Why do people cut like this??

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Not only was the backcut stupid but he suffers from having to small of a saw. he was cutting a perfect circle about 12 inches into the butt. good way to get the butt to kick up in you face.
 
I've cut quite a few like that. Nobody told me, it just seemed to make it harder to fall the wrong way. Got a little more education now, so I try not to do that, or at least flush cut it and hide the stump so no one else sees it.
I :D

Sometimes there may be circumstances that prevent the textbook cut. Yesterday I screwed up my face cut so bad by misaligning that I finally said screw it, bored in and made a box cut. (Learned that pretty little gem right here!) It wasn't pretty, but the tree dropped right where I wanted it. Being a southpaw wrestling a 385 with a 24 in bar while having to stand in coals and cut into the burning trunk just wasn't mentioned in any of the falling books I've seen...

Here's an interesting stump. Found this while taking a walk at a park. Anybody want to start a bet on how fast the faller ran when this happened?




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Lack of training. You should have seen some of the stumps I made when I was 12-13, using a saw for the first time. Luckily for me, they're long since rotted beyond recognition.

I take the evidence with me. If a stump looks bad, I cut it flat and chuck the embarrassment into the back of the truck.

Ian
 
It's easy, here's what happened

inexperienced person attacks tree with dull, undersized chainsaw.

1. Face cut is too narrow.
2. Cutter can't quite finish the back cut because he didn't bring enough saw to the job.
3. "We've got enough cut now; tie a rope to it, and pull it over with the pickup."
4. Narrow face closes, huge torque on trunk leaves stump as shown in pic.
 
I think like alot of the others that the guy had too small of a chain saw. For instance he was trying to fell a 20" tree with a 8" bar. No explation for the sloping backcut.

On the subject of pulling trees with cats. Dont you cut the back cut an inch or two below the notch to help make sure the cat doesnt pull the bottom out?

I've never pulled them over with a cat myself, I climb up 25' or more, tie a line in and pull on the line with something, 4x4 truck, farm tractor, I even used a telehandler to pull a 30" maple over by using this method.
 
If you were using a wedge to fell the tree, wouldn't a sloping back cut mean driving down rather sideways? Did the stumps have marks from a wedge?
 
I'm still trying to figure out why you would cut the sides of the hinge off.

sometimes trimming the sides of the hinge a tiny bit helps with fiber pull especially on pines, but im only talking less than an inch on medium sized trees like this, it cuts down on the pull and gives you a better log that will score higher at the mill, some will also bore through the center a bit to help, but on a tree where the back cut has already ruined much chance for a good log at the mill, probably no reason besides he didnt really know what he was doing.
 
Didn't know what he was doing, too short of a bar. Could/should have bored the face.

Wedging with a backcut like that pushes on your hinge and isn't as effective in lifting the weight of the tree into the face.
 
The sloping back cut is easy. I was taught to cut them at an angle like that to get them going in the right direction and keep 'em going that way. we used to cut dead trees like that all the time, and almost never had a face cut. Just get a read on the direction the trees want to fall and start a sloping cut on the backside. I can't tell you how many trees I cut that way, but I did it 10 years like that. The reason I got away with it was because the trees dead for a long time and would simply break instead of barber chair. When one locust finally did b.c on me, it scared the crap out of me and I started wondering what happened. Then I learned the right way to do it because of that.


BTW - the angled back cut really is no slower, other than cutting through more wood.

I expect the guy cut the corners because that is what he was taught to do. Leave the heartwood for the hinge.
 
The sloping back cut is easy. I was taught to cut them at an angle like that to get them going in the right direction and keep 'em going that way. we used to cut dead trees like that all the time, and almost never had a face cut. Just get a read on the direction the trees want to fall and start a sloping cut on the backside. I can't tell you how many trees I cut that way, but I did it 10 years like that. The reason I got away with it was because the trees dead for a long time and would simply break instead of barber chair. When one locust finally did b.c on me, it scared the crap out of me and I started wondering what happened. Then I learned the right way to do it because of that.


BTW - the angled back cut really is no slower, other than cutting through more wood.

I expect the guy cut the corners because that is what he was taught to do. Leave the heartwood for the hinge.




HAHAHA B freakin S!!
 
The sloping back cut is easy. I was taught to cut them at an angle like that to get them going in the right direction and keep 'em going that way. we used to cut dead trees like that all the time, and almost never had a face cut. Just get a read on the direction the trees want to fall and start a sloping cut on the backside. I can't tell you how many trees I cut that way, but I did it 10 years like that. The reason I got away with it was because the trees dead for a long time and would simply break instead of barber chair. When one locust finally did b.c on me, it scared the crap out of me and I started wondering what happened. Then I learned the right way to do it because of that.


BTW - the angled back cut really is no slower, other than cutting through more wood.

I expect the guy cut the corners because that is what he was taught to do. Leave the heartwood for the hinge.




HAHAHA B freakin S!!
 
Mike PA... you're not serious are you?

If that is how you were taught... it is completely wrong. It's only a matter of time before you get your teeth knocked out using that technique.

...and yes... it is much slower to cut an angled back cut... even with a razor sharp chain.

Gary
 
Yes, I was taught that way. Don't do it that way now, though. Once I had one barber chair, I knew there was a problem and learned why it happened. I learned a lot because of that one tree, which was about 10 years ago.
 
I read his post and it looks like it scared him, so he corrected his technique to the correct way of doing things...

J
 

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