armyrangerwoodcutter
New Member
Just a wee bit of back ground before I get to the good part.
First off, I am not even close to being an expert nor am I a professional tree cutter. I just retired from the Army back in Nov after 29 years of service both enlisted and officer. Spent the entire career as an infantry soldier, to include five years in one of the Ranger battalions. I have done many dangerous things, to include 4 combat deployments, 82 parachute jumps, one actual combat jump in to Panama, and crap tons of live fire exercise, air assaults, fast rope missions... I never really considered cutting down trees as anything all that dangerous.
My intro to tree cutting was back in the early 90s when I got a scholarship and went to college. In the summers I worked construction up in North Georgia. My boss was going to hire someone with a bucket to come cut little dead branches out of the top of poplar tree. I got some parachute cord, free climbed like a monkey, and pulled up a hand bow saw and cut them down for free. Other builders in the sub division saw me and started hiring me to cut trees for them. My boss got a used echo saw, and let me use it. I never used ropes, did not have any harness, and by the grace of God, never got hurt. I guess that is the advantage of being young, strong, and stupid. Being I could climb like a monkey, I figured I was quite the expert. Even got into coon hunting, and hunters loved me because I could go up about any tree in a swamp and knock a coon out.
I got commissioned and headed up to Fort Bragg and purchased a house with a fire place. Ran to Walmart and got me a poulan saw (green one) and started cutting up blow downs (mostly scrub oak). I thought I was a regular Paul Bunion. Can not count how many times I hung up a saw, and had to hook up chains to my 3/4 ton truck to pull logs and get my bar free. I did not know you actually had to sharpen the chain, and wondered why the heck the saw would not cut, and just made fine dust. Burned it up, and got me the bigger yellow poulan saw. On weekends I found out I could make side money removing trees. I could still climb, and started using a chain powered come-along to pull leaning trees. Had no clue to what I was actually doing, but I never dropped a tree on a house or car, and thought myself to be pretty good. At a pawn shop I picked up a big Homelite with the metal case. By the time I made major, I got a teaching gig at West Point, and ended up in a house in Wallkill, NY with a massive wood burner in the basement. I went to Lowes and got me a Husky Rancher 55, and thought I had made it to the big time. I spent my weekends cutting trees, and still had never actually been instructed by someone that knew what they were doing. I did get pretty good at working my saw, and was proficient at making lots of firewood out of blow downs.
So now I am a 48 year old freshly retired Lieutenant Colonel with arthritis, a crap ton of surgeries, bad joints, and compressed back. It hurts to climb in and out of bed so I sure do not climb trees any more (but I think I still could get up one). I have applied at a number of jobs in the corporate world being I have a masters and am capable as a planner and problem solver. Nothing hit, so I decided to go back to doing some construction work with a crew that does grading, footings, and poured walls (I just can not sit around). They discovered that the old fat colonel likes to run a saw, and started tasking me to do much of the clearing and chipping. In recent years I have picked up a few pro model Stihls and a Dolmar.
Last week we went to a new site, where we would spend about five days clearing a large wooded lot. It was covered in a mixture of various oaks. we were chipping the small stuff, hauling off the big logs, and burning the dead stuff. We do not have a lot of rules, but the boss will not let anyone run a chipper alone, or fell trees alone. The boss was gone, and I was working with his 18 year old son. I had a fire going, and did not want to leave it and go to lunch, so I sent him on, and stayed on the site alone. I ran out of stuff to do, and noticed an oak that was big enough to just get your arms around, and it was leaning way over. with it leaning, I figured it would be easy to just drop on the ground, and then I could cut it all up and have it ready to load.
So now I will start counting off the stupid stuff I did. I did not have a hard hat on, and was wearing a skull cap. I was alone, I did not clear an escape path, and I did not have my cell phone with me. I notched the tree, and without doing a bore cut, just started cutting the back side. About six inches into it, I saw it split very quickly, and like a moron, I did not break and run. I am not sure how long after, but I woke up next to the trunk and was in pain. I had fresh blood running down my face, my left hand felt broke, and my right forearm was in pretty bad pain. I got up and walked away from the tree, and did not even realize my Dolmar was still on the ground running. I used the mirror on a dump truck to examine my head, and saw that about a three inch gash had peeled back my scalp. I pulled my hair out of the wound the best I could, and used my skull cap to apply pressure to get the bleeding to slow down. Once it did, I put my skull cap back on to keep pressure on it. I headed back over to the tree to find my glasses, and realized my Dolmar was still running,. I picked it up, and decided to go ahead and cut the remaining split part so the boss man would not realize what idiot I was. I shut off the saw, and kind of just stood there trying to after action review what had happened. When the trunk had split, and shot up in the air, it broke off, and hit me in the head and arms, separating me and the saw on opposite sides of the trunk. Had I been six inches closer to the stump, I am betting that tree would have crushed me like a grape. I was bruised up and bleeding, but was able to finish work that day, and finish up the week.
So a whole lot of blabbing to get to the lessons. If you do not know what you are doing on felling, then don't fell trees. I am betting that over the past 25 years I have just been plain lucky. Every tree you cut, treat it as if it can kill you. If you are prior military, apply the risk management process you learned, or take it as serious as a live fire exercise. Never cut trees down alone, always wear a hard hat, and have a cell phone and first aid kit. Use this site and youtube to learn about "barber chairs" and other such situations. Seek out experts and learn the smart way. I know when you are young, or just starting out, that dad gum saw just feels good in your hands. Problem solving, and physics work much better than just having a big ego and can-do spirit.
sorry to be so long winded. If you actually read to the end, be smart, be safe, and don't be like me.
