Today's Job...

[MCW]

Very interesting Matt as always :msp_thumbup: I'm hoping to do one of those courses someday also - always up for learning news way of doing things especially if it involves chainsaws

How did you find the 441 compared to your 7900?

Yeah the courses are very interesting Rudy and good for that little bit of extra knowledge. The basic course is generally quite lame on many techniques however due to the combined experience of all 4 trainees we delved a fair way into some of the intermediate course's techniques.

Power wise I thought the 441 was a bit of a slug and pretty bulky for a 70cc saw. Using both, even without my experience and fondness of the 7900, I'd take the 7900 anyday. Unless you're a Stihl fan, then of course you'd take the 441 and call the 7900 a piece of crap I found it an uninspiring saw considering one of the other trainees had a stock 044 that was whooping it's butt. In the hand I'd take the 362 anyday over the 441 despite my lack of fondness for the 60cc class.

The instructors however are very fond of the 441 and mentioned that they have seen them routinely outcut the 460's just by torque alone. They said that many loggers prefer them over the 460's due to a wider, more useable torque band. I'd still take a 440 or 460 anyday

Good stuff, Matt, thank you for sharing.


Please, when time permits, more if you have any.

No worries

Good deal Matt. I've wanted to take a class like for a few years now, I have a lot to learn when it comes to felling.

Not surprised the 362 was unimpressive, without retuning them they're way too lean out of the box, much like your 261.

Yeah Andy the lack of performance does seem to be a common thing with the stratos until they are retuned.

 

[wyk]

Yeah Andy the lack of performance does seem to be a common thing with the stratos until they are ported.

Fixed.

 

[MCW]

Fixed.

Bahahahaha...

 

[tdi-rick]

bet you ride your mountain bike downhill too

As fast as I'm game but I'm no Downhiller

 

[NORMZILLA44]

I have a older 044, and a newer 372. The 441 has not impresse'd me that much my 044 has more torque, and snap and way more nimble, and balance'd. I agree the 441 may vibrate slightly less, but my 044 never vibrate'd much anyway LOL! If they didn't come back out with the 440, and I was shopping for a 70cc saw new. It would be the 372 hand's down over the 441. The 460 is very popular here most guy's in my area pick that over all in the 70plus class. I would love to try a 7900 alway's heard the dolmar's were great runner's. I wonder why they never really took off around here. For year's it was almost dominate'd by Stihl, but husky was around too. Now I think pretty even sale's wise. All the course's sound great, and sound's like you are enjoying youre'self Matt! Good deal

 

[MCW]

Back again guys. Spent about another 13 hours on both Saturday and Sunday out felling again. Saturday morning was a shocker and I simply couldn't line up my cuts no matter how hard I tried. For some reason about midday I managed to get my act together. Funny thing was that my backcuts were parallel but my face cuts were off angle. I must have had my tongue on the wrong side or something.
I'll show a few piccys of some of my "new" cuts after the course and I made it my plan to not use any bar over 20" on the weekend to hone my skills. I can tell you this now, I'm not as good as I thought I was! When you're running bars at only half the tree width (or less) I found I actually had to really think about alignment - you'll see in some of the following photos that although angles are "OK", they are far from perfect.

The following cut can be used for trees where the diameter is over twice bar length. Quite simply you cut the face, then bore in from the front at backcut height. You then do your backcut as per normal. Very handy in some circumstances although I'd be more inclined to just pull out a larger bar - that defeats the purpose though!

The next cut is one I have found extremely handy and useful. Basically cut your face (not literally) then do half the backcut. Hammer a wedge in this half then cut the other half of your backcut "just" above the wedge. Then hammer another wedge in this cut. This then gives you the ability to get double the wedge lift without double stacking. These types of cuts are the ones where you need to have a nicely setup chain. I have been getting too aggressive with my everyday work chains and found that these boring type cuts get a bit too kicky and nasty (READ: DANGEROUS!) with my current chain setup. I spent about 4 hours Sunday evening grinding back a lot of my chain's cutters to match their raker height. My days of running super aggressive chains while felling are over.

The thin piece of wood left between the wedges is sheared off easily.

Also it pays to keep an even loading on the saw. As I've spun the saw around here doing the backcut you can see how I've gotten lower as the cut has progressed.

 

[Stihlman441]

Nice one Matt
I like that double wedge trick,is the bottom one the last cut ?.

If your not going to use those super aggressive chains anymore you may as well go back to stock saws.:msp_biggrin:

 

[MCW]

I also gave the little 353 a good run on Saturday with an 18" bar and .325"semi chisel. I am really liking the .325" in clean wood, particularly for limbing etc. I even used the little saw for felling some pretty large trees. Slowly does it but it certainly does it easy. This is a great little saw and hasn't missed a beat - not once. A wise man once told me "don't sell that saw, I love mine". I can't remember who he was but he has a beard (Hi Andy!). I'm glad I listened to whoever this wise man was as this saw is awesome and could honestly be the death of my 261. In fact I am seriously contemplating a 346XP as my 261's replacement in the future.

I even tried my hand at some tree jacking with a 20 tonne squat bottle jack I bought for $99. I jacked some pretty large heavy leaners over against their lean. Wedging would have been tiresome and very difficult with trees of this size and weight distribution. The jack did it easy. I ended up using it 4 times on the weekend. I boxed this tree out and felled it with the 353

I also jacked this heavy bifurcated tree over and it dead centred the neighbouring stump and split clean down the middle. A family of rats fell out!

I think they were in shock as there was two adults and 4 younger ones. It took them a while to get their bearings and run off...

 

[MCW]

Nice one Matt
I like that double wedge trick,is the bottom one the last cut ?.

