Do loggers really cut "200 trees/day"?

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Wait, I thought bucking and limbing was the same thing. I prefer the word limbing since we are cutting limbs. No idea where the word bucking came from.
I always thought that limbing was bumping knots but I never worked for a commercial timber company and I'm old.
 
It's not my video but the individual who posted the video has been cutting for many years now, so I think he's got a good handle on what he's doing. I'm not aware of any of the current pro guys who can get 2-300 stems per day counting the snags or huckleberry. Have you ever worked up a large clear cut straight-falling job on a high lead show? If not, I can certainly put you in contact with some guys who are doing that work, and you can go see it for yourself.


It's situation dependent - a straight-falling gig involves very little manufacture in the brush, and that's where the stem count comes into play. On a cable-yard commercial thinning job where the timber is decent, and the logger needs at least one long run taken off, most guys here are averaging 65-80 stems/day. Older growth timber where most of the manufacture is done in the brush will drive the stem count much lower.

Really though, it's not about stem count so much as it's about "loads per day" when you're busheling. Nice timber on easy ground can net many more loads per day than a straight-falling gig on steep ground where a load comprises 70-95 sticks per. Cutting for a helicopter side can be an even more mixed bag because you have to consider how the loads will be bundled and in that case, it's all about weight. You can have to work within the allowable for whatever helicopter you have working the job.
I have not, at least not on a tower side, shovel logging yes many of them. but I do know the difference between mowing down pulp wood vs marketable timber, and I have been cutting for quite awhile now myself.
Pushing trees is dangerous, anybody thats been doing it for awhile should know that, pushing more then a couple exponentially more dangerous with every stem you cripple, ****ing off and dropping a couple sticks next to them, then maybe working your way back to them crippled trees is about the dumbest ****ing thing I've seen put to video since the fabled ladders and chainsaws video. This cutter is young, if he wants to get old, he should maybe think about gravity for awhile.
 
I always thought that limbing was bumping knots but I never worked for a commercial timber company and I'm old.
Nah, bumping is just another spec on your spec wood.
The expression is as American one.
I met guys in Alaska that were hired for just that job. It's more associated with export softwoods in the PNW but may very well be over used (misused )and said for cleaning up the branch breaks on yarded wood. Limbing in softwood is flush with top of the branch collar. "bumping knots" is fairing in the swollen branch collars and groath bumps where needed.

Now that's my understanding anyway. JJ would know. It's another stage in export timber that Fallers don't do in that region.
I do in the UK in hardwoods such as sweet chestnut for fence poles and posts. Can do it with the peeler going back and forth but is hard on blades and better with saw when limbing.
 
Writing at the same time. Is it not associated more with export?
its fairly standard for all mill wood (not necessarily needed for pulp) if its hand fell and limbed, then likely one side will still have stobs and lumps that were missed. So the logs get rolled so the stubs can be knocked off.

its more to do with our type of debarkers then anything, ring type that encircle the log, then the log is shoved through, big stobs and lumps will hang up on the mechanism and cause all sorts of trouble, so either the poor SOB that runs the debarker has to bump them, or its done after grading.
Because of this it can potentially get the log culled, one or two stobs isn't a big deal usually, but if one whole side of the log is covered in 4" long 4" dia stobs... they mill gets upset in a hurry. One of the buyers at one of my favorite mills, used to run their debarker, (its a pretty skookum show that builds folks up from pushing brooms to potentially being CEO, its employee owned and operated) anyway every step of production the guys working there worked at the position before and so on....anyanyway...the buyer is younger then me, and he's super open about what the mill needs and wants, just a few minutes talking to him will change your perspective on what makes a good log better, or worse.

For mechanized processing, its pretty much a non issue.

the other benefit of bumping knots is that the logs will sit better on the truck, meaning the driver won't have to stop 15 times on the way to the mill to tighten wrappers, and for stuff like cedar you can maybe even get 1-2 more logs on before you're over height
 
an example ring type


vs flail type


the old export yard here, would debark before shipping, or now days stuffing containers, I think they still do? but ownership of the yard has changed hands and a lot of the old machinery has been sold off... and I haven't been in there in several months... they are still exporting kinda... as Old DT45 pretty much sold them down the river with the china trade war, the Korean, Japan, and Canadian markets weren't nearly as robust as the china market combined.
 
