couple pics... post what your currently cutting

[cutterboy]

I have been opening up an area in the woods to fell two nice white pines into. Today I cut down a black birch. It will be firewood. In the first picture you can see the edge of one of the pines and the clearing I want it to fall into. Three more trees have to come down first.


 

 

 
Do you think the stump police will give me a passing mark on this one?


 
I cut the tree into eight foot logs but only for transport. They will be cut into 16" lengths at the barnyard.


 

 
It is still wet in there and the tractor tires found plenty of mud. I could have waited but waiting might have just brought more rain.


 
I need the ground to dry out before I harvest the pines. It has been a frustrating summer in that respect.

Keep on cutting.....Cutter

[barbender]

To be honest, I don't even remember what we run for air pressure on the forwarders. I think 80 psi. We don't have tires pop off of beads😁 Yes the ride is horrible.

[newoodguy78]

Those tires must sound like a cannon going off if they blow out, that's a lot of air in a tire that size

[Mountaynman]

Yes they do shakes the lexan on the cab you might be right on 80 lbs it took a long time to get them up to pressure. Been a few years now startin to get the early oldtimers cant remember anything

[ehp]

Cutterboy , but to be honest the stump police would be all over you on that one , you Dutch the cut on the notch and that is kind of quite important on stopping the tree from splitting , the higher the grade of timber the worse the chance of splitting becomes as no knots to hold the tree together 

[ehp]

we are suppose to get a ton of rain in the next 3 days , I sure hope not 

[Old Greenhorn]

Cutterboy , but to be honest the stump police would be all over you on that one , you Dutch the cut on the notch and that is kind of quite important on stopping the tree from splitting , the higher the grade of timber the worse the chance of splitting becomes as no knots to hold the tree together

Not splitting hairs here, just trying to understand EHP, what are your stump cops looking for? I thought you said the backcut should be 2" above the bottom of the notch, just as he has done. What do you mean by 'Dutch cut'? What he has there is a small tree, so I know we are not talking a big deal here. Obviously he has a nice fall. I am not one to second guess somebody with nit-picking when the fall is right because that is the goal, but I just don't see what the issue is here even though I pretty much always have my backcut even with the bottom of my notch. I don't suggest what might work for others.

[mike_belben]

it sounds like a typical case of government expertise. 

[mudfarmer]

Can't speak for ehp but I think he is talking about the bit of "bypass" cut at about 5:30 in the stump pic (dutchman)

If you make your vertical/angled cut first on the notch you can look down through it while cutting the horizontal part of the notch and see when they meet up to try not to go too far. Also, (&@$ happens and I'm glad there aren't any stump police followin me around :D

[Old Greenhorn]

AH HA! I didn't see that. Yeah, I get it. I am pretty anal about having my notch cuts match without overcuts. I guess it was the term that I wasn't technically familiar with and didn't look for what he was referring to. Yeah. I guess if I were a judge, and I am not, I would have some thoughts on that too. :D

[cutterboy]

I'm glad you all are having such a good time with my stump. :D :D I have been working for 50 years to perfect my stump cutting. Another 50 and I think I should have it down. ;D :D :D

[Old Greenhorn]

........Another 50 and I think I should have it down. ;D :D :D

You are a faster learner than me. ;D

[Peter Drouin]

That whole stump thing is over the top. :

[Old Greenhorn]

That whole stump thing is over the top. :

I think you are undercutting the subject. ;D

[Skeans1]

AH HA! I didn't see that. Yeah, I get it. I am pretty anal about having my notch cuts match without overcuts. I guess it was the term that I wasn't technically familiar with and didn't look for what he was referring to. Yeah. I guess if I were a judge, and I am not, I would have some thoughts on that too. :D

Nothing wrong with a well placed Dutchman at the right time heck even a tapered hinge can be helpful in the right situation the one size fits all is what can get you into trouble quick. Say a lay is directly in front of you the tree has a sweep out to the left, but it's in a thinning so there's leave trees how do you go about getting it into that lay? One good way is a Dutchman with a tapered hinge allowing the tree to roll past the others canopies. How about the only lay you have has a large old growth stump right in front of it how would you go about it? Myself I'd get the tree headed out the right direction and have the face set up to slip the butt off to the side keep the tree right out into the lay that will maximize footage.

