Felling, Limbing and Bucking a Firewood

[Allar]

 I didin't find a specific place to post videos, so i'll post here.

Bought an action cam recently and hooked it up to my Husqvarna helmet and decided to make a little video
Didin't have my camera set up perfectly but will fix it on next video.


Anyone wondering, i'm using Husqvarna 545, i absolutely love that little beast. Imho it is the ultimate firewood saw.

I hope you guys like it and any feedback is welcome.

I'll be making new videos so feel free to subscribe :]






Classic cookie cutting.






Another felling.






Channel trailer.

[hamish]

Mr Blimpy Throttle!!!

It a chainsaw, it idles or runs WOT, especially with an AT saw.

[Old Greenhorn]

Hey Allar, where are you located? (Filling out your profile info would help us all know.) Looks like winter has set in there and looks pretty cold. I have never owned or used a felling bar, wonder how that works for you. It was over 40 here today and I worked in a sweatshirt. Very rare for us this time of year, but I'll take it.

[thecfarm]

My internet is kinda choppy at times. This is the "at times" tonight. I will watch it at work or later. Just wanted to comment so I can find it again. Spruce for firewood? Must have an OWB or live in AK. Most people in Maine say you can't burn softwood. How are you getting the wood out?
Later it is.No way would I dare to saw through my wood like that with snow on the ground. There would be a rock under one of the cuts.Looks like that spruce is a lot like my fir,dead.  I saw my limbs into short pieces,if they are not going to be firewood. I try for not longer than 2 feet. I will even run my saw up and down the limbs too. All this takes longer,but I can drive my tractor through my brush without too much of a worry of a sticking coming up in the air.
I bring my wood out in tree lenght with a 3 pt winch,depends on what size the tree is. That size I could bring out 4-6 real easy. I saw it up behind the house. I just came in from bringing some wood to the OWB.

[John Mc]

I don't want to come across as the safety police here, but please always wrap your thumb all the way around the bar when cutting. Don't rest it on top or along the bar. Gripping the front handle without wrapping your thumb is far less secure. A kickback or even a bump of stumble is much more likely to knock out it out of your hand if your thumb is not wrapped around it.

[John Mc]

Most people in Maine say you can't burn softwood.

 

Those folks in Maine need to have a chat with some of their Canadian friends who live where the only thing they have in any abundance is softwood.

[thecfarm]

Maybe he's from Canada than.
Even when I had a wood stove,I would burn some softwood,well quite a bit really. I learned quick not to mention it. Everyone thought I was stupid. But I was warm. Being warm is all that is needed in burning wood.Yes,it's a bother to burn soft wood,have a real hot fire or nothing was in my case.
And yes,I would mix it in.

[Andries]

I'm with you Cfarm.
If its dry, split and fits in the wood stove, it must be firewood.
Softwood is more work for the heat, but you can mix it with hardwoods to get a longer, hotter burn.
Burn what you've got!

[John Mc]

Yeah, there's a myth that burning softwood causes creosote formation. It doesn't. Burning a cold, smoldery fire causes creosote. Softwood gets a bad rap, because people choke of the air supply, smothering the fire for oxygen, in an attempt to get the softwood to burn longer.

[lxskllr]

Spruce is terrible to split. I took one down this year, and split 1.5 rounds with a maul and wedges. I did the rest with a chainsaw  :^D  It's a treat to carry though after all my black oak. It's like carrying a block of air in comparison.

[upnut]

Allar- Thanks for posting the video! Next we need to see your wood-hauler and splitter... ...Noticed you marked out your cuts, everyone has their own method, wondering about yours? As far as burning softwoods, I generally call them "gofer wood"....throw some in the stove and go fer more.

Scott B.

[Mean Dean]

Thirty Five years ago here in SC I needed to clear up my pine slab pile and hating to waste anything someone could use I went to an old gentleman's house that had fire wood stacked up on the front porch and asked him if he wanted some pine to burn. Only sentence he ever said to me was "Make a 'far' wont it?" I loaded him down with wood! 

[sawguy21]

I was a little uneasy watching his technique too. I have to wonder why he went to all that trouble felling when he had enough bar to do a simple back cut.
Softwood is most plentiful here so that is what we use. Birch is prized and fetches a premium, other hardwoods like western maple fetch a good price when we can get it. Spruce and fir work well as long as the fire is hot enough, as mentioned creosote becomes a problem when the air is choked off. I hated packing firewood into the house because the bark made a mess I had to clean up.

