Now This is a Felling Notch...

[Wood Doctor]

Any volunteers to help make the felling cut on this one? Of course, I suppose it could be argued that this is only the cut that removes the buttress roots. The final felling notch cut may still be awaiting this pair of loggers. WDYT?

Anybody ever take a Pic of an empty notch before you dropped her?

 

[urhstry]

Imagine telling your friends that you heated your home for four years with one tree.

 

[iowawoodcutter]

Imagine telling your friends that you heated your home for four years with one tree.

I could heat my house with the wood from the notch they took out for a year probably....

 

[smokechase II]

where from

Any idea where that one was taken?

 

[Wood Doctor]

Any idea where that one was taken?

My guess is that it's a California redwood being cut down some 60 to 70 years ago. I doubt any Douglas firs got that big, although one supposedly reached 380' tall in the 19th century.

Imagine counting all the annular rings!opcorn:

 

[mga]

lol...and they cut that by hand.

three swipes of that saw and i'd need a break.

 

[Wood Doctor]

I could heat my house with the wood from the notch they took out for a year probably....

I was trying to estimate the weight and volume of the notch alone. And, assuming they kept it one piece, they would have to drag it out with chains and/or cables and a strong tractor--maybe a team of mules back then. Yeah, that big green notch may have weighed 17.5 tons--7 to 8 cords? So, yes, heat the whole house gfor a year with that.

Redwood's not the best firewood and not very dense, but the tree was probably alive, so it weighed a bunch.

 

[mga]

almost a shame to see such a majestic tree being cut down, but, i wonder how much the ground shook when it it.

 

[iowawoodcutter]

I was trying to estimate the weight and volume of the notch alone. And, assuming they kept it one piece, they would have to drag it out with chains and/or cables and a strong tractor--maybe a team of mules back then. Yeah, that big green notch may have weighed 35 tons--18 to 20 cords? So, you must have a large house to heat.

Redwood's not the best firewood and not very dense, but the tree was probably alive, so it weighed a bunch.

No, really small house actually, 1250 upstairs and 1000 finished in the basement. I did use 6 cords from Nov 31st to March 31st though. I have the smallest house in the neighborhood by far. I just can't see why people need these monster houses. Of course, they probably look at my garage and say "Why the hell would anyone need all those tools, tractors and chainsaws???"

to each his own I guess...

 

[avalancher]

Seeing pictures like that always makes me think, How in the heck did they ever get that wood loaded on to the rail cars?

 

[stihl sawing]

Those were some tough hombres back then. I can't imagine sawing a tree up that big with a crosscut saw..

 

[danrclem]

Wow! That tree must be 14 or 15 ft. at the bottom of that notch. I'd be a little nervous is I were on one end of that crosscut on the felling cut. Not to mention wore out.

 

[KMB]

Those were some tough hombres back then. I can't imagine sawing a tree up that big with a crosscut saw..

Yep, those men were the real deal back in those days.

Kevin

 

[mga]

Wow! That tree must be 14 or 15 ft. at the bottom of that notch. I'd be a little nervous is I were on one end of that crosscut on the felling cut. Not to mention wore out.

lol. i wonder if one could tell if the other wasn't pulling as hard as he should......must have been alot of arguments!!

 

[cjcocn]

Those were some tough hombres back then. I can't imagine sawing a tree up that big with a crosscut saw..

Yep.

It's hard for us to imagine because we've seen all or most of the machinery and our minds would always be thinking that we "should" be using those instead.

Those folks back then only knew the crosscut (or were the first chainsaws out then?) and draft horses or mules. To them it was normal everyday work and I'm sure that they were happy to be using the "modern" crosscut instead of an ax to knock that big boy down.

No McD's around and handling a crosscut all day .... how easy do you think it would be for one of those fellas to crush anyone of our hands in a handshake?

 

[danrclem]

lol. i wonder if one could tell if the other wasn't pulling as hard as he should......must have been alot of arguments!!

It would take quite awhile just to get around that tree to fight.

I played with a crosscut a couple time when I was a kid and if I remember right when one person pulls the other person just holds it in position and doesn't push because it would bow the saw and stop it. The one I used was a toy compared to theirs though.

My dad and older brothers used the crosscut to cut trees down for firewood. They had a cutoff saw that was run by a belt hooked to a tractor.

 

[Madspeed]

:jawdrop: :jawdrop: :camera: :jawdrop: :jawdrop:

 

[Madspeed]

imagine the sound it made when it fell!

 

[Wood Doctor]

Wow! That tree must be 14 or 15 ft. at the bottom of that notch. I'd be a little nervous is I were on one end of that crosscut on the felling cut. Not to mention wore out.

I was figuring about 18' when I made my calculation of 18 tons to estimate the weight of the removed wedge. The wedge is actually one-fourth of a cylinder that would be about 11' tall, judging from where they started the cut. I also assumed that it extended to the center of the tree.

So, the total volume would be 0.25 x 3.142 x (9)^2 x 11 = 700 cubic feet

At 50 lb/cu ft green wood that's 35,000 lb or 17.5 tons. That corrects my earlier post and looks more reasonable. It would probably split up to about 8 cords of firewood and IowaWoodCutter's estimate is likely correct that the wedge alone would have heated his whole house for about a year.

 

[scotclayshooter]

A lot of work with an axe!