The attached pic is the trunk that almost got me.
First off, I am not even close to being an expert nor am I a professional tree cutter. I just retired from the Army back in Nov after 29 years of service both enlisted and officer. Spent the entire career as an infantry soldier, to include five years in one of the Ranger battalions. I have done many dangerous things, to include 4 combat deployments, 82 parachute jumps, one actual combat jump in to Panama, and crap tons of live fire exercise, air assaults, fast rope missions... I never really considered cutting down trees as anything all that dangerous.
My intro to tree cutting was back in the early 90s when I got a scholarship and went to college. In the summers I worked construction up in North Georgia. My boss was going to hire someone with a bucket to come cut little dead branches out of the top of poplar tree. I got some parachute cord, free climbed like a monkey, and pulled up a hand bow saw and cut them down for free. Other builders in the sub division saw me and started hiring me to cut trees for them. My boss got a used echo saw, and let me use it. I never used ropes, did not have any harness, and by the grace of God, never got hurt. I guess that is the advantage of being young, strong, and stupid. Being I could climb like a monkey, I figured I was quite the expert. Even got into coon hunting, and hunters loved me because I could go up about any tree in a swamp and knock a coon out.
I got commissioned and headed up to Fort Bragg and purchased a house with a fire place. Ran to Walmart and got me a poulan saw (green one) and started cutting up blow downs (mostly scrub oak). I thought I was a regular Paul Bunion. Can not count how many times I hung up a saw, and had to hook up chains to my 3/4 ton truck to pull logs and get my bar free. I did not know you actually had to sharpen the chain, and wondered why the heck the saw would not cut, and just made fine dust. Burned it up, and got me the bigger yellow poulan saw. On weekends I found out I could make side money removing trees. I could still climb, and started using a chain powered come-along to pull leaning trees. Had no clue to what I was actually doing, but I never dropped a tree on a house or car, and thought myself to be pretty good. At a pawn shop I picked up a big Homelite with the metal case. By the time I made major, I got a teaching gig at West Point, and ended up in a house in Wallkill, NY with a massive wood burner in the basement. I went to Lowes and got me a Husky Rancher 55, and thought I had made it to the big time. I spent my weekends cutting trees, and still had never actually been instructed by someone that knew what they were doing. I did get pretty good at working my saw, and was proficient at making lots of firewood out of blow downs.
So now I am a 48 year old freshly retired Lieutenant Colonel with arthritis, a crap ton of surgeries, bad joints, and compressed back. It hurts to climb in and out of bed so I sure do not climb trees any more (but I think I still could get up one). I have applied at a number of jobs in the corporate world being I have a masters and am capable as a planner and problem solver. Nothing hit, so I decided to go back to doing some construction work with a crew that does grading, footings, and poured walls (I just can not sit around). They discovered that the old fat colonel likes to run a saw, and started tasking me to do much of the clearing and chipping. In recent years I have picked up a few pro model Stihls and a Dolmar.
Last week we went to a new site, where we would spend about five days clearing a large wooded lot. It was covered in a mixture of various oaks. we were chipping the small stuff, hauling off the big logs, and burning the dead stuff. We do not have a lot of rules, but the boss will not let anyone run a chipper alone, or fell trees alone. The boss was gone, and I was working with his 18 year old son. I had a fire going, and did not want to leave it and go to lunch, so I sent him on, and stayed on the site alone. I ran out of stuff to do, and noticed an oak that was big enough to just get your arms around, and it was leaning way over. with it leaning, I figured it would be easy to just drop on the ground, and then I could cut it all up and have it ready to load.
So now I will start counting off the stupid stuff I did. I did not have a hard hat on, and was wearing a skull cap. I was alone, I did not clear an escape path, and I did not have my cell phone with me. I notched the tree, and without doing a bore cut, just started cutting the back side. About six inches into it, I saw it split very quickly, and like a moron, I did not break and run. I am not sure how long after, but I woke up next to the trunk and was in pain. I had fresh blood running down my face, my left hand felt broke, and my right forearm was in pretty bad pain. I got up and walked away from the tree, and did not even realize my Dolmar was still on the ground running. I used the mirror on a dump truck to examine my head, and saw that about a three inch gash had peeled back my scalp. I pulled my hair out of the wound the best I could, and used my skull cap to apply pressure to get the bleeding to slow down. Once it did, I put my skull cap back on to keep pressure on it. I headed back over to the tree to find my glasses, and realized my Dolmar was still running,. I picked it up, and decided to go ahead and cut the remaining split part so the boss man would not realize what idiot I was. I shut off the saw, and kind of just stood there trying to after action review what had happened. When the trunk had split, and shot up in the air, it broke off, and hit me in the head and arms, separating me and the saw on opposite sides of the trunk. Had I been six inches closer to the stump, I am betting that tree would have crushed me like a grape. I was bruised up and bleeding, but was able to finish work that day, and finish up the week.
So a whole lot of blabbing to get to the lessons. If you do not know what you are doing on felling, then don't fell trees. I am betting that over the past 25 years I have just been plain lucky. Every tree you cut, treat it as if it can kill you. If you are prior military, apply the risk management process you learned, or take it as serious as a live fire exercise. Never cut trees down alone, always wear a hard hat, and have a cell phone and first aid kit. Use this site and youtube to learn about "barber chairs" and other such situations. Seek out experts and learn the smart way. I know when you are young, or just starting out, that dad gum saw just feels good in your hands. Problem solving, and physics work much better than just having a big ego and can-do spirit.
sorry to be so long winded. If you actually read to the end, be smart, be safe, and don't be like me.
The attached pic is the trunk that almost got me.
