Hello, this is my first time posting. Would appreciate some advice.
First, I'm an amateur but I'm not a rookie. I have a good saw (Stihl 271 20") and I keep it sharp and well maintained. I have quality protective gear (kevlar chaps, gloves, helmet, face shield), and I am conservative about not taking undue risks. I exercise the utmost precaution in terms of safety. In other words, I generally have a good sense of what I can do myself versus when I should call a professional. I don't have an ego or hero mentality about stuff that can kill me.
I have a very nice, straight, mature hickory that blew down (uprooted) last summer. The canopy fell into some adjacent smaller trees,so the hickory is slightly suspended. At about 15 feet up the trunk (from the bottom of the trunk) it is suspended about 4 feet off of the ground. From there up into the canopy, it gets higher off of the ground and this is the part of the tree I'm worried about. Parts of the canopy are as much as 25 feet or so in the air, and the weight of the hickory is leaning heavy against the smaller trees.
My plan is to cut the hickory about 15 feet up the trunk (15 feet from the bottom) and let the weight of the canopy fall wherever it wants to. If it knocks down any of the smaller trees, I'm fairly confident they would fall away from me, but I would obviously give a lot of consideration to my escape route -- just in case.
I'm trying to figure out the kind of cut that would make sense from a "physics" standpoint.
I'm attaching pictures. My questions are:
(1) Does my basic plan sound okay?
(2) What type of cut would you use based on how the weight is distributed? In other words, how would you cut it to avoid binding the bar and chain, but more importantly, to get the upper part of the tree (from the cut up to the canopy) to fall straight down rather than swing out suddenly to the side and knocking me on my butt. Or also to avoid the "barber chair" effect with the trunk splitting and knocking my head off from the chin.
You can see I've slid a couple of big oak rounds under the lower portion of the trunk (below where I plan to make the cut) which I did to keep it propped up nicely off the ground. Because of the weight of the root ball, I'm 99.9% sure the lower part of the trunk won't twist or slide sideways and crush my feet (or worse).
Any advice would be much appreciated.
The reasons I'd like to do it myself versus hiring a pro:
(1) I like the challenge of figuring out how to do it safely.
(2) It's fallen right over our new septic drain field (which probably had a hand in the tree uprooting) and I don't want someone back there tearing up the ground with a skid steer or heavy equipment.
(3) I'd prefer saving the money, although I'm willing to pay someone to avoid making a stupid amateur mistake and making my wife a young widow.
Thanks,
Mike
Knoxville TN
First, I'm an amateur but I'm not a rookie. I have a good saw (Stihl 271 20") and I keep it sharp and well maintained. I have quality protective gear (kevlar chaps, gloves, helmet, face shield), and I am conservative about not taking undue risks. I exercise the utmost precaution in terms of safety. In other words, I generally have a good sense of what I can do myself versus when I should call a professional. I don't have an ego or hero mentality about stuff that can kill me.
I have a very nice, straight, mature hickory that blew down (uprooted) last summer. The canopy fell into some adjacent smaller trees,so the hickory is slightly suspended. At about 15 feet up the trunk (from the bottom of the trunk) it is suspended about 4 feet off of the ground. From there up into the canopy, it gets higher off of the ground and this is the part of the tree I'm worried about. Parts of the canopy are as much as 25 feet or so in the air, and the weight of the hickory is leaning heavy against the smaller trees.
My plan is to cut the hickory about 15 feet up the trunk (15 feet from the bottom) and let the weight of the canopy fall wherever it wants to. If it knocks down any of the smaller trees, I'm fairly confident they would fall away from me, but I would obviously give a lot of consideration to my escape route -- just in case.
I'm trying to figure out the kind of cut that would make sense from a "physics" standpoint.
I'm attaching pictures. My questions are:
(1) Does my basic plan sound okay?
(2) What type of cut would you use based on how the weight is distributed? In other words, how would you cut it to avoid binding the bar and chain, but more importantly, to get the upper part of the tree (from the cut up to the canopy) to fall straight down rather than swing out suddenly to the side and knocking me on my butt. Or also to avoid the "barber chair" effect with the trunk splitting and knocking my head off from the chin.
You can see I've slid a couple of big oak rounds under the lower portion of the trunk (below where I plan to make the cut) which I did to keep it propped up nicely off the ground. Because of the weight of the root ball, I'm 99.9% sure the lower part of the trunk won't twist or slide sideways and crush my feet (or worse).
Any advice would be much appreciated.
The reasons I'd like to do it myself versus hiring a pro:
(1) I like the challenge of figuring out how to do it safely.
(2) It's fallen right over our new septic drain field (which probably had a hand in the tree uprooting) and I don't want someone back there tearing up the ground with a skid steer or heavy equipment.
(3) I'd prefer saving the money, although I'm willing to pay someone to avoid making a stupid amateur mistake and making my wife a young widow.
Thanks,
Mike
Knoxville TN