Tips for bucking and felling THE RIGHT WAY

[pops21]

What is the purpose for a boring cut? I'm 23 and have known how to use a chainsaw for YEARS. Actually my first time with one was when I was 8. But still don't know the do's and don'ts. My hardest problem is bucking a log on the ground and before I can pull the bar out it gets pinched. Anyway to prevent that. Excuse me for my question, I just want to learn how to buck and fall the right way. I don't want to be like that poor sap on youtube that every cut he makes the bar gets pinched. Is there possibly some videos on youtube showing the right way to buck and fall a tree. Oh and one more thing my dad alwayse said it better to ask then to find out the hard way. So please don't knock me for my questions. I'm open ears to ALL that have imput on there comments.opcorn: Oh and my the way I have a stihl 031av with a new oregon 18 inch bar and chisel 72lp chain and my dad has a husky 350.

 

[stihl sawing]

If you wiil tap a plastic wedge in the cut before you get near the end of the cut it will hold it open and not pinch your saw.

 

[turnkey4099]

In bucking, I prefer to start at the top limbing and cutting to length as I go. That way any tension in the tree comes out in small bits vice one big jump.

Bore cutting? Useful in felling leaners and other problem trees. Allows you to get the hinge right before the tree is in danger of falling.

Pinched bar? that is what that plastic wedge in your pocket is for, stick it in a give a couple taps when you are about 3/4 way through - or at least before it starts to pinch.

Harry K

 

[ericjeeper]

For me when bucking

I prefer to stick the tip in a few inches down in the side then push through and leave about ,,, lets say 5% holding wood.(Or whatever amount you determine will hold the gap)/. Make my cut all the way down and out.,But stop just short of seeing dirt fly. Then come back up and cut my holding wood either from an up cut or a quick down cut.
Yes a plastic wedge will work. But you have to stop and put it in then pick it up and move it on.

 

[pyromaniac guy]

when i buck logs in the woods, i usually put a cut of wood under the log, about 3 or 4 pieces of wood length away from the end. then, when i cut the 3 or 4 pieces, they just fall to the ground. no pinching, and not much bending w/ a 28" bar...

oh, and we cut in "teams", so i always have someone to place the logs for me...

 

[redprospector]

How you buck a log will depend entirely on how it is laying (where is the tension?). One of the first things I try to convey to new hands is to WATCH THE KERF. In other words watch the "gap" that your saw is creating. If the log dosen't have a tremendous amount of tension, it will tell you what you need to do, and when to do it.
If a log is supported at both ends, putting tension on the top of the log in the center, I will usually start my cut at the top (watching the kerf closely) and as soon as the kerf starts to close I will pull the saw back, cutting only with the tip and continue to cut down a few inches. Then I will bore through the log just under the top cut I made, leaving a hinge. You can then continue to saw down untill the bottom is cut free. Cut your hinge from underneath, and go to the next log. But don't forget your wedges, you may need them.:jawdrop:

Andy

 

[Brmorgan]

Hmm... I've never seen anyone wedge while bucking before, but that looks like a solid method. Only thing I don't like is the extra time to insert and remove the wedge every time. I tend to agree more with Pyromaniac Guy regarding the use of bedding pieces under the log to remove the tension at even intervals. If I'm really confident of where the tree will fall (more & more every time!) I'll sometimes put some down before I drop the tree. If this isn't possible, I'll generally cut the tree into manageable lengths, say at least under 10' long, and then buck to length. I'll make all the length cuts down as far through as possible, and then either upcut if there's clearance, or roll the log over by hand or with a peavey or pole and finish the cuts safely.

I don't like upcutting if the remainder is more than the bar width, as I've seen kickbacks resulting from the chain being pinched for just an instant by the falling piece.

As for falling, you can't have too many wedges. They will let you make cuts you never thought possible, and will save your a$$ at some point, guaranteed.

 

[Cedarkerf]

Douglas dents "Professional" timber falling book around 13 dollars has a lotta diagrams and explanations of tension and compression loading. Its available at baileys. Mite be easier than trying to visualize everything. Redprospector I tried to explain that method once but it was a lot more wordy than yours.

 

[Brushwacker]

Everything said so far sounds good to me. I usually keep at least 1 small wedge in my pocket and at times that seems to be the most reliable way to keep from getting pinched.
When I was a younger man working with a sawyer mostly skidding and sometimes helping him carry his equipment he handed me a new stihl to try out bucking and I was getting pinched. He took the saw and demoed for me what I should be doing. The pressure was on the bottom and the cut was started at the top and about a little over halfway down he started pulling and pushing the bar back and forth as it came into the pressure area so the bottom of the bar tip would bore through as the wood tightened and closed in above the bar taking tension off the bottom as you finished the pushing and pulling the bar to the bottom. Some times the pressure starts squeezing to fast and if your sensitive and alert you can pull it out of the cut before its pinched and then bore back into it and finnish the cut. Some situations the wedges work better.
If you are not aware of the kickback zone of the bar tip you need to learn that. Chainsaw owners manuals have good illustrations of that and cutting procedures .