[Allar]

Old Greenhorn: I live in Estonia (Europe) population 1.5m  
Ye we have alot of snow and snow storms atm. Which does make working in the forest a little harder. The felling lever is actually really good, i'll use it mainly on smaller trees. For bigger trees with a lean i prefer wedges.


thecfarm: What if i told you that we been using spruce for ever since the house was built ~100 years.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with burning softwood, But it has to be dry. Spruce does burn fast but it burns really hot. Making it ideal for cooking stoves. We own spruce forest and trees are dying like mad. so it is painful to make firewood out of it , but we don't have a sawmill   Around here they say that the best firewood is Alnus or Birch. But imo the best firewood is mixed firewood.

I'll haul the wood out in the spring with a tractor and a trailer.

The good thing about bucking a spruce is that you can saw it till you see a darker color in your sawdust(bark)  and then just stop and hit it over. But on the video i did have some clearance.

JohnMc:  I 100% agree with you. I'm actually aware of that and i keep cursing myself for doing that. But it's just one of does things that has become natural. But usually during the cutting i recognize that and wrap my thumb around it


lxskllr:Overgrown spruce is the worst to split, especially if it had some giant limbs on it. Also a green spruce doesn't split easly.
But a completely dead/dry spruce splits fairly decently.

upnut:
I'm planing to post a video about my wood-splitter and the modifications, that make my life so much easier, but i'll do that during spring.  Currently i use a stick to mark my wood. But i'm gonna make a DIY one out of rare earth magnet and antenna

Sawguy21: Because it's safer. I like to get my hinge set first, so i don't have to worry about that. I have seen WAY to many people that make a simple back cut, and while they make it, they'll look up and during that they cut through their hinge. And no my bar was not long enough to make a simple back cut.


Also it's alot easier to insert wedge and or felling lever like that. You need to understand i'm using steel felling lever and you don't want to hit it with a chainsaw, therefor the cut has to be deeper in order to be safe, but there's a chance that i cut to deep and the tree just gloses the cap or simply breaks the hinge. The hinge on dry spruce is very fractile and breaks very very easly (trust me i know).

There are so many ways of felling a tree, each has their own. Europeans and Americans have totally different style. Even germans and swedish have their own style. Different back cuts, different back cut height, different notches, different notch degrees etc etc.

[John Mc]

JohnMc: I 100% agree with you. I'm actually aware of that and i keep cursing myself for doing that. But it's just one of does things that has become natural. But usually during the cutting i recognize that and wrap my thumb around it

It can be a tough habit to develop. I could see that you were catching yourself when you were bucking up the tree. A couple of times you'd start with your thumb up, then reposition before getting too far into the cut. I had that habit as well. A Game of Logging instructor pointed out to me that I would start out with the proper grip, then as soon as I shifted, my thumb would move out of position. For some reason, him pointing that out was enough to make me remember to keep my thumb wrapped when I shifted my grip.

Another person in the class had the opposite problem: They would always forget to wrap their thumb when they started, then catch themselves halfway through the cut. After reminding him a couple of times, the instructor finally pulled a piece of orange flagging tape out of his pocket and tied it around the guy's left thumb, with a few inches of extra ribbon hanging off. The guy never missed for the rest of the class. I ran into him later. He said he just left the ribbon on his glove for the next few times he was out cutting. It eventually fell apart and dropped off, but by then he had developed the habit of checking.
___________

As far as the cut itself, you ended up with a good hinge, and it went the way you wanted it to. At first, I also thought your bar was long enough to make the back cut from one side, but when I looked again, it appears the flare at the butt was just enough to make that not possible. You'll hear no arguments about bore cutting to set the hinge from me. I use that technique a lot myself, especially when the species or the situation is one where the hinge may be fragile or the lean is such that I want to get things set up before cutting the trigger to let it go.

[Pulphook]

ohnMc: I 100% agree with you. I'm actually aware of that and i keep cursing myself for doing that. But it's just one of does things that has become natural. But usually during the cutting i recognize that and wrap my thumb around it

It can be a tough habit to develop. I could see that you were catching yourself when you were bucking up the tree. A couple of times you'd start with your thumb up, then reposition before getting too far into the cut. I had that habit as well. A Game of Logging instructor pointed out to me that I would start out with the proper grip, then as soon as I shifted, my thumb would move out of position. For some reason, him pointing that out was enough to make me remember to keep my thumb wrapped when I shifted my grip.

