Low limb / felling

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Brian VT

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I plan to cut this limb off before felling. It's about 12" diam. and is at about chest height, right about were I want to make my felling cuts. This is a standing dead ash about 20" diam. that doesn't appear to have any decay.
I was planning to drop the tree straight away from the "picture" but it would be okay in almost any direction. I got to wondering if the limb cut might affect the felling at all. Should I stick to my orig. plan or might there be an advantage to making my face cut where the limb was ?
(Disregard the curve of the trunk on the right. It was a mouse wiggle. The trunk is straight)
 
even after removing the limb the grain could have an effect on how that tree falls, In that situation I would make top of my notch just below the base of the limb. If you notch in the area where that limb was it could cause the tree to do something unpredictable.

Umm not to argue but that looks more like an Oak to me.
 
Umm not to argue but that looks more like an Oak to me.

Now, that gave me a chuckle!

Brian, keep your mind open to options as you cut the limb off. If there is, in fact, no decay, you should be ok to fell it in the original direction intended. We agree with Stihl-o-Matic in making your notch just below where the limb is. The wood right at the limb is going to be more convoluted to cut into making it harder. Why bother making the job tougher.

Sylvia
 
Thanks. I was wanting to make the felling cuts at that height so I could stand upright and watch for stuff dropping while felling but I hadn't thought about the funky wood grain created by the limb. I have plenty of room to cut below where the limb was so I'll go that route.
 
Cutting at the limb may work just fine you never really know. Think about when your splitting a log with a big limb stubbed off it. On certain woods its a real pain in the arse to spit. You can get the same unpredictability trying to engineer a felling cut in that stuff. One of the biggest keys to safety is limiting as much of the unknown or danger that you can.
 

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