 

[Erick]

Douglas dents "Professional" timber falling book around 13 dollars has a lotta diagrams and explanations of tension and compression loading. Its available at baileys. Mite be easier than trying to visualize everything. Redprospector I tried to explain that method once but it was a lot more wordy than yours.

Ahhh!!.. ya beat me to it.

Dent's book is a wonderful book to learn what you are doing........... not saying it's the "be all" "end all", but it's a fine place to start. (and finish if ya never go any farther)

 

[nilzlofgren]

cut a notch

Sometimes when I'm bucking, I start from the top down, like Red said. When the kerf starts to close, I pull my saw, and make a notch cut on either side of the kerf.

 

[slowp]

I probably started this? The log I had to push the tip into was sitting so that going down from the top all the way would pinch, actually stick big time, the bar. The proper way to avoid this was to start the cut on the top, cut some on the far side, cut some more from the top down until I saw the cut starting to close. Then I ran the tip slowly down to the bottom and had to push it in--Bore, because there was not enough space between the log and the ground to start cutting upwards and not cut dirt. So, I pushed the bar in or bored, and cut up. The kerf opened up as I cut upwards. Twinkle did kickback like I said so on the next similar cut, I did the wiggling of the tip like our instructor said and it worked. It was a green, medium sized Douglas -fir, so it was soft wood. I have used the boring method--cut a notch, then bore in and cut back on a severe, horizontal, leaner (not quite a blowdown) to prevent it from splitting or barber chairing.

I cut blowdown out of roads and pack and use quite a few wedges.
I have no control over how the trees blew down. They have all sorts of binds on them. It can be a job of figuring out how to untangle them, which to cut first, second and third and I just don't walk up and start cutting. I have to take a good look at them first. I'm not a faller. I can't run away fast enough if something should go wrong.

 

[B_Turner]

What I sometimes still find challenging is when large trees are down and are free spanning big distances. Seems to happen mostly when trees lay down more softly in a windstorm (rootball slows the tree down as opposed to felling).

I recall one a while back that was spanning around 50 ft supported on each end. The force was so extreme that when cutting from the top, the chain would start to bind within the first 4 inches of cutting. Not far in enough to use a wedge.

It was a really pain getting the first cut competely through because of those forces. I would have liked to have some hotshot there like my brother to give me pointers on such an extreme case.

You can't really tell from the pic, but the building is around 30 ft to my right and the rootballs are on the right side of the building. The tree is standing on branches about 25 ft to my left, and the forces down and inward were radical. In the second pic I am keeping a close eye on the tree as I could tell it wanted to come say hello (thus the chains). In fact once severed, the log took out all the slack in the chain toward me.

http://www.billluce.com/pumkinjpgs/pumkinjpgs/8010_2.jpg
http://www.billluce.com/pumkinjpgs/pumkinjpgs/8009_2.jpg

Normally I can either do what redprospector said, or if too much force on ends of tree I will cut down enough to be able to pop in a wedge and then either bore and cut a hinge or simply cut up from the bottom to where the logs lets go. Naturally when the log is high enough I place blocks under each end to keep the log from falling to the ground. Once the first cut is through, the rest is easy.

 

[slowp]

Here's my stuck saw of the day. I was taking pictures for this thread while cutting a blowdown. This was the biggest tree up there today, a mere 16 inches at dbh or so. We cut bigger stuff yesterday for certification.
Anyway, notice where the saw will get pinched. Looks like in the topside of the log.

Then look up the tree. Looks like there might be some movement when cut to the left. (might swing that way).

So, I stand on the right side and go to make the cut near the small rootwad. Doesn't look like a big enough one to stand up but I still like to start at that end. I cut the top a little, then the far side in, then the top till it starts to close. I've run the saw down the near side to the bottom. This helps us crooked people to line up the cut. I start cutting bottom up.

I put a wedge in the top BUT, as I cut up, the tree wanted to pop up a bit, so I foolishly removed the wedge thinking it was weird, and cut down, and the tree then acted like I originally figured it would and caught Twinkle. But I had cut through. I did not take the force of gravity into consideration. The tree is leaning on a little cutbank and slides down also helping to trap Twinkle. It doesn't take much work with a plastic wedge to unstick the saw though.

So, I repeat the above but keep the wedge in, and keep cutting from the bottom. The tree cuts through again, I get the saw out ok, but I have to pound the cookie out with the axe because there is too much downhill weight holding the tree together. Once I have a space made, all goes well. The bind changes eventually and the end can be hacked off from top down. Hope this explains things a little. I've been in a crash course on cutting blowdown since the first part of December. Always learning....

