Not a Coos bay cut.

Thor's Hammer

Thor's Hammer

Wolfish. Sometimes Bites.
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Few months back, I got called out by the local council to look at a Dangerous Aspen that had semi lost a limb over a road, in a local nature park. The broken limb had half sheared through, and was hanging over the road. We decided the tree had to be felled there and then, as the main stem had 3 large splits, one of which was over 10 foot long and 2" wide. I was just able to reach the limb with a 346 from the ground and cut it loose.

Unfortunately, the tree had a very bad headlean, and was totally unsound. Worse still, I had barely any room to fell it between the road with ancient drystone wall edging, and the other trees that could not be damaged. 164298_170800896295610_100000971028608_326279_389945_n.jpg 168787_170800872962279_100000971028608_326278_7642608_n.jpg
 
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Aspen is real shit timber, and there was a every chance this tree could take my head off with a titanic multi barberchair. So I opted to use the doubled front cut, as taught by the old Swedish manuals.
The idea is to put 2 face cuts in the front, 90 degrees apart, and the resulting 'arrow' will determine the direction of fall. This was harder to get right than I remembered, so I opted for a 24" bar 372 to make it a little easier.

Tripping this nasty bugger was a little hair-raising, as I could tell there was extesive rot and fractures. As it popped, I ducked away. Thankfully, it went exactly to plan, no barber chair, swung slightly to the left of the lean, and no damage to trees or road.

I took a couple of pics of the ugly stump, as I'm guessing a few here will enjoy that sort of thing 8) 33795_170801262962240_100000971028608_326281_3985341_n.jpg 165625_170801299628903_100000971028608_326282_4982512_n.jpg 166676_170801329628900_100000971028608_326283_4943114_n.jpg 163842_170801712962195_100000971028608_326285_6043180_n.jpg 167246_170801766295523_100000971028608_326287_5465725_n.jpg 162874_170801736295526_100000971028608_326286_2545758_n.jpg
 
I would love to say nice job, but that was just UGLY all the way;) Never even heard of that cut. Guess I should pick up a book on the subject once in a while. Thought you had a desk job now no???

Glad it all went well.
 
I was taught that cut too, but for use on little buggers, where there isn't room to get a bore cut in for a leaner.
Glad you brought it up, because I wondered if it could be used on bigger trees along the same lines as the coos bay...?
 
It worked well but I have concerns about that cut. It seems like you have to spend more time in harms way at the base of the tree than you'd have to with a Coos Bay cut. I need some leaners with no targets around to play with both cuts a bit.
 
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  • #16
In this situation, I used the double face method as I felt it would be impossible to bore out the centre, due to the major longtitudinal cracks in the timber. I think the tree would have sheared badly had I tried to bore it.
Timewise, the 'backcut' is the same as the coos bay, although this method allows you to take more time if you wish.

Jay, I've never bound a tree yet, it wasn't something I was really taught to do, so I guess it didn't occur to me. I suspect the vertical shear forces would have been unaffected by a binder.

Willie- as you can probably tell, I was distraught at the loss of all that fine millable timber.
 
That's a good technique, from everything I've read and heard about it. Never have used it myself. Ugly tree, sure, but a great job...stump looks fine, bro :).
 
Nice job, Ed.

A binder helps keep the heartrate down during the final cut.

I use that cut on leaning conifers, like we get after a storm. it hasn't let me down yet.
I prefer it to the coos bay, because the triangular shape of the remaining wood in the middle means it diminishes real fast when you cut from the back. ( Did that make sense? it is a little hard to explain.)

It works real well on long heavy horizontal oakbranches, too.
 
stig said:
Nice job, Ed.

A binder helps keep the heartrate down during the final cut.

I use that cut on leaning conifers, like we get after a storm. it hasn't let me down yet.
I prefer it to the coos bay, because the triangular shape of the remaining wood in the middle means it diminishes real fast when you cut from the back. ( Did that make sense? it is a little hard to explain.)It works real well on long heavy horizontal oakbranches, too.
Click to expand...

It makes perfect sense what you are saying, but I'm not sure that makes it an improvement over the Coos. Since there is less wood at the beginning of the back cut of the CB, you can acelerate right through the whole strip...in my mind as quick or quicker than with the two face.

Proof is in the pudding, though. Between all of us there's a good amount of experience with both, and they both have a proven record.
 
I had a nasty head leaner of an Ash yesterday about 4foot dia, over a large pit. It was a right pita to reach in to place the gob nicely, I had the 372 with 2foot bar at head height to cut it out. I wish I'd thought of using something similar to this, or even the CB, as the tree popped away a little bit too early for my liking. My tree too had a lot of rot in the LH side of the centre, just behind the hinge. Terrain was nearly impossible to maintain a good footing, falling steeply towards the tree then a sheer drop in front of the tree for about 20feet.
 
I've used the coos bay before, but not on real big stuff, haven't had a chance where i could just crash a big heavy leaning tree yet, but I'm sure i will one day.
 
I came across a great teaching oppotunity yesterday.
A leaning, ivy-covered spruce, knocked halfway over by some storm years ago, and marked for felling.

Since we may not get a storm during his apprenticeship, I let Martin handle it, under CLOSE supervision.

Used the double face method, and it went over with no trouble what so ever.

I wonder of all the ivy would have kept it from barberchairing, if we had just cut it from behind?

Didn't really want to take the chance in order to find out.



P1010447.JPG P1010448.JPG P1010449.JPG P1010450.JPG P1010451.JPG
 
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  • #24
Nice work. Spruce usually holds together pretty well, but it looks like the fibres in the back cut were pulling and separating.
 
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