murphy4trees
TreeHouser
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There is very little explanation of the thinking behind this cut in the video, so please take the time to read this description if you have an interest in expanding your bag of tricks in tree falling.
Staggered Backcut refers to splitting the back cut into two different cuts at two different heights to fight a heavy side lean. The backcut on the side of the lean is cut at level or slightly above level with the face cut, per standard practices. The backcut on the side away from the lean is cut BELOW the height of the face cut. This gives the hinge fibers on the "low cut" side MUCH more holding ability. The differential in height can be adjusted according to the species and amount of side lean.
This Norway maple had very heavy side lean and a good bit of front lean. The drop zone was fairly tight between the pool and the shrubbery beds along the fence line. The tree could make the lay if the huge side lean could be overcome. Norway maple is a poor hinging species, so any type of standard hinge, tapered or otherwise would not be trusted. Other options included setting up a retainer line as shown in this video: https://youtu.be/4HRVsoM9bxc , but that would have required a good bit of time to set up.
And I wanted to see if how well the staggered back cut could hold a poor hinging wood like Norway maple, in a relatively low risk scenario (only the shrubs, the fence, and my pride and reputation were at risk) . The hinge held well enough that there was NO DAMAGE to the shrubs with almost no room to spare. SO this was a successful experiment. And since this is only the second time I have tries this cut, more experimentation is needed to fully understand its limitations.
The first time I tried the staggered back cut was in 2010 by making a similar cut on a large front leaning locust in this video. https://youtu.be/XI57_nTRkd0?t=96
The locust in this cited video had a huge front lean and yet was pulled significantly left by hinge fibers on the left side of the hinge which held against the front lean because the back cut on the left side of the hinge. I was surprised at the time to see how far to the left and how slowly the tree went due to the staggered backcut. A close study of the video showed without a doubt that the fibers on the left side of the hinge from the low back cut held powerfully enough to slow and turn the tree.
In the case of the Norway maple, I was just trying to get it to the lay without losing it to the side weight and NOT trying to "turn" the tree.
There is very little explanation of the thinking behind this cut in the video, so please take the time to read this description if you have an interest in expanding your bag of tricks in tree falling.
Staggered Backcut refers to splitting the back cut into two different cuts at two different heights to fight a heavy side lean. The backcut on the side of the lean is cut at level or slightly above level with the face cut, per standard practices. The backcut on the side away from the lean is cut BELOW the height of the face cut. This gives the hinge fibers on the "low cut" side MUCH more holding ability. The differential in height can be adjusted according to the species and amount of side lean.
This Norway maple had very heavy side lean and a good bit of front lean. The drop zone was fairly tight between the pool and the shrubbery beds along the fence line. The tree could make the lay if the huge side lean could be overcome. Norway maple is a poor hinging species, so any type of standard hinge, tapered or otherwise would not be trusted. Other options included setting up a retainer line as shown in this video: https://youtu.be/4HRVsoM9bxc , but that would have required a good bit of time to set up.
And I wanted to see if how well the staggered back cut could hold a poor hinging wood like Norway maple, in a relatively low risk scenario (only the shrubs, the fence, and my pride and reputation were at risk) . The hinge held well enough that there was NO DAMAGE to the shrubs with almost no room to spare. SO this was a successful experiment. And since this is only the second time I have tries this cut, more experimentation is needed to fully understand its limitations.
The first time I tried the staggered back cut was in 2010 by making a similar cut on a large front leaning locust in this video. https://youtu.be/XI57_nTRkd0?t=96
The locust in this cited video had a huge front lean and yet was pulled significantly left by hinge fibers on the left side of the hinge which held against the front lean because the back cut on the left side of the hinge. I was surprised at the time to see how far to the left and how slowly the tree went due to the staggered backcut. A close study of the video showed without a doubt that the fibers on the left side of the hinge from the low back cut held powerfully enough to slow and turn the tree.
In the case of the Norway maple, I was just trying to get it to the lay without losing it to the side weight and NOT trying to "turn" the tree.