chuckwood
Addicted to ArboristSite
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2008
- Messages
- 8,681
- Reaction score
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- Location
- near the Great Smoky Mtns. Tennessee
I just cut a big, damaged hackberry tree that had an extreme lean to it. I've been practicing bore cutting on other leaners, but nothing as extreme as this one was, the top of the tree was actually horizontal. Half of it had split off on a crotch maybe 12 feet up. I left a thick hinge on it because I was concerned about the integrity of the wood in the hinge, that was probably a mistake, it really didn't need much of a hinge, just something there so the bar wouldn't get pinched during the bore cut. I left a very thick back strap because I was worried about how much tension was going to be there. I turned out that probably wasn't necessary either. What was essential is that I used a long pole saw for cutting the back strap, I wanted to get as far back from it as I could. The pics tell the story. The hinge never worked because a couple feet directly up from the hinge the wood was bad, and that's where it broke. It made an impressive bang when the backstrap broke. This thing would have hit me in the face had I been using an ordinary chain saw on the back cut. First pic shows the bore cut over halfway done.