Any advice about felling a "twisted" tree?

[PatrickIreland]

This is only about 16" diameter, but it's one of those trees that looks like three separate saplings grew together and became one tree. The base is all sort of interwoven like a spliced rope- but with no gaps.
It's only about 25ft tall, no danger of it falling on buildings or anything (except on me).
I think it would be perfectly safe to fell as normal, it has a lean in the right direction and a large bough on the opposite side about 6ft up I can remove first to give it a bit more weight towards the right direction!
I have plenty of ten tonne ratchet straps at my disposal, would it be a good idea to wrap a couple of them around it above and below the cut (4 in all)?
Still live but has shed it's leaves.
Any advice appreciated, this is in a friend's garden and has to come down - normally I just pick and choose the easy,straight, simple stuff for firewood!
No pics I'm afraid...

 

[056kid]

like this

 

[dave k]

How far from Dublin ? If you have any doubts give me a shout !

 

[PatrickIreland]

As normal, then? No danger of it splitting off one of the "spliced" bits and murdering me?

like this

 

[PatrickIreland]

How far from Dublin ? If you have any doubts give me a shout !

Bangor! Just a quick 100 mile drive...
It'll only take me a couple of hours to fell and buck all the trees he wants done, this is the only odd one. We came to an agreement about how we would divide the resulting firewood. But he doesn't know yet that it needs to be seasoned, and if he stacks wood round the house he will soon be divorced.
So I'm going to fell them, buck them, then tell him he needs to split his share and cover it with a tarp for a year - I bet I come home with every single bit of that wood.

 

[dave k]

No problem ! just don't tell me you want it knocked tomorrow !
If you like I will come on up ? pm me with info and when, I can only do sunday this week.
The fact you are sorting out the badge's is good enough reason to come up and help but the fact you have put yourself out to help cancer research put's my trip in prespective.

 

[SilverBox]

This is only about 16" diameter, but it's one of those trees that looks like three separate saplings grew together and became one tree. The base is all sort of interwoven like a spliced rope- but with no gaps.
It's only about 25ft tall, no danger of it falling on buildings or anything (except on me).
I think it would be perfectly safe to fell as normal, it has a lean in the right direction and a large bough on the opposite side about 6ft up I can remove first to give it a bit more weight towards the right direction!
I have plenty of ten tonne ratchet straps at my disposal, would it be a good idea to wrap a couple of them around it above and below the cut (4 in all)?
Still live but has shed it's leaves.
Any advice appreciated, this is in a friend's garden and has to come down - normally I just pick and choose the easy,straight, simple stuff for firewood!
No pics I'm afraid...

Just drop it with a regular hinge the way it wants to go. If its that inerwoven, its a premade glu lam!!

 

[SawTroll]

Just drop it with a regular hinge the way it wants to go. If its that inerwoven, its a premade glu lam!!

The way it sounds, beeing a smallish tree, I would cut it as normal - but be extra alert (have done this with willows some times).

What I recommand is a strap or chain around it above the cuts though, just in case........

What did I really say.......

 

[pioneerguy600]

Chain it tightly above where you are cutting it off , its a real easy thing to do and you are safe to go. I like to do things safely as I have done felling work for over 40 years and had no problems myself but have seen too many others hurt real bad bu taking shortcuts.
Pioneerguy600

 

[PatrickIreland]

No problem ! just don't tell me you want it knocked tomorrow !
If you like I will come on up ? pm me with info and when, I can only do sunday this week.
The fact you are sorting out the badge's is good enough reason to come up and help but the fact you have put yourself out to help cancer research put's my trip in prespective.

Dave - it's coming down tomorrow AM, along with a few others! A few feet up the trunk it all becomes one so if I think it's looking nasty I'll fell it above the twisty bit and then take the rest off afterwards. Should make for some fun splitting...