If your not going to use those super aggressive chains anymore you may as well go back to stock saws.:msp_biggrin:

Well actually mate that's a funny one. The manual we were given doesn't have this cut in it but it does have a similar type cut in it stating that your bottom cut (the release cut) is the last cut. In this case the top cut is the last cut in my photos and it's important not to cut OVER the wedge or you run the risk of jamming your bar.

As far as my chains go you'll notice in a lot of my videos that as this thread has progressed my saws have been bogging and stalling more and more. I've basically gotten my chains that aggressive that they are starting to cause issues and have lost their speed unless just plain old crosscutting or limbing. I thought about it after this forestry course and can't remember the last time I used a File-O-Plate! From now on most of my chains will be set up properly as even my modded 390's have struggled to pull some of my later "work" chains efficiently. In an outright firewood race they'd do fine but in felling they are causing me a few issues. In fact I hereby declare I am starting up my own "RAKERS ANONYMOUS" help group. I may be the only one there however...

 

[AUSSIE1]

Yeah the double wedge is a beauty.

A 346 would be handy around the yard here also for the twice a year pruning.

The jack is a great idea. I've thought of this method when there is the potential of a widow maker when hammering wedges into a dead very limby stringy/pep.

 

[MCW]

You can see in these images where I didn't line up my facecut properly. At the time I though I had but the cuts were full of woodchips (always clean your facecut out and inspect properly!). You do not want to see this as the second this small cut closes, unlike a proper facecut, you risk snapping all the hingewood and losing control of the tree. This is why all cuts should meet perfectly (in most cases).

I also had a hangup which was due to this tree (one part of a bifurcated trunk) falling too slowly and not building up enough momentum to break through the neighbouring tree. This took a good 30 minutes to get down and in the end all was good. By the way if this had happened in forestry you would not be meant to touch it and it would have to be removed mechanically! This forestry course opened my eyes a lot in the world of forestry rules and regulations. I ended up scarfing the main stump to over 50% of it's diameter then doing a backcut with the 390XPG and 32" bar - cuts over 50% aren't recommended but in this situation meant I didn't have to stand behind the stump hitting wedges in to make it go over. The further away the better...

A couple of other piccys...

I love you 7900

And some Avocados I knocked off last weekend when I brushed a neighbouring tree with a small Casuarina limb. The foxes had been eating them!

 

[MCW]

All I have left is the southern boundary now on this property. Although many of these trees are still quite large they will be some of the toughest to drop safely and where I want them. This run has some tricky ones - the tree in the image is just over 100' tall (measured courtesy of my Leica LRF800 laser rangefinder) and a double leader (bifurcated). Both trunks are large and just too low and too wide to drop in one piece. I sized it up and I think I'll be able to drop both halves where I want them...

Also had some pretty thick fog heading out on Sunday morning. We don't see much fog here...

 

[MCW]

Yeah the double wedge is a beauty.

A 346 would be handy around the yard here also for the twice a year pruning.

The jack is a great idea. I've thought of this method when there is the potential of a widow maker when hammering wedges into a dead very limby stringy/pep.

Yeah the jack worked great mate. Just have to weld a larger plate to the top and I'm all set

 

[AUSSIE1]

Yeah the jack worked great mate. Just have to weld a larger plate to the top and I'm all set

A bit of plate with 13mm of pipe welded to it to fit over the top. Then you can keep it as a std jack. Another piece that you have to carry I spose.

 

[MCW]

I also had to tackle probably the ugliest tree I'd seen on the property. It was a triple leader with all main limbs intertwined. I had to cut out the side of one branch so that the neighbouring branch could be dropped safely. I left this to start with as it was too windy but came back later. I wrote "leave" on it in case the farmhand came along with his Stihl Farmboss and decided to play "I'm Alogger" again...

Cut out one part of the trunk and scarf it...

Wedge it...

And bingo. One part out of three taken care of...

 

[MCW]

Now to scarf the other third to send it with it's natural lean. I needed this to shear off the hingewood quickly and roll off the neighbouring trunk. I cut a shallow face but the 7900 managed to cut clean through the hinge so it rolled off nicely. This tree wasn't so much dangerous as tricky - like a puzzle!

No hinge left here thanks to the 7900 and some nice cutting Carlton A1-EP semi chisel...

And this is what was left. A heavy leaner that I honestly thought would shear through it's hinge and end up out left in the Avocados. I aimed it further right of where I though it would end up but the hinge hung on and it swung the whole way around to where the face was pointing!

I cut the stump down to gain a nice workable height to attack the last part of the tree...

I was aiming for the gap just left of the trunk...

But it went about 5 metres further right than I thought. The hinge was pretty solid too.

I also have a few good videos to upload but at this stage I am having nothing but YouTube grief. I've tried the latest versions of Firefox and Google Chrome but have failed now about 10 times only hours in. May have to split it and keep my fingers crossed...

 

[MCW]

A bit of plate with 13mm of pipe welded to it to fit over the top. Then you can keep it as a std jack. Another piece that you have to carry I spose.

I was thinking that as well Al but I reckon I'll weld it straight on top or I WILL lose it guaranteed

 

[NORMZILLA44]

I have learne'd over the year's, and was lucky to have been shown by a good friend, and hell of an old growth faller, some hand filing trick's. He would watch me on the raker's, and stop me if to many swipe's saying flat even stroke's all even. And don't let em get to hungry. I had alot of trial, and error along the way, and tosse'd a few chain's too. I eyeball them with a flat file, and just swipe them accordingly. I am close to perfection with the handfile. Took alot of year's. Good stuff again Matt!

 

[AUSSIE1]

I was thinking that as well Al but I reckon I'll weld it straight on top or I WILL lose it guaranteed

Weld nipples all over it so it will bite or use some checker plate.

 

[wendell]

Congratulations to Marcos. It was good to see him get his first win. Pretty exciting race.