introducing the stangle

murphy4trees

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Nov 28, 2008
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This is a cut I have been using successfully for a few years.. I call it the stangle, a contraction of steep angle...

I first used it on a VERY dead maple, where climbing into the top looked a life threatening... There was a hole next to the tree where the top would fit if I could get it to lay out far enough so the limbs on the backside wouldn't hit me on the way down; then have the top drop like a stone, spearing into the ground similar to the spearing action on a vertical snap cut.

This 20 second video shows the stangle used to take a 25' pine top out, maybe 10-12" diameter... A top this big would have done a lot of damage to the lower white pine limbs (very brittle) on 2 trees if it had been laid out flat, but there was just enough of a hole right between the two trees, to get it to drop with no damage. In this case the bucket was out of reach as I was set up in the backyard and reaching over to the inaccessible side yard.

Since I don't climb anymore It's mostly used to take tops out from the bucket, though occasionally I will use it to shorten up a fall...

The hinge on the stangle cannot be use reliably to control side lean, so the piece either has to have front lean, or use a pull line as in this video...

And the cut can be a little tricky, especially when there is a tight window... I'll write that up is anyone wants to hear some details..



<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sbYBpHAJYY4" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
There is no hinge in the spearcut, at least not how I use it.
This is pretty neat, if you need to pull the top.
 
The salami cut has no hinge, does it? And made for use with chunks, I thought. Been awhile since I seen it in FGTW.
 
I came to the same solution when I had to remove a 20' cedar from in the middle of some similar sized pines. I didn't have climbing gear with me, and wanted to cut more trees, so I thought about it for a bit, cut branches as high as I could reach, and would then make both hinged and not hinged (as needed) salami cuts to bring the tree down vertically with minimal damage to the pines. I was thrilled when it worked.

I suppose it could look funny from the right view: one tree in the middle of many getting shorter and shorter without falling over.
 
Hydro clearance guys use that up around here. Spear cut they call it. Fast sharp saw and watch yer neck!
 
Yea, cutting that angle is miserably slow without a good chain. Maybe a straighter angle like a ripping chain would help?
 
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  • #13
Used the stangle on this 90' oak trying to get it to lean out away form the stump, then hoping it would break out the top from the drop and impact of hitting an adjacent tree, so that it would shorten up and do minimal damage when it finally landed in the lap of a beautiful beech tree... There was a big dead limb right over my head, so I was happy to see it move well away from me when the stangle closed but did not release.. At that point I had a good angle and the reach to cut a high vertical snap cut as would be used on a hung tree... that gave another 12-18" of drop..

Beech tree ended up with a large lower limb pinned to the ground but remarkably only 1 broken limb about 1" diameter..
 

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I use this cut for the vertical new tops on the lombardi poplars previously topped and other polards when the onliest (fast enough) solution is to make them fall through the crown.

I don't like the spear cut because it can happen (too often for my liking) that I don't have the time to cut through top to bottom before that the top starts to fall, hinging on the uncut wood, aka saying that I lost the top on fence, wire or tangled in the crown(s). Instead, I cut first a bottom kerf up, until a slight pinching (if the kerf opens, I'm in trouble!), then the top kerf down, in line with the bottom cut. At one moment, the hinge breaks/slides. Take care, a high speed train is coming down just in front of your nose!
I like the small (very small) lean which occurs during the pinching : The top's top is moving a little away from my head. To enhance this phenomenon, I cut a very narrow notch like Murphy's, instead of the simple bottom kerf. That gives more clearance over me but doesn't allow the top to lean too much and eventually breaking loose. Then, the top cut, eventually through the hinge if you have the time and... hide your head.

Handy, but I found two main downsides : the wind, and a lack of reliability. I don't say that it doesn't works well. The problem is that the long top has all the time to brush against some other limbs and tops before the ragging mass pass clear your position. Result, the top inverts its lean and is sent back on you. Ouch !
I have been "brushed" more than a couple times. That could be painful.
 
They've always just popped off and slid down, replanting itself half the time.

Be sure to get outta the way!!!
 
Murphy did you use a wedge to defeat the bind in pic #3, the 'vertical snap cut'?
 
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  • #18
Handy, but I found two main downsides : the wind, and a lack of reliability..

It's reliably unreliable when cut well... which translates to it works well on front leaners.. but if you have any doubt about the lean or are hoping to get some help from the hinge to fight a bit of side lean or wind, you should look for another option if there is anything of value at risk...
 
No bind on that cut when set with a plunge cut

So you plunged in the middle somewhere, cut upward almost all the way, then cut downward all the way and then it released? Seems like there would be bind near the bottom of the cut if the piece was head leaning.
 
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  • #22
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eUQ1p2QPdxU" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Vertical snap cut demo
 
I don't have the set-up worked out, the punchline is autoerotic stanglization.

But seriously, I had this same in mind when Willie had a bad, leaning dead tree at a campground, near a bridge. Has its niche. Use it time to time.
 
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