Critique this stump.

[VW Splitter]

So a friend bought some property and he’s having it cleared to build a house. He invited me over to cut up some tops for firewood. I am not a professional but what in the world is going on with this stump? Is this some new tree falling cut that I don’t know about? It looks to me like it has that steep leaning back cut which is totally wrong. Also looks like a bore cut in the center. I’m not seeing any hinge wood anywhere.what is going on here?????

 

[trains]

 

[trains]

I see that sort of thing in quite a few places too.
On this property there were many like this.

 

[Brufab]

So a friend bought some property and he’s having it cleared to build a house. He invited me over to cut up some tops for firewood. I am not a professional but what in the world is going on with this stump? Is this some new tree falling cut that I don’t know about? It looks to me like it has that steep leaning back cut which is totally wrong. Also looks like a bore cut in the center. I’m not seeing any hinge wood anywhere.what is going

I usually see that sort of thing from guys who rarely cut wood. Maybe ask westboastfaller, he is a felling genius

 

[trains]

my take is that they tried a conventional face cut, but with a bit of a dutchman, then came in the back with a sloping back cut.
hmm tree not leaning, not falling, lets cut some more then.
then bore cut, taking out the hinge from both sides, and finally a bird landed in the top of the tree and it fell over due to the energy imparted from the hot landing of the bird into the canopy

 

[Brufab]

I'm no pro at the felling techniques just conventional, open face, and humboldt. I have used bore cuts on big aspen to check for center rot. I have made a couple stumps kinda resemble the stump in pic to try new things but they never went as intended and won't try again.

 

[TheJollyLogger]

I have seen that before... it's kind of an old urban (rural?) Myth that a sloping back cut like that will prevent a tree from going backwards... obviously not supported by physics or geometry. Aside from this false concept, you can see that the other disadvantage is how difficult it is to match your cuts, hence the bore cut and the tearout in the center. If the OP was wondering if this was some new technique he should learn, the answer would definitely be NO.

 

[old CB]

The sloping back cut, also known as the "farmer's cut." Unnecessarily cruel to farmers, as lots of them are fine, intelligent folk who know better.

 

[EchoRomeoCharlie]

Definitely one of the more creative stumps I've ever seen.

Looks like a nasty Dutchman on the conventional face cut. My guess is they did the bore cut next because they saw somebody do it on YouTube, cutting past the hinge because they were trying to 'set the hinge' close to the cut line, not the apex of the face cut( major rookie mistake). They have no bar awareness so they got lucky and kept a post of wood in the middle of the hinge. THEN did the slopping back cut to 'trip the trigger'. As long as the tree had some OK lean to it, they probably got away alright...obviously not ideal as the stump shows. If it had any side weight at all, this tree did not go towards the face cut.

 

[TheJollyLogger]

The final step of this cut is usually missing your mark by 30 degrees, and high fiving your buddy going "good job!"

 

[rwoods]

From my phone, I vote with Trains. Conventional face and sloping back cut. It didn’t fall, so a bore cut followed by pivoting a continued forward cut until it fell.

Ron

 

[Huntaholic]

my take is that they tried a conventional face cut, but with a bit of a dutchman, then came in the back with a sloping back cut.
hmm tree not leaning, not falling, lets cut some more then.
then bore cut, taking out the hinge from both sides, and finally a bird landed in the top of the tree and it fell over due to the energy imparted from the hot landing of the bird into the canopy

This makes as much sense as anything I can come up with! I see LOTS of stumps out west, NE, WY, MT, CO with that REDICULOUS 45 degree angle back cut. GEEZ people! At least watch somebody cut a tree one time that actually knows what they are doing! Ive cut timber all my life and there is NO REASON to EVER make a back cut like that.

 

[Brufab]

Wonder if the saw was stuck in the cut at the end while the tree fell. Seems all that wacky stiff going on he might ha e pinched the bar

 

[TheJollyLogger]

This makes as much sense as anything I can come up with! I see LOTS of stumps out west, NE, WY, MT, CO with that REDICULOUS 45 degree angle back cut. GEEZ people! At least watch somebody cut a tree one time that actually knows what they are doing! Ive cut timber all my life and there is NO REASON to EVER make a back cut like that.

A lie makes it halfway around the world while the truth is still putting its shoes on.... seems to apply to bad practices and habits, too... one of the reasons I feel like sites like this are so important, and why bad practices should be commented on...

 

[arathol]

From the looks of the wood itself, its possible that there is something (iron) in the stump that the saw would not cut, so whoever did this may have been trying to work around it to get the tree on the ground....

 

[VW Splitter]

A lie makes it halfway around the world while the truth is still putting its shoes on.... seems to apply to bad practices and habits, too... one of the reasons I feel like sites like this are so important, and why bad practices should be commented on...

I have learned a lot from this site over the years. Most all the trees in this wood lot had that crazy 45 degree back cut. None really big in my book but I bet there was 100 of them. This stump was the only one I saw that was like that. Maybe it didn't go well and he didn't do that again.

 

[dave ensign]

Everybody has a plan but when it is not going well and plan "B" goes into effect, well **** happens.

 

[Patrick1903]

The final step of this cut is usually missing your mark by 30 degrees, and high fiving your buddy going "good job!"

I thought the final step is after you realize you botched the cut, you cut the stump to hide the evidence.

 

[billonthehill]

That is the "firewood thief" stump. I see them all l the time on public land.

 

[old CB]

I thought the final step is after you realize you botched the cut, you cut the stump to hide the evidence.

A forester I know told me about a time back when he was on a cutting crew. Some tree he'd dropped with bad form (it happens) left an ugly stump. His buddy walked by and said: "I'd cut that thing off and get rid of it before the boss sees it."