What is a swinging dutchman and how does it work?

[Nealm66]

Unless the ground was too steep to keep anything on the hillside we would always work in sets ( double jack) as the wood was too big to climb up from the butt so the bucker would mark and cut the belly and the faller would finish the high sides or start on the next undercut. Nobody I worked with ever seemed to think cutting big old growth was a big deal. Sometime in the 2000's me and another guy made some videos up in the Tacoma watershed in some decent size old growth and I don't even know what I did with the videos. I still don't think it was anything to poke your chest out for but it wasn't something just anyone would have the stomach for as it could be quite dangerous 

[Nealm66]

I wonder if the term kicker means something different in a different area or if it has something to do more with the smaller timber as nobody i worked around,which was quite a few different guys and outfits throughout the years was trying to jump old growth off the stump. I didn't see or hear that till we we're steady cutting smaller wood 

[quilbilly]

Neal my dad worked out in forks for a long time. There were stands he did nothing but swing cuts in to get the right lay. He hated pounding wedges and if he could get it down with a Dutchman he would. Bucking a log on a side hill was always preferred to straight up and down. 

He lost all his pics of the big old growth they cut in when my grandpa died and moved house. Keep those things close by. People just don't believe how big the wood used to be out here. We are on a second growth stand right now with lots of 6ft cedar butts. Too bad I got poked in the eye with a stick. I only cut about a 1/4 before injured and got one or two pics.

[Nealm66]

I cut for papac ( a little for Pete, mostly for Mike ) for a while helping a buddy who was contracting for him. It's hard to really understand or describe the rain on the coast lol. That holding wood on the coast is way tougher than inland. Inland whitewood is pure crap compared to the coast. We did a lot of driving along the unit lines. The hinge wood just couldn't be trusted enough to be confident in much of a swing cut on a regular basis. Not for lack of trying as wedging and jacking just didn't pay very well. Most of my old growth cutting was out of randle packwood. Ground wasn't as broken up as the coast but a lot steeper. Noticed the ground gets worse as you get north in the cascades like darrington.

[Nealm66]

I'm still chopping trees down. All small resi jobs around houses etc. Pays better and not as much of a grind although I just looked at a tree removal up in auburn with 3 big fir piece downs that I'm bidding extra high hoping I don't get as I'm getting old and weak.