First barber chair

[Dcsco]

Pig nut hickory. 12” DBH. Straight up and felt confident in the felling direction. Made 80% face cut, during back cut the tree barber chaired up about 12’. Went where I aimed. Face cut was not huge, maybe 2-1/2” wide. Any advice for hickory? I got a few.

When I split the wood, it was hard to separate with lots of strings.

 

[TheJollyLogger]

Pics of the stump would help tell the story

 

[Dcsco]

Pics of the stump would help tell the story

I’ll know for the next thread, all ready ground out the stump. I was wondering if the hickory had different felling techniques. But it was probably my technique.

Thanks
Dave

 

[EchoRomeoCharlie]

I cut hickory like anything else...I do generally bore cut anything with decent head lean...especially hard woods.

How much head lean did it have? How much hinge did you leave? Or did it leave before you expected it to?

 

[Dcsco]

It was about 13” diameter at the face cut. The cut opened to approximately 2”( this is memory). When the tree started to move the hinge was about 1&1/2”. The barber chain section was 45% of the trunk. Maybe 50%.

Don’t know if the face cut opening was to narrow or the back cut wasn’t placed right. Will take careful observations next time.

Very little lean.

 

[Bobby Kirbos]

Dutchman?

 

[unclemoustache]

The lean was probably very heavy, and/or the inside of the tree had some rotting. It's good to bang on a tree stem with a sledge to listen for any hollow, especially on a heavy leaner.
If you hear hollow then get a big ratchet strap (trucker size) and wrap that around above the cut as many times as you can before you cut.
If you don't do the sledge thing, then you might also check for rot in your notch. Use a slightly larger notch for heavy leaners.

Also, you should probably do a bore cut for your back cut.

I think I covered most of the tips. Hopefully some older/wiser guy can add something, or perhaps correct any errors I may have said.

 

[Tigwelder83]

Guessing heavy leaner or pulling too hard, hickory is fairly forgiving too, much more so than ash