I've been reading this thread all the way through, and I think I'll give some neutral, unbiased feedback here.
On the issue of whether Murph tends to patronize people and make himself try and appear better and smarter than everyone else...
This is probably true. All of the
good fallers on the logging crews I've worked on would be capable of the “extreme precision falling” shown in this thread and in his various videos. However, most people in the world who desire to fall trees are not professionals, and his videos are well made and informative for fallers just starting out or do-it-yourselfers.
On whether you should fall trees across paved driveways and walkways...
Ideally not if you can avoid it because you don't want to crack the asphalt. Personally, I am not a tree climber and I avoid tree work that should be left to an arborist. I am a logger and firewood cutter. If a homeowner told me he wants a tree falled across his paved walkway, and I could do so safely, I would. Since Murph
is a professional arborist, he should be held to a higher standard.
On the criticism of the uprooted tree video..
Towards the end of this thread, people (mainly lxt) are criticizing the video where Murph is falling a tree and it gets uprooted by a cable being pulled by a skid-steer
miscommunication_can_be_killer.mov - YouTube
Now, I watched this video closely, and the fact that the tree broke off at the roots is not Murph's fault. It is totally the machine operator's fault. The machine operator pulled early. The depth of the notch in the dead maple is irrelevant because that tree was going to break off as soon as the machine operator started pulling UNLESS the back-cut was finished. When I fall a tree I really, really need to control, I often use my Farmi skidding winch behind a tractor. I make my winch operator not only wait for my single, but actually make him wait until I have walked 20+ feet away from the tree.
On the issue of the 1/3 notch...
I haven't read any books or manuals in a long time, but I think we have pretty much established that 1/3 depth is considered the standard. We also all know that recommendations in books are always subject to change at the discretion of the operator. Good operators modify the filing angle on saw chains, the oil to gas ratio, raker depth, and the length, width, number, amount, weight, and gauge of just about everything under the sun to get better performance under given conditions. Why should the depth of the notch be the only thing in the wood cutting world which is set in stone?
It is fair to say that a notch should be 1/3 under normal, “textbook” conditions. Why? Because a significant part of the tree will have been undermined by the notch, and gravity will pull the tree naturally in that direction. The hinge will serve to guide the tree to fall straight.
What are some of the factors which would justify deviation from the standard 1/3 depth?
-Lean of the tree
-Heavy branches in a certain direction(s)
-Wind
-Brittle or rotten wood at the location of the notch, especially if the trunk has solid areas and rotten areas
-Conditions created by the tree faller which make gravitational pull less relevant (the main thing that does this is attaching a rope or cable to the tree.
What can go wrong if the notch is too deep or two shallow?
-The tree can split in half (ruining the log if the tree is for timber and creating danger for the operator)
-Spikes of wood can pull out of the tree and stay in the stump (running part of the log and creating messy, unprofessional looking stumps)
-The tree can fall the opposite way (crushing things it wasn't supposed to crush and endangering the operator).
-The tree can fall slightly differently than it was supposed to, but not quite the opposite way.
-The tree can pinch the saw, trapping it
Safety of the operator is always the #1 concern. However, after that some of these “dangers” matter more when logging and some matter more in residential tree work. If the tree falls the wrong way in the forest, we'll skid it out anyway (as opposed to crushing someone's house or car in a residential setting). If I get a messy stump on someone's lawn or damage the tree I am removing, it doesn't matter because the tree wasn't worth anything anyway. In a logging setting, falling trees
quickly and in a way that they can be skidded out is important. In a tree removal setting, speed is much less important than
avoiding risk of damage, and hours can be spent falling a tree that would take minutes in a forest.
Does this essay have anything to do with this friggin' thread?
YES!
In Murph's video, we have (1) heavy lean (2) weakness or rot at the base (3) a powerful cable to offset the pull of gravity.
What I'm pretty sure Murph was getting at when asking “Why does the notch always have to be 1/3?” is that he wanted the conversation to go like this:
Faller 1: Always make your notch 1/3
Faller 2: Why?
Faller 1: Because the manual says so?
Faller 2: Why would be manual say that?
Faller 1: Because gravity will pull the tree the direction of the notch. If you cut the notch 50% or greater, the tree might fall the opposite way or start falling the right way before you make the back-cut since the remaining wood is insufficient to hold the tree. If you cut the notch too shallow, the tree may not have enough gravitational pull in the preferred direction and either fall in a less precise direction or pinch your saw blade as you make the back-cut
Faller 2: What if the pull in the desired direction is already a certainty due to lean, branch weight, or cable pressure?
Faller 1: Go ahead and make a shallow notch then.
Since nobody would answer Murph's question directly, we didn't get to the conclusion that a shallow notch is alright in some cases.