you get close to the bottom you can either keep cutting downward or switch to an up cut. I prefer to finish with an up cut as it helps me keep the bar & chain out of the dirt.
- When you get down to where the block is used to prop the trunk up, cut 2/3 the way through the trunk for the next set of rounds until you are down to the base. This will leave enough wood to allow you to use a chain /cable to flip the root ball back on to the ground, but will make it much easier to cut them off once it is standing up.
- Remember to use your wedges once it is standing up to keep from pinching the bar. Since you have already cut most of the way before having stood the trunk up, position the wedges to right behind the bar so they will support the last 1/3 of the round you cutting. Then when the cut is completed, the round will drop on the opposite side & open the gap where you finish at.