Brmorgan
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- Apr 22, 2008
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I needed to test out the 181SE I've been rebuilding, and there was a nice dead Douglas Fir behind my dad's place just begging to be cut down, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone today:
So, how'd I do? I'd say that I should have cut maybe another inch of holding wood on the near side, though it did do its job in pulling the tree to the left slightly. Only took 4-5 minutes at most. That's the first Humboldt cut I've done in a tree over 10" diameter - everyone I grew up cutting wood with never used them, so neither had I until I joined AS last year and did some reading. I've been practicing them on smaller trees here and there, but this was the first relatively large tree I felled this year. I didn't measure this one, but it pretty much maxed out the 28" bar on the 181. The tree was about 80-90' tall and had a ~15° sweep almost half way up. It fell about 5° to the right of where I wanted it. I was trying to drop it on top this snag that uprooted in a windstorm last fall:
The tree I cut is off the left side of the shot. It did hit the snag (top one in the photo), but fairly low to the ground so it didn't do the whole job. But it did break the top and a few big limbs out, which made it possible to pull it down with a come-along and cable. The snag is a ~18" Douglas Fir, poker straight and fairly knot-free for 40 feet or so. Might make a couple nice 6X6 beams out of it since I'm going to have the milling equipment there for the big Fir anyway. The tree that the snag is into is about the same size as the one I dropped. The force of the other tree leaning on it caused a crack that goes at least 8' up the trunk, which subsequently killed the tree over the winter. I'm a bit apprehensive about trying to cut this one because of the instability from the crack. I need to do a better assessment now that the snag is out of it.
So, how'd I do? I'd say that I should have cut maybe another inch of holding wood on the near side, though it did do its job in pulling the tree to the left slightly. Only took 4-5 minutes at most. That's the first Humboldt cut I've done in a tree over 10" diameter - everyone I grew up cutting wood with never used them, so neither had I until I joined AS last year and did some reading. I've been practicing them on smaller trees here and there, but this was the first relatively large tree I felled this year. I didn't measure this one, but it pretty much maxed out the 28" bar on the 181. The tree was about 80-90' tall and had a ~15° sweep almost half way up. It fell about 5° to the right of where I wanted it. I was trying to drop it on top this snag that uprooted in a windstorm last fall:
The tree I cut is off the left side of the shot. It did hit the snag (top one in the photo), but fairly low to the ground so it didn't do the whole job. But it did break the top and a few big limbs out, which made it possible to pull it down with a come-along and cable. The snag is a ~18" Douglas Fir, poker straight and fairly knot-free for 40 feet or so. Might make a couple nice 6X6 beams out of it since I'm going to have the milling equipment there for the big Fir anyway. The tree that the snag is into is about the same size as the one I dropped. The force of the other tree leaning on it caused a crack that goes at least 8' up the trunk, which subsequently killed the tree over the winter. I'm a bit apprehensive about trying to cut this one because of the instability from the crack. I need to do a better assessment now that the snag is out of it.
