Beech

High Scale

High Scale

Trust fund lobbyist.
Joined
Sep 9, 2005
Messages
1,274
Location
Bristol England.
Yesterdays fell, Beech tree, I knew there was going to be trouble when the saw started to pinch immediately I started the face cut, the saw continued getting pinched in the cut, the same started to happen with the back cut and I realized the tree was in a very bad way within, no resistance completely rotten.

The tree let out some very loud bangs and we could see the holding buttress starting to crack and split, the 88 had barely cut one side when the tree sat on the tip and wouldn't let it go, the tree then let out an impressive crack and the buttress gave way, I have a short video of it the rear buttress literally explodes out of the ground.

In hindsight I think I wouldn't have bothered with the face cut and used a faster saw to cut through the back.

I posted this yesterday on arbtalk, I think pulling the tree over with a powerful winch and no cutting would have been a better idea.
 

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wow, i saw an oak about that size barber chair due to the rot, trees like that are no fun, until theyre down

england huh

i have kin over there in carnforth, hey have a pint of tetleys bitter for me would ya
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #8
woodworkingboy said:
Good sized tree! Some good wood in the upper part? Beech is nice wood to work with.
Click to expand...

The mid crown area was OK the top exploded, mostly dead, the trunk smashed about half way up on impact, very bad state, I should have left the buttress's alone.
 
nasty, i think i see a conk in the 3rd shot. looks like it was clear all the way around though
 
Maybe I'm just not good enough to drop 'em down low like that, but when there is that much root flare I prefer making my cuts above the flare in the skinniest part of the trunk. I can go back and make a flat, low stump cut using one wedge without having to worry about a tree falling on me.

Massive tree, Carl. Good job staying out from under it. 8)
 
That's a tough tree. I am glad you are OK. With all that rot in the middle, the only good wood was in those buttresses. I might have done like Brian suggests and cut higher. It might have been a good one to bore in and cut your way out of you back cut. Although I suppose it would have pinched doing that. OK here's my final scenario on the one, don't cut the buttress, cut a small face and then run around the backside scoring it with a 200T or maybe just blow it up(where's NoBivy?).
 
I've taken quite a few like that out, during my annual hazard tree removals for the state forest service here.
We figure on 3-4 years between the first conkers and total breakdown, when it is beech. We have had a hard time getting the SFS to call us early enough, while there are still some options, besides explosives.
The trick is to go above the buttress and make the facecut very very small, little more than a scratch in the bark.
That way you make sure you have solid wood for your hinge.
It is a good thing to plunge cut straight in , where the middle of your face will be, that'll give you an idea of the thickness of the sound wood, and the cut will not matter,since it'll be gone once you have the face put in.
Plunge cut behind the hinge and as you work the saw around, set wedges ................a lot of wedges. That'll (hopefully) keep the tree from settling in.
I would have used a throwline to set a pulling rope to help get it over, just to make sure.
 
I don't know if the Europian beech is exactly like the ones on this side of the pond or not .Ours have a little darker wood or so it seems .Dried or standing dead it is about like cutting granite . Cuts rather easy in the green state .

Most seem to get hollow which is there downfall .

It's kind of an odd ball in the fact it hangs on to it's leaves until the new ones come out in springtime .

Nice straight grained lumber to work with and excellent firewood .

Another oddity is one under stress from an ice load .That thing will hang on for a period of time then let go the lower limbs .Funny because the uppers may have more load but they seem to hang in there . I don't know if this is coincidental or just a phenominum of beech trees but they are the only ones I've seen do this .:?
 
stig said:
The trick is to go above the buttress and make the facecut very very small, little more than a scratch in the bark.
That way you make sure you have solid wood for your hinge.
Click to expand...

I have seen that used to good effect, however I usually fell as low as is possible with beech trees. Small facecut too, but using the buttress material as extra holding wood at either end of the hinge
 
pete mctree said:
I have seen that used to good effect, however I usually fell as low as is possible with beech trees. Small facecut too, but using the buttress material as extra holding wood at either end of the hinge
Click to expand...


opposite for me.I will usually fell from between hip and chest hieght were the trunk is the most even.Easier to judge and cut,also your on your toe's already if it starts to go wrong.Can't really see the benifits from felling as low as possible,more dangerous and hardwer work in my mind
 
Al Smith said:
I
Another oddity is one under stress from an ice load .That thing will hang on for a period of time then let go the lower limbs .Funny because the uppers may have more load but they seem to hang in there . I don't know if this is coincidental or just a phenominum of beech trees but they are the only ones I've seen do this .:?
Click to expand...

The wood has a lot of resiliency...will bend before breaking. A long and honorable history of using Beech in steam bent furniture in Europe, also for wood turning. Aside from the radial flecks, it's not a particularly interesting wood to look at, imo, but even consistency and excellent workability, has made it a favorite. The trees I know in England, the European Beech I guess it is, are tall and straight growing,

Picasso in his Beech chair:
 

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The japanese love beech wood .
In the 80es they totally dominated the market for veneer logs here.
They managed to buy all ( and I mean ALL!) the best logs up, by paying way higher prices than the local mills could afford.
For some reason they stopped buying about 10 years, found somewhere to get a similar wood cheaper, I guess.
Foresters here still talk with reverence about that period, where we made great money from "Japan logs".
 
pete mctree said:
I have seen that used to good effect, however I usually fell as low as is possible with beech trees. Small facecut too, but using the buttress material as extra holding wood at either end of the hinge
Click to expand...

My point is that it is usually easier to gauge the thickness of sound wood above the buttresses. Also you are sure that the little holding wood you end up with is at least straight.
 
yup. 10 years ago a buddy of mine worked in a lumber yard, he spent most of his days loading shipping cans with lumber for Japan, a few years after, the logs went direct to Japan unfinished, now they are shipping wood products back here, from our raw logs... :|:
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #24
Funny thing is I was going to cut higher up and leave the buttress's, for some reason I changed my mind, just go's to show that following gut instinct is what you should do mostly.
 
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