Also, your probably watching Haxmen, in which case take everything you see on that show through a lens of made for tv drama.
Exactly. Those shows are geared for entertainment and fake drama. They call them reality shows but they are far from reality.
 
its fairly standard for all mill wood (not necessarily needed for pulp) if its hand fell and limbed, then likely one side will still have stobs and lumps that were missed. So the logs get rolled so the stubs can be knocked off.

its more to do with our type of debarkers then anything, ring type that encircle the log, then the log is shoved through, big stobs and lumps will hang up on the mechanism and cause all sorts of trouble, so either the poor SOB that runs the debarker has to bump them, or its done after grading.
Because of this it can potentially get the log culled, one or two stobs isn't a big deal usually, but if one whole side of the log is covered in 4" long 4" dia stobs... they mill gets upset in a hurry. One of the buyers at one of my favorite mills, used to run their debarker, (its a pretty skookum show that builds folks up from pushing brooms to potentially being CEO, its employee owned and operated) anyway every step of production the guys working there worked at the position before and so on....anyanyway...the buyer is younger then me, and he's super open about what the mill needs and wants, just a few minutes talking to him will change your perspective on what makes a good log better, or worse.

For mechanized processing, its pretty much a non issue.

the other benefit of bumping knots is that the logs will sit better on the truck, meaning the driver won't have to stop 15 times on the way to the mill to tighten wrappers, and for stuff like cedar you can maybe even get 1-2 more logs on before you're over height
Thanks for the explanation. So @calamari is right then, it's part of limping of the 4th side or at times what is left on all 4 sides on a 'down the hill, Bill' show.
I was a dry sort bucker for about a week in '89. The export got extra collar work. May well have been specs for that client though?

Good vids. I would like to research more.
 
In the logging shows here in central Calif. in the 1960s the entry level job was taking the chokers off and "bumping knots' at the landing as others have pointed out. If you do that for awhile and don't puke, faint or quit, you were considered a serious prospect. I don't recall machine barkers back then and for damn sure no harvesters. Everything was skidded with a cat around here and nobody escaped with their hearing intact.
 
Writing at the same time. Is it not associated more with export?
Nope. All the outfits I've been around have cut off the limbs and stobs that survive the trip to the landing. I always thought that was what the mill demanded. Exporting is illegal off federal land, except for odd exceptions about incense and Alaska yellow cedar and logs from Alaska...
 
I know a few older loggers that used to hand fall spruce on the commercial side of things.
200 trees would be a slow day. Not talking giant trees, but when it came to avg 12” trees they got a lot more than 200 trees cut down.
 
I just removed a widow maker that was resting on someones roof. Made $300/hour and felt like they got a deal. I used the bucket truck for the roof area and also used it to pull over the tree after I cut through ~ 75% of the base. A 15,000 lb dually in 4WD low is pretty good at yanking. This was mountainous terrain.

Widow maker on the roof is pretty interesting. Operation was a bit "exciting".

Every day with a chain saw sees dozens of "possible threats" Reasons that logging is always #1. Pressure to operate at high speed will assure that it keeps that position.
Like this one? ;)1641225995120.png
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Just a simple 90 degree snap about 10' off the ground. Bill was $750. Much of that was for the increased risk, trip, emergency day before Christmas, and bucket truck. They got lucky it didn't punch a hole in the roof. Holes in the roof are a chore.
 
I don't see anyone here claiming to hand fall 200 20" trees and buck them into logs in a day.

Ron
As it was pointed out to you..We would assume the statement of 200 trees was not to include any bucking.
20" Was A diameter that I thought was achievable within the right circumstances. I am sure I have at least matched those numbers with bigger trees but that was with an excavator raking the flat ground and pushing my trees when needed.
Three more excavators following..pulling stumps,raking branches & running logs.

In perspective I've limbed Cedar,Fir & Arbutus on a job that had smaller trees on rock for other property developments. The trees had to be limbed down to 6" tops and cut to 20' lengths for a container for firewood. Get a saw log when I could. 8 trees an hour it worked out. Some took 1.5 minutes and some cedar were 15 minutes to fell & process.
1 excavator pulling stumps and getting logs down and pilling brush.
He even drove rock truck for 2 days and was soon on my azz again.

Hemlock-Balsam production whilst Heli-Falling.
Top of saw log has to measure 17" at 27 ft (8.3 m) is the smallest. 17" at 37 (11.3) is the next size. You need about 28" tree to make a 27 ft × 17". Spruce need 20" top and Yellow cedar 15".
Not uncommon to find a acre block of Hem-bal in the middle of a cedar stand. All of it can be undersized and It's just a slaughter. All the junk down the hill with lots of top weight on them. It's fast going.

There are certainly jobs that make anyone look ordinary.
 
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