Anybody sharpen their wedges???

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i too use the "felling maul" lol. that what i call it. they work great for felling and splitting. sometimes depending on how manly i feel at the time i even split right after bucking.
 
Lol Trees that wont lift? Nope I have never had tree that would not lift. One that spit the wedges out and they would not go in no matter how hard you hit them. Setting your wedge sooner helps to prevent this sometimes.
A crooked hinge can make a tree very hard to get moving also.

A few years ago I was thinking about giving in to temptation on a 48 dbh ponderosa that i had spent way to much time on and cut the hinge finer than I believed would hold that nasty woolly thing up.I was about to dump a tree backward over my wedges and looked behind me where the tree really wanted to go, and the whole helicopter crew and other assorted spectators where standing there, if the too thin hinge popped about a dozen people would die.
And many of them should have known better and would always get offended when you tried to tell them anything.
 
felling-lever.jpg

felling-lever-big.jpg


I don't go to work without it .
Handier than a wedge in the right size timber but not so much when you have to tip large trees against a heavy lean .

thats totally cool. i figured surely somebody had patented the idea because it works so well. got any ideas on where a person could find one of these in the states?
 
thats totally cool. i figured surely somebody had patented the idea because it works so well. got any ideas on where a person could find one of these in the states?

Any Husky/Jred/Stihl and Oregon dealer should have them listed in their catalogs .
I'll try and get you some part # if you have no luck .
 
So that stick is for lifting trees over?

LOL. .

I think the felling lever is like GOL, that is designed for use in tree farms in Sweden where all the trees are of even age and none of then nearly as large as our timber trees. The farm has had 2 or 3 thinnings, none of the trees are limb locked or even leaning. The felling conditions are ideal. Just don't try lifting a 3 or 4 foot dbh wild tree with one.

None the less it is another tool for the toolbox. But like GOL don't expect it to work on our big stuff.
 
So that stick is for lifting trees over?

LOL. .
Yup !
I think the felling lever is like GOL, that is designed for use in tree farms in Sweden where all the trees are of even age and none of then nearly as large as our timber trees. The farm has had 2 or 3 thinnings, none of the trees are limb locked or even leaning. The felling conditions are ideal. Just don't try lifting a 3 or 4 foot dbh wild tree with one.

None the less it is another tool for the toolbox. But like GOL don't expect it to work on our big stuff.

I don't go to work without it .
Handier than a wedge in the right size timber but not so much when you have to tip large trees against a heavy lean .

No GOL here !
I don't think it'd be as useful a tool in BC or the PNW but in our mix of forest around here it is as handy as wedges for getting trees on the ground in the direction you want and can even be faster than hammering on wedges at times .
I've not had to sharpen it yet but have lost it twice to have it been found by an excavator operator .
 
I think the felling lever is like GOL, that is designed for use in tree farms in Sweden where all the trees are of even age and none of then nearly as large as our timber trees. The farm has had 2 or 3 thinnings, none of the trees are limb locked or even leaning. The felling conditions are ideal. Just don't try lifting a 3 or 4 foot dbh wild tree with one.

None the less it is another tool for the toolbox. But like GOL don't expect it to work on our big stuff.

lol i have used my axe on about 5 trees that were over 5dbh :potstir:. and yes they were wild trees. i had used a couple wedges on most of them and they were almost over so instead of wasting time and hammering in another wedge i just lifted them over. theirs no reason to condemn somebodys idea just cause u cut (wild trees) lol. although looking closely at the felling bar it doesent look like u get quite the leverage that i do. the maul has a 36 inch handle thats twisting a 2.5" head in the cut vs the other thingy you are basically just inserting it and lifting instead of twisting if that makes any sense lol. thanks for the part numbers ill hafto check them out and see if they fit my budget lol :msp_thumbup:
 
lol i have used my axe on about 5 trees that were over 5dbh :potstir:. and yes they were wild trees. i had used a couple wedges on most of them and they were almost over so instead of wasting time and hammering in another wedge i just lifted them over. theirs no reason to condemn somebodys idea just cause u cut (wild trees) lol. although looking closely at the felling bar it doesent look like u get quite the leverage that i do. the maul has a 36 inch handle thats twisting a 2.5" head in the cut vs the other thingy you are basically just inserting it and lifting instead of twisting if that makes any sense lol. thanks for the part numbers ill hafto check them out and see if they fit my budget lol :msp_thumbup:

I really can't type any slower or make the words louder so please go back and re-read my post. I did not condemn the felling lever I only gave my opinion on how it was developed. I don't care how you use a splitting maul and I did not comment on that. I will say that hanging around the stump as the tree is falling trying to tip it more is foolish. You could get yourself injured or killed that way. Especially with the 5' dbh trees you are cutting. Please, just set your wedges and get out of the danger zone.
 
ya, dress them up alittle, if there to short they don't work as good.

After you dress 'em up, do you take them out?

A guy at Baileys told me something that is obvious in retrospect, but I really had not thought of. He mentioned that most wedges are the same thickness, regardless of length, so the longer ones give you more gradual lift - are easier to tap in.

I had only really thought about wedge length with respect to the diameter of the tree, but duh!

So the shorter wedges (after dressing) might still be useful for other tasks, like keeping in your pocket and getting your guide bar unstuck when crosscutting, even if it is not so good for felling anymore.

Philbert
 
After you dress 'em up, do you take them out?

A guy at Baileys told me something that is obvious in retrospect, but I really had not thought of. He mentioned that most wedges are the same thickness, regardless of length, so the longer ones give you more gradual lift - are easier to tap in.

I had only really thought about wedge length with respect to the diameter of the tree, but duh!

So the shorter wedges (after dressing) might still be useful for other tasks, like keeping in your pocket and getting your guide bar unstuck when crosscutting, even if it is not so good for felling anymore.

Philbert

exactly right. it's nice to dress them up before i take them out.;) and more surface area for lift.
 
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After you dress 'em up, do you take them out?

A guy at Baileys told me something that is obvious in retrospect, but I really had not thought of. He mentioned that most wedges are the same thickness, regardless of length, so the longer ones give you more gradual lift - are easier to tap in.

I had only really thought about wedge length with respect to the diameter of the tree, but duh!

So the shorter wedges (after dressing) might still be useful for other tasks, like keeping in your pocket and getting your guide bar unstuck when crosscutting, even if it is not so good for felling anymore.

Philbert

The longer wedges give greater lifting force and generally are indeed sized to the tree. You can only put so much force into each blow of the axe so a longer wedge with a more gradual taper works kinda like a longer lever. I have some 16" wedges that are thicker but will really lift a large dbh tree. The double and triple taper wedges can offer more lifting force too.
 
I really can't type any slower or make the words louder so please go back and re-read my post. I did not condemn the felling lever I only gave my opinion on how it was developed. I don't care how you use a splitting maul and I did not comment on that. I will say that hanging around the stump as the tree is falling trying to tip it more is foolish. You could get yourself injured or killed that way. Especially with the 5' dbh trees you are cutting. Please, just set your wedges and get out of the danger zone.

:clap: That's good advice to the rookie...I'll add just a bit. Until you've dropped a few and have a better idea of how long you can hang at the stump it's best to just get out when it starts to talk. Chasing a hinge to steer a tree isn't always necessary. Learn to wedge. Soon.
 
lol i have used my axe on about 5 trees that were over 5dbh :potstir:. and yes they were wild trees. i had used a couple wedges on most of them and they were almost over so instead of wasting time and hammering in another wedge i just lifted them over. theirs no reason to condemn somebodys idea just cause u cut (wild trees) lol. although looking closely at the felling bar it doesent look like u get quite the leverage that i do. the maul has a 36 inch handle thats twisting a 2.5" head in the cut vs the other thingy you are basically just inserting it and lifting instead of twisting if that makes any sense lol. thanks for the part numbers ill hafto check them out and see if they fit my budget lol :msp_thumbup:

That maul trick will work until you snap the handle and believe me that will happen quicker than ####. Just like prying with a shovel. Its not what its meant for. That thing is probably a little heavy to drag around the woods all day too.
 

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