 

I know how I cut is completely different then what's taught in GOL but it's also to get wood on the ground safely as well as maximizing what's there.

[Old Greenhorn]

THAT is a really cool explanation and great phots to support it. I do have a question to finish off the technique: Where is your back cut (how high)? I assume you chased it in as it fell, but did you tend to be thin on the near side in the last photo?
 GOL isn't the 'be all end all', it is designed to keep basic cutters from killing anyone. This stuff you do is fundamentally elevated and I am trying to carefully understand it and maybe try it on a few trees when the situation is right.

[Skeans1]

@Old Greenhorn 

That one is a situation where you thin the one side out carefully watching what the tree is doing, to get them to slip take a super thin hinge to start with.

[Old Greenhorn]

SO if I am reading that photo correctly, you made the back cut at the same height as the top cut in the last phot of your prior post, and you thinned out the FAR side of the hinge in that same photo so it could slide off to the right side of the obstructive stump in the photo in this last post. Did I get that right? Sorry for all the questions, but I am trying to understand the predictive physics involved in the planning process. It's very complex and not to be 'guessed at'.

[ehp]

I do not cut how they tell me to cut , I cut on what it takes to get the tree down on the ground with least danger . The stump police have no clue on how to fall timber and anybody that does know how will very quickly figure that out, they are told on how to check guys from videos and a teacher that most likely never fell 100 trees in his life and he was always on flat ground , never on real steep ground where you cannot make a mistake and live. I watched the videos about 12 years ago just because I had to and I blew those videos full of so many holes on the mistakes their faller was doing making the videos they kind of got sick of me lol but every time they said I was correct which was pretty easy to see . If your cutting real high grade stuff like whats around here you cannot cut the way they want , You will split every butt , Cutting high grade hardwood is nothing like falling softwood , Softwood is fairly hard to split unless your way off on what your to be doing and remember stumps have to be below 12 inches in height , they do not care if tree is 6 feet or whatever wide , Its alot harder than you think when the snow gets 4 feet deep to keep your stumps that low 

[ehp]

been raining all day here and pouring , suppose to stop sometime tomorrow

[BargeMonkey]

If I got around to cutting wood I may get something done. 😆 We had a driver retire and good luck replacing anyone right now.


 


 🤦‍♂️.... 😆 


 stump and pile.


 There's probably 2 miles of skid road on this job, 75% of it is graded as WIDE as possible, they ride this basically year round.


 finish up basically what you can see and on to the next one.


 "why does every trip we take involve looking at equipment" 😆🤦‍♂️    GF hasn't figured it out yet.

[mike_belben]

@ auto restriction. 


Tom, note the deep slant to skeans stump and the keel thats still on the log with matching slope.  Thats why it skated off to the side once the hold fibers tore free

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah, I got that Mike and appreciate the elegance of it, but I am a simple minded guy and need to know how that back cut was positioned relative to the front notch so I can understand it.

[Skeans1]

SO if I am reading that photo correctly, you made the back cut at the same height as the top cut in the last phot of your prior post, and you thinned out the FAR side of the hinge in that same photo so it could slide off to the right side of the obstructive stump in the photo in this last post. Did I get that right? Sorry for all the questions, but I am trying to understand the predictive physics involved in the planning process. It's very complex and not to be 'guessed at'.

Most of my back cuts are the close to the level of the face or a 1/2" step with the humboldt faces you're less likely to have something come slipping back at you vs a conventional face. When setting the face up it started as humboldt then took out the block kind of like a sizwheel with the ramp to the side. After that was about where I wanted it I added a block on the left side to stall the tree long enough to get the far side clipped and get the hinge thin enough to slip off the stump and not blow the guts out of that cedar.

[teakwood]

I would love to see Skeans in action. seeing it live would be so much better than on the fotos. what a beautiful tree