Parbuckling - a neat trick

[WV Sawmiller]

   I was just watching the TV Series Mountain Men and watched the guy up in Alaska pull a neat trick parbuckling some logs to the beach for his firewood. He had 2 ropes and rolled the first one around one end of the log he wanted to move. He tied the second rope to the other end and laid it out in the path he was going to roll the log. As he rolled/parbuckled the log down the slope with the first rope the log rolled up the second rope so when he ran out of rope with the first rope he switched and unrolled the second rope while re-winding the first one. He just alternated ropes as he rolled the log and every time he unrolled one he re-rolled the second until he was done. A simple but effective tip and I can see many of us using it.

  Another neat tool he had look like a big auger bit hooked to a chainsaw. He used it to bore a hole in the log big enough to run his nylon rope through. Another neat tool for me to dream about.

[SwampDonkey]

Parbuckling was a method used here to stack logs. To skid them, oxen were used before the work horse became popular. You'd have to be in a clear cut otherwise to get tree from stump to pile. If logs are in the field already, how did they get there? :D

[WV Sawmiller]

   On the show they were on the beach at the high tide mark where they had drifted in. He bored his holes in the tree then tied and, since it was free of the ground, he wrapped the first rope around it multiple times. He cut the rootball and top off and rolled it down to the beach using a cant hook and boat with retractable wheels like I have never seen before. Once he got them to the beach he hooked several logs together end to end with ropes, hooked to his boat and as the tide came in he floated them off the sand and towed them home to cut up for firewood.

[SwampDonkey]

All he needs is an experienced beachcomber. ;D

Beachcombers Intro/Outro 1975 - YouTube

[Daburner87]

Is Mountain Men good? I just started watching Big Timber on Netflix and it's ok so far, looks kind of set up for TV though.

[firefighter ontheside]

Parbuckling gives you a 2:1 mechanical advantage.  Not bad for just wrapping a rope around the log you're wanting to move.  I parbuckle logs up my ramps of my trailer if I'm just needing to load a log or two.  I connect a chain to the front of the trailer and run it down the trailer and then down the ramps and under a log I have positioned at the end of the ramps.  Then run the chain around the log and back to my winch cable.  My 5000lb winch becomes 10,000.

[WV Sawmiller]

Is Mountain Men good? I just started watching Big Timber on Netflix and it's ok so far, looks kind of set up for TV though.

I enjoy it. Some of it is for TV and not real practical. I like the old man Tom Oar, out in Montana because he makes a living trapping and woodcrafting and such but he also does value adding tricks such as taking his furs and making hats or coats or wall hangings out of them that sell for a lot more than just the fur would bring. The guy Eustace Conway near Hickory NC sometimes has some interesting projects and tips but a lot are made up. He does have an old circle mill that looks like a walking death trap and to listen to him he makes $500 out of every 10' long 12" diameter poplar log he cuts as well as $3500 for every wormy pine rough board farm table he makes and sell. The bad part is he may get that from some of the folks near Charlotte and such. 

[Sixacresand]

Job today had logs stacked up in a neat pile, the second and third tiers of logs lay in the valley of the logs below.  Real nice until the customer with no running equipment and tried unsuccessfully to unwedge them out of the pile with cant hooks.  I had to school them on parbuckling, using the mill hydraulic clamp to pull the chain.  Hopefully, somebody learned two  lessons.

[sawguy21]

I am trying to visualize what he was doing. Seems to me he would have to spin the log around each time before starting with the second rope but maybe I am missing something.

[WV Sawmiller]

SG21,

   You are absolutely right and you'd have to spin the logs 180* and repeat. Spinning a log is not always that hard - just roll it up on a small log for a pivot point at the center of gravity. A small man can move and redirect a big log using that technique. As long as both ends are off the ground even a tiny amount you can spin the log around.

  I use that technique when sawing LE siding for myself or others. I saw a flat spot, rotate the log 90* then start sawing boards leaving the front as LE and a square side/face on the back. When I get low enough on the cant the side supports or clamp gets in the way I unclamp the cant, slide it forward then tilt it backwards 90* on the the back, slide my moveable hydraulic clamp under the cant, lower the side supports out of the way, lift the cant with the clamp till one end clears the bed rail, push down and spin the cant 180*. Then I lower the clamp, rotate it back 90* against the side supports with the same face against the side supports again and the LE to the front again, then I just saw boards to the rails. Works like a champ.

   I learned the pivot trick working in a papermill in the summers. We'd roll big heavy rolls of paper up on a small metal plate (about 1' square X 1" thick) with 4 slanted sides till it balanced on the plate and cleared the ground then we'd spin it till it was pointed where we wanted it to go then we'd roll it off the plate and on to its destination.