Safe Falling of rotting Ash

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Hah! I've done this - but mostly because I'm a major chickenshit. :D
I would NEVER, I repeat NEVER leave a tree standing like that! Even though most of the time nobody is supposed to be on the properties Im working, we all know how that goes. Id have a hard time living with myself if I left a hazard like that in the woods.
 
I have been unable to keep up with all the dead Ash ( I probably have 1000) on my farm yet I still cut firewood every year. Those familiar w/ ash know that the bole (base) begins to dry rot fairly quickly. I want to fell these trees and salvage what I can...but how to do it SAFELY? In the past I pretty much just went for it, wedged the best I could and if that failed, hand winched it over with a long cable. Is there a correct way or are there better alternatives?
When you guys are cutting those ash, you should consider the root bowl as a valuable commodity for making hurly bats?
Read this:
https://lockhart-garratt.co.uk/lucrative-market-ash-part-2/

Hurls are continually being broken during games and need replacing.
Worth looking into perhaps?
Here's what average hurls sell for:
https://www.maherhandmadehurls.com/product-category/all-hurls/
 
Think they would take my dead ash across the pond for the hurls ?
:cool:
Your in the US it take it. Probably would not work, shipping to Ireland, but there's a big Irish community in Boston. If they don't play hurly there I'd be very amazed.You mentioned 1000 ash trees. If they are prone to Ash Die back in the future perhaps getting their value before they become diseased is an option?
Hey I'm probably missing something important. It was just an idea. 🥴
 
Unfortunately all my Ash is dead. Ready to fall or be felled.
Many just collapse on their own.
Much of the wood is good and ends up in my fireplace.
But there is so much of it and the local Firewood places are flooded with Ash.
Used to be I could call someone to come pick up the trunks for free as they would profit from FW processing.
 
I felled one of the dead ash and it threw a 6 foot long vertical slab backwards as it barberchaired.
Once I had it cut enough to fall I heard the crack and made my exit. About 30 seconds later the tree went and fell exactly where I wanted it too, with the wood slab right where I would have been standing if i was not paying attention.
That was a 30"+ inch and I still have the slab sitting around.

These dead ash are so unpredictable that I paid someone with a cherry picker to come in and top some of them as they were close to other trees and buildings,
No problem with you getting out of there but the pressure that separates the wood is at the bottom of the cut and will party be removed as the cut advances. Stalling in the cut as you did caused it - as you say it took 30 seconds to blow-up.
Best not to get yourself in that position thought, for obvious reasons.
 
I felled one of the dead ash and it threw a 6 foot long vertical slab backwards as it barberchaired.
Once I had it cut enough to fall I heard the crack and made my exit. About 30 seconds later the tree went and fell exactly where I wanted it too, with the wood slab right where I would have been standing if i was not paying attention.
That was a 30"+ inch and I still have the slab sitting around.

These dead ash are so unpredictable that I paid someone with a cherry picker to come in and top some of them as they were close to other trees and buildings,
I quoted your post just to offer up a little bit of advice that MIGHT save someones life sometime. Your escape path ALMOST always needs to be at a 45 degree angle away from the base and the direction of fall for the exact reason you just described. Straight away leaves you susceptible to jump back of the trunk from the stump, barber chairs, and flying pieces coming from the trunk.
 
The tree fell straight down the line, the piece that shot off was directly opposite the fall.
I was 45 degrees and about 50 feet away when this happened.
In the woods so no danger of someone being in the way. But I kept and eye on it from far away as it went over.
Some parts of this tree while bucking were green, some dust. Those EAB really do a number on these trees.
I spent the day before cutting the brush around the tree, and made multiple escape paths, I try not to get squished :cool:
 
Yes, you have that right, know some pros that were in wheel chairs and casts.
Me, not a pro, and think about the tree for a while before I fell it. Time is not problem like the pros.
I did two tricky ones last year, and have a few that I won't touch and will let mother nature deal with.
But I have a few that I need to take down, all are dead and I consider all of this as unknowns and with respect.
If it is too much, I call in a pro friend and his cherry picker. A man's got to know his limitations!

This one that barberchaired and threw the plank, I knew it was coming and prepared for it. But trees don't know that !
 
Just my thoughts on a Coos bay... the purpose in my eyes is too reduce the amount of tension wood you have to cut to set the hinge. If you choose to make that cut, you are committed and you race to the hinge and get out, there is no steering involved, and if you cut slow you have just negated the advantage that cut has. One of the reasons I prefer a bore cut in most of those situations.
You are probably writing a little loose but I know what you are getting at. Probably better said - is to reduce the sapwood in the compression area that becomes the tension as the cut advances. Sapwood being the strongest fibres and the dead cells of the heart wood is the hardest wood which makes it more prone to snapping rather than splitting.

Barber-chairs mainly happen in the compression area. Less of a bond maybe but tree leans more (gets heavier)as fibres are cut as it is/was self-holding.

With the triangle/Diamond cut (Coos Bay) the holdings wood can still remain intact so in some of the most susceptible area, very little heart wood is cut.
If it's leaning really bad then you can also us a T-cut. Nipping off holding wood puts you in a pinch-point.
 
Your in the US it take it. Probably would not work, shipping to Ireland, but there's a big Irish community in Boston. If they don't play hurly there I'd be very amazed.You mentioned 1000 ash trees. If they are prone to Ash Die back in the future perhaps getting their value before they become diseased is an option?
Hey I'm probably missing something important. It was just an idea. 🥴
No disrespect James but you are definitely missing something important.
Our Ash are diseased. We have the emerald ash borer here in the US. It has killed Ash by the hundreds of millions. If you don't have the little bastrds there, consider yourself lucky. It can be treated but way too expensive if a person has hundreds on their property. Just saying. OT
 
I would NEVER, I repeat NEVER leave a tree standing like that! Even though most of the time nobody is supposed to be on the properties Im working, we all know how that goes. Id have a hard time living with myself if I left a hazard like that in the woods.
Anybody who cuts my fences and walks under any of my trees (which can be in an "about to fall" situation on their own), I'm not too worried about. I don't know anyone who goes through their woods and pretties up everything so some trespasser won't get hit by falling limbs.
 
For me, T-cuts are easier said than done. But I am not a pro by any means.

Ron
Big cedar back slabs are more like a T than a trigger as they go bar deep in the tree and usually disconnected from the hammer. More wood is cut on the far side so it can be reached from the safe side. Cutting is usually not bored but plunged off the dogs from each side.

Would need an aggressive chain to self-feed in on medium trees were you can't use the dogs. The other cuts are better options there.
 
No disrespect James but you are definitely missing something important.
Our Ash are diseased. We have the emerald ash borer here in the US. It has killed Ash by the hundreds of millions. If you don't have the little bastrds there, consider yourself lucky. It can be treated but way too expensive if a person has hundreds on their property. Just saying. OT
No feeling of disrespect taken OT. We have Ash dieback here as well as the Asian Ash Sawfly. It's believed that the Emerald Ash Beetle will not establish itself in Ireland and the British Isles because of our short cold Summers. Too cold for the little ***** to complete their life cycle.
I'm only becoming aware, now from this thread, of the extent of damage caused in N. America. I must read a tad to catch up.
 
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