Another person in the class had the opposite problem: They would always forget to wrap their thumb when they started, then catch themselves halfway through the cut. After reminding him a couple of times, the instructor finally pulled a piece of orange flagging tape out of his pocket and tied it around the guy's left thumb, with a few inches of extra ribbon hanging off. THey guy never missed for the rest of the class. I ran into him later. He said he just left the ribbon on his glove for the next few times he was out cutting. It eventually fell apart and dropped off, but by then he had developed the habit of checking.

John nailed it. Much more than "thumbs". It's sad that more chainsaw pros and civilians cutting for firewood ( those "weekend warriors" ) don't feel that they can learn anything more. Hubris.
I never even knew how to use a chain break while cutting.
The CLP and GOL programs I took years ago after some stupid moves and accidents, taught both safety AND efficient felling techniques.
One instructor would stand behind us during the cuts. If we did a dumb move such as moving from one side of the trunk to do a back cut without breaking,
he'd tap us to shut down and do a de brief for the whole group. Enlightening and embarassing for both us landowners and pros.
Those programs showed me, at least, setting up an escape route, planning, how to drop trees opposite to the lean, bore , and use wedges to aim the fall.
It stuck with me as much as ordinance and firearm training from too long ago.
No "law", just common sense.

[Wood Shed]

Allar,

That looks like a real handy saw.  I currently am using a 562XP and of the four I use it is my favorite.  

As far the wood you burn I say use what you have available.

Since you live in Europe, I would like to hear about what kind of heating technology you are currently using or maybe what you wish you had.  I have always thought that you guys were way ahead of us in heating technology .

I used a Hoval multi fuel boiler that was made in Liechtenstein for 15 years starting in 1980.

[Allar]

Allar,

That looks like a real handy saw.  I currently am using a 562XP and of the four I use it is my favorite.  

As far the wood you burn I say use what you have available.

Since you live in Europe, I would like to hear about what kind of heating technology you are currently using or maybe what you wish you had.  I have always thought that you guys were way ahead of us in heating technology .

I used a Hoval multi fuel boiler that was made in Liechtenstein for 15 years starting in 1980.

I would love to try the 562xp or 560xp. That would probably be my future upgrade.

Bealive it or not but in our house we only use wood, the only electrical heating that we have is the floor heating in our shower room.
But because of that we need a massive ammount of firewood + we also sell some firewood to our neighboars.
But yeah you're right there is a lot of different heating technologys but i'm not really familiar with any of them.

I would be happy with a basic air or ground source heat pump. But there aren't many that are quaranteed to work in -30C and we do get -30 few times during winter, not every winter thought.

[John Mc]

The CLP and GOL programs I took years ago after some stupid moves and accidents, taught both safety AND efficient felling techniques.

 

I agree. I really appreciated the GOL instructors approach to teaching. It wasn't just "do this", they really strove to have participants understand the "why" of what they were doing, as well as the what/how. It helped me tremendously: understanding the why helps it stick in my mind better. It also helps me to figure out how to modify or adapt techniques to apply them to situations I haven't run into before. Perhaps the most important thing I learned is a better understanding of my own limitations and that of the equipment I'm working with. It's important to know when to just walk away and leave it for someone/something more capable. (Fortunately for me, I'm not doing this for a living, so I can afford to walk away in most cases.)
____________

I also feel it's important to keep an open mind and continue learning. No one knows it all. The day you stop learning is the day you start getting complacent and get yourself in over your head. I'm also finding as I get older, I need to rethink my approach to some things. I'm not as strong, my reflexes are slower, and I need to recognize that just because something worked for me 15 years ago, doesn't mean I can pull it off now. Hopefully, learning new tricks and techniques helps me to keep up with what I'm slowly losing in other areas.

What is the CLP program? (From the initials, I'm guessing it's something like Commercial Logging Program?)

I've been through every chainsaw course GOL has to offer (levels 1-4 and Storm Damage Clean Up). I've been trying to convince the guys who do the instruction in VT to offer the "ATV and Gentle Logging" class that is described on the national GOL web site's Training page. I'm self-taught with my tractor and logging winch. I'd love to learn more. I'm sure there are things I'd get out of such a class that I'd never think of in my own in my lifetime. Unfortunately, they are not really interested: they are as busy as they want to be with the regular GOL classes, and they have some concern about the liability of teaching people to use equipment in ways the manufacturer did not necessarily intend. I can understand their reasoning, but it hasn't stopped me from bugging them about it.

[Pulphook]

Sorry John, my bad. CLP = Certified Logging Professional . Training for pros needing bonding for state insurance mandates in Maine. Other states have similar mandated training.

Since I harvest with ATV and trailer, that GOL "Gentle Logging" looks interesting. Never heard of it. Thx.