 

[PatrickIreland]

Chain it tightly above where you are cutting it off , its a real easy thing to do and you are safe to go. I like to do things safely as I have done felling work for over 40 years and had no problems myself but have seen too many others hurt real bad bu taking shortcuts.
Pioneerguy600

I have chain but nothing to tighten it with - I think the straps will do OK if needed, they held down a huge yacht while it was being crawled from the yard to the sea!

 

[SawTroll]

Dave - it's coming down tomorrow AM, along with a few others! A few feet up the trunk it all becomes one so if I think it's looking nasty I'll fell it above the twisty bit and then take the rest off afterwards. Should make for some fun splitting...

Sounds like a good plan!

 

[CaveSaw]

Cross section

This is only about 16" diameter, but it's one of those trees that looks like three separate saplings grew together and became one tree. The base is all sort of interwoven like a spliced rope-

Put up a picture of the cut once you do. Three trees grown together could be interesting in cross section.

 

[pioneerguy600]

I have chain but nothing to tighten it with - I think the straps will do OK if needed, they held down a huge yacht while it was being crawled from the yard to the sea!

If the straps have a ratchet type tightener then that would be more than adequate they just take longer to set up than a couple wraps of binder chain with a binder to connect and tighten the chain in short order.
Pioneerguy600

 

[PatrickIreland]

Yep, strapped it with two straps above and one below, just in case - cut it a few feet up, once it was "one tree". Fell fine.
No pics I'm afraid - I left my phone at home!
Interestingly, when bucking it, even about 15ft up where it appeared to be all the one tree, when bucked you could clearly see a black line where each tree had it's own "bark" - and it hardly took more than a sharp tap with a log grenade in the "bark" to separate into 3 "curly" pieces - easy splitting!
6 trees down today, one left to buck, and an enormous brush pile with nowhere to burn it - happily not my problem! And ALL the wood is mine...
The 041AV served very well indeed, using RSC chain - couldn't bog it down if I tried.
Funnily (funny because it wasn't my fault!), one tree came down onto the neighbour's garage roof. No real damage done, a cracked gutter and one roof tile.
It had a lean towards the garage, so I put a bit of tension on it using "come-along" lever ratchets attached to other trees before I cut anything. Did my notch, did my felling cut leaving a good thick hinge, then went to get my wedges - mate says "I'm just going to loosen this ratchet off a couple of notches" - and accidentally released it.
Tree fell, happily it was twiggy enough that it just came to a gentle rest on the roof.
It took a while to get it off without damaging it, though. Just like my girlfriend.

 

[Dan_IN_MN]

Funnily (funny because it wasn't my fault!), one tree came down onto the neighbour's garage roof. No real damage done, a cracked gutter and one roof tile.
It had a lean towards the garage, so I put a bit of tension on it using "come-along" lever ratchets attached to other trees before I cut anything. Did my notch, did my felling cut leaving a good thick hinge, then went to get my wedges - mate says "I'm just going to loosen this ratchet off a couple of notches" - and accidentally released it.
Tree fell, happily it was twiggy enough that it just came to a gentle rest on the roof.

It's tough to get good help these days!

Glad to hear that you got them down okay....without too much damage!

 

[pioneerguy600]

Sounds like it went fairly good for you and one blip where another tree brushed the garage roof,no great damage there and just think you got all the wood as you thought. It always pays to be a little careful and cut multiple butts co joined by strapping them together. I once cut a large beech that was 3 trees in one ,twisted together from the ground up 9' before branching out. The crown was over 60 ' wide and the cut off point was made up of 16" -18" pieces, the owner that wanted it cut thought that it could be cut as one tree without strapping it together and so did a couple of knowledgeable bystanders but I said if I was cutting it down it would be chained in 2 places with 3/8" link logging chain with binders. I bound the butt in 2 places and cut it down placing wedges as I went, it fell true and in one piece but jumped and twisted when it struck the ground but the chains held and all was good. There was over 3 cord of wood when cleaned up and a massive pile of branches so had a chipper come in and reduce them to a 3 ton truck box load of chips.
Pioneerguy600