Best Way To Minimize Damage Removing Limb - Black Locust

[lxskllr]

We are talking about fence posts here, the future kind not the kind attached to a customer's fence. Drop that shit at the base, the way it's leaning ideally, and cut them up standing upright with a properly sized saw. If you miss you end up with more firewood, which is what most of the tree sounds like anyways. That's how a logger would do it, and if that didn't work the next one he cut would.

It's not coming down at the base without a machine bigger than my dakota pulling it from its' vine nest. I also have $20 that says something inside will make me switch chains before it's cut. It's not a big deal, but if I lose a post to splitting, it's 30%-50% of the posts in the limb. Aside from that, this is a tree site, and a theoretical discussion of the best way to cut wood while preserving integrity is precisely on topic, and if it doesn't matter much in this case, it may matter more to something else, or to all the invisible people that read threads, and never join up or post.

edit:
This is the site, though the particular location isn't quite as bad as this. The particular location is far left in the distance...

 

[flushcut]

Vine city!
Is there a way you can tip tie the limb and stand it up?

 

[Tree09]

Or pull the vines off?

 

[lxskllr]

The limb itself is pretty clear of vines. That's what really got my attention. The tree as a whole is choked. The other four trees(They're kinda close to each other) I'm pretty sure I could cut them all through at the base, and none of them would fall. My intention for those is to climb them, try to cut them free of vines, set a pull line just in case, then do a straight fell at the bottom. If they don't go over, they can then be pulled over.

I'm liking flushcut's idea of a coos bay with a face. Straightforward, and better odds of burning through the whole thing before it folds.

edit:
The four trees to be felled are much smaller than the tree with the interesting limb. The biggest might be 12"dbh.

 

[Jomo]

Jump cutting's done close to the trunk on a straight grained lateral, with no branches between the undercut, the first cut closest to the trunk, about a third of the lateral's diameter, the finish cut's about 5-8 inches beyond the undercut going outward.

It essentially compresses the lower compression wood beyond the bar n chain's width, creating a mini barber chair that spring off the lateral like a diver off a spring board.

Works a charm, but only with straight grained wood between the undercut and finish cut.

They have the habit of landing horizontal to the ground, depending on height.

Jomo

 

[flushcut]

The limb itself is pretty clear of vines. That's what really got my attention. The tree as a whole is choked. The other four trees(They're kinda close to each other) I'm pretty sure I could cut them all through at the base, and none of them would fall. My intention for those is to climb them, try to cut them free of vines, set a pull line just in case, then do a straight fell at the bottom. If they don't go over, they can then be pulled over.

I'm liking flushcut's idea of a coos bay with a face. Straightforward, and better odds of burning through the whole thing before it folds.

edit:
The four trees to be felled are much smaller than the tree with the interesting limb. The biggest might be 12"dbh.

It works well. I just took a large mostly horizontal oak top that way today. Landed flat from about 45' up.