?'s for you Humboldt masters.

[MuleyJ]

I have never really used this notch before but I started tinkering with it the other day and found out real fast that it is not near as easy to make the up-cut line up as some of you pros make it look. I always end up slightly over-cutting on the off side. What magic potion do you guys use to make it look this easy? (I'm using a Sling'r vid as an example.)

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[BC_Logger]

practice you will eventually get a feel for the angle needed the key thou is a level sight cut

their is also a pivot method using the dogs where you must have a level sight cut and then you pivot the saw using the inner dog to cut your notch

 

[GASoline71]

Lots and lots of practice...

Tilt the saw up more on the undercut... It always looks like it's too much... but usually closer to "nuts" if you tilt it more.

Also dog in for a good pivot point and let the saw do the work... don't force it. Having a good set of fallin' dogs helps a lot.

Gary

 

[bitzer]

Dog in and make your gun cut level. Repositon and dog in again to make the undercut. Let the saw do the work. Make sure your bar is perpendicular to the tree and on the angle you think will hit the other side. Try coming up short first and then if you have to re-cut, re-cut. Sometimes when you think you are coming up short you are right on. Better to be short than too far.

 

[mdavlee]

It does take a lot of practice. I've only used it a couple times. The first time I used it I had to or just match cut. The cut was neck high on one side and the hill was so steep I couldn't climb on it. I missed low the first time. It was only about a 2' oak tree. It did fall almost exactly where I wanted. The stump wasn't as pretty as some but it did the job.

 

[Anthony_Va.]

Just need to practice. I think everyone has thier own little ways of doing it. I always try to keep it good and level. Then when I make the up cut, all I have to know is that my bar is level, and then when I eyeball where the cuts will meet, it almost always hits on both sides just right.

I think everyone misses every now and then though, and thats where the practice helps.

 

[TheKnot]

that video tasted great with my ritz i can watch that all day thanks .

 

[mdavlee]

Treeslingr makes some real good videos. He's got one of a 7' tree and some cutting on fires.

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[MuleyJ]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I kinda thought that practice would be the answer. I don't know why but the conventional notch seems so much easier. I'll get it eventually. Must just take some getting used to doing it upside down.

 

[mdavlee]

Yeah it does take some getting used to. The old feller that showed me just match cut everything. The conventional is easier looking down on it instead of up.

 

[Zombiechopper]

the key for me is to picture a curved happy face and try to cut that. You can't cut a curve, but picturing it as a curve makes me cut it straight.

Yes, I'm weird and I don't expect that to make sense.

 

[The Lawn Shark]

I find it easier to make my up cut first....easer to match my staight lip w/ my upcut first, than my straight lip w/ my upcut second.

Same way I do it conventional.....down cut first.

 

[Zombiechopper]

I find it easier to make my up cut first....easer to match my staight lip w/ my upcut first, than my straight lip w/ my upcut second.

Same way I do it conventional.....down cut first.

you can't sight your falling line when you do that.

 

[Jacob J.]

When I'm breaking a new guy in, I have him put a small twig in the offside of his horizontal cut so he can see where he needs to line his sloping cut up to. That's an old D. Doug Dent trick. You look at the twig and draw a line with your eye through the wood to your bar.

Like Gary said, tilt the powerhead a bit more. That way, if you're going to be off, you'll be a little short. It's easier to take more out of the face cut later than it is to re-gun the whole thing and possibly have the tree not go where you want it.

 

[The Lawn Shark]

you can't sight your falling line when you do that.

My brother use to tell me the same thing. I don't know, I've always watched my grandfather as kid growing up do it the way I do it. I have no problems sighting my falling line (matching my notch).
Now I see my brother doing it the same way I do it....Asked him the other week why he switched, his response was its easier to line up your cuts.

A couple of my saws have sighting lines on three sides of the saw....though I don't use the lines. I just kind of line it up. I'm dead on 99% of the time. Every now and then I might be a little off.

 

[Gypo Logger]

The Humbolt is more for the benefit of the mill and the logging contractor than it is for the faller.
The Humbolt is rarely seen east of the rockies. You simply can't get a stump low enough with the Humbolt when cutting highgrade without rocking out.
I think the Humbolt was designed more as a production device than anything else, as the wedge is taken out of the stump as opposed to the butt log, thus eliminating one more flush cut out of the butt log.
Screw the limp wristed Humbolt! Lol
John

 

[RandyMac]

The Humbolt is more for the benefit of the mill and the logging contractor than it is for the faller.
The Humbolt is rarely seen east of the rockies. You simply can't get a stump low enough with the Humbolt when cutting highgrade without rocking out.
I think the Humbolt was designed more as a production device than anything else, as the wedge is taken out of the stump as opposed to the butt log, thus eliminating one more flush cut out of the butt log.
Screw the limp wristed Humbolt! Lol
John

One of the real reasons was to make sure the butt left the stump when falling uphill.

 

[The Lawn Shark]

The Humbolt is more for the benefit of the mill and the logging contractor than it is for the faller.
The Humbolt is rarely seen east of the rockies. You simply can't get a stump low enough with the Humbolt when cutting highgrade without rocking out.
I think the Humbolt was designed more as a production device than anything else, as the wedge is taken out of the stump as opposed to the butt log, thus eliminating one more flush cut out of the butt log.
Screw the limp wristed Humbolt! Lol
John

I use the humbolt anytime I'm felling down hill. traditional notch gives you more of a but end bounce than vs. the humbolt

 

[RandyMac]

I use the humbolt anytime I'm felling down hill. traditional notch gives you more of a but end bounce than vs. the humbolt

A conventional cut with a snipe will lay timber on the ground sooner on a downhill fall better than a Humboldt, less chance of it playing locomotive and ending up in a creek.

 

[Gypo Logger]

One of the real reasons was to make sure the butt left the stump when falling uphill.

You may have something there Randy, but falling uphill should be avoided if at all possible, even then, well planned escape routes are the fallers best defense against trees sliding downhill.
Gypo