 

[vapnut257]

I always use a small wedge and place it in the kerf as soon as I can insert it in without a chance of the chain hitting it. A couple taps with the heal of my hand is all it needs to keep the kerf open. I have never had a pinched saw using this method. When I reach the bottom of the log I slow the chain down and watch for bark spitting out, pulling the tip out as I go to keep it out of the dirt. If the log is embedded in the soil and I can't cut through without hitting dirt, I simply cut as far as I can and go on to the next cut. Eventually you will cut yourself out of the dirt or you can roll the log and cut the rest. I don't see where using a wedge is more time consuming than making a bore cut and seems to be a safer procedure but when I am cutting, time nor speed is a factor.

 

[pioneerguy600]

Here's my stuck saw of the day. I was taking pictures for this thread while cutting a blowdown. This was the biggest tree up there today, a mere 16 inches at dbh or so. We cut bigger stuff yesterday for certification.
Anyway, notice where the saw will get pinched. Looks like in the topside of the log.

Then look up the tree. Looks like there might be some movement when cut to the left. (might swing that way).

So, I stand on the right side and go to make the cut near the small rootwad. Doesn't look like a big enough one to stand up but I still like to start at that end. I cut the top a little, then the far side in, then the top till it starts to close. I've run the saw down the near side to the bottom. This helps us crooked people to line up the cut. I start cutting bottom up.

I put a wedge in the top BUT, as I cut up, the tree wanted to pop up a bit, so I foolishly removed the wedge thinking it was weird, and cut down, and the tree then acted like I originally figured it would and caught Twinkle. But I had cut through. I did not take the force of gravity into consideration. The tree is leaning on a little cutbank and slides down also helping to trap Twinkle. It doesn't take much work with a plastic wedge to unstick the saw though.

So, I repeat the above but keep the wedge in, and keep cutting from the bottom. The tree cuts through again, I get the saw out ok, but I have to pound the cookie out with the axe because there is too much downhill weight holding the tree together. Once I have a space made, all goes well. The bind changes eventually and the end can be hacked off from top down. Hope this explains things a little. I've been in a crash course on cutting blowdown since the first part of December. Always learning....

Really nice picts and a good explaination of the forces involved when cutting blowdown. I myself have developed a method of cutting off blowdown trees from the rootball and have done thousands of cuts successfuly by cutting the tree off at a angle of 20-30 degrees instead of straight through. This allows the tree to fall and slide at the same time and does not bind the bar . The only trick is to figure out the tension , usually the top is hung up on another tree or resting higher than ground level. I start the cut from the top and angle it down toward the stump, the rootball usually wants to tip up some and the tree trunk wants to fall down plus slide back toward the stump a little and these forces open up the cut with no jamming.
If the tree trunk is supported somewhere between the stump and the tree top then that is another matter and you have to figure if the trunk will lift up like a teeter totter if the top drops . That would be the case with your posted pict tree if the trunk was resting on the shoulder of the road ,the rootball holding the stump in place and the tree top able to fall or roll left . In that case I would start my cut with a felling notch on the bottom side above the stump like if I were falling a standing tree, then start a cut from the top and angle the cut from closer to the stump towards the notch and cut down and through.The cut will open as you go and again no binding or pinching, watch the tree trunk and it will let you know what it is going to do and you will learn what steps are necessary to allow the cut to open for you instead of jamming and resulting in kickback. I then have to square off the butt end of the trunk but it takes less time to make a second cut than to jamb a saw and less dangerous than causing a kickback situation. These methods work well for me and if anyone tries this always be careful and go slow for the first couple dozen cuts to learn from the basic instructions as there are a lot of variables that will come into play and only years of experiences will add to the arsenal of what to do when you come across different falling problems. Pioneerguy600

 

[wdanforth]

Logging & Chainsaw Safety

A great site which has very useful information. Advice from the experts I found valuable.

http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/forestry/timber_harvest/logging_chain_safety.html

 

[SRT-Tech]

Sharpen yer chain eh......all i'm seeing is a lot of powdery dust :biggrinbounce2: :biggrinbounce2:

 

[pops21]

Well folks I went to ace hardware to get a fellers wedge, files and file guide and walked would with another pair of chaps (this time stihl chaps) and stihl helmet. Oh and 2 7/32 files and a file guide. I used the wedges to keep my bar from being pinched and it worked like a DREAM. I couldn't have been more happy. So far me and my dad cut up 3 locust trees worth about 3 to 4 cords, plus a bunch of pines. Thanks for the information from EVERYONE. opcorn:

 

[FATGUY]

Well folks I went to ace hardware to get a fellers wedge, files and file guide and walked would with another pair of chaps (this time stihl chaps) and stihl helmet. Oh and 2 7/32 files and a file guide. I used the wedges to keep my bar from being pinched and it worked like a DREAM. I couldn't have been more happy. So far me and my dad cut up 3 locust trees worth about 3 to 4 cords, plus a bunch of pines. Thanks for the information from EVERYONE. opcorn:

I love splitting locust. My favorite summer campfire wood.