First cut, Angle Or Gun?

[lxskllr]

For a good while when felling a tree, I'd do my angle cut first, then do the gun. I had *many* problems getting everything lined up and level. I started doing that... well, not sure why. Seemed right at the time, and I saw some youtube people do it that way, so I didn't see a need to try anything else. Reading around, it seemed like the gun cut was vastly favored as the first cut, so I tried it out. Huge difference! I have an easier time matching everything up, and I think my lays are more accurate, though I haven't really been pushed where it makes a big difference. Not sure why it's easier for me. Either way, you're doing the same thing. It's just the order that's changed, but it's surely changed my confidence at the stump, and improved my cutting.

Anyone here do the angle first, or change it up cause it doesn't matter to you?

 

[MasterBlaster]

I've always done the horizontal cut first.

 

[Jonny]

I always do the straight cut or gun cut first.
That being said I’d wager the majority do the angle cut first, I read about people doing it that way much more often. Good question, I’m interested to hear how @gf beranek @stig @RegC @Burnham have always done it.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Jerry's probably used to doing the angle cut first, on the bottom - then the horizontal cut on top. That keeps the bar from pinching and the piecut falls right out. Plus, more log to go to the mill.

 

[flushcut]

Gun, angle, backcut in that order, angle cut on top or bottom depends.

 

[treebilly]

I was taught with the flat cut first and that’s how I teach it. Had another foreman tell one of the guys I taught say that was just being lazy. After hearing of this I had to talk with the foreman.
it doesn’t matter which cut is made first. As long as they line up it still works. The only way to do this is repetition. He’s also the guy that puts his face cut in at 80% diameter ( 1/3) for everything. If the book doesn’t say it, it’s wrong. Once I figure out who has my copy of Gerry’s book, I’m gonna let him borrow it.

 

[lxskllr]

Did he tell you the rationale for calling it "lazy"? Not seeing how it saves work, aside from my apparently broken brain having a harder time with the angle first.

edit:
Not that saving work is even a bad thing. The easier you can make a job the better.

 

[treebilly]

It’s what he was taught and apparently anything else is wrong or lazy.
I’m also an asshole for asking him if the orange crayons taste like the color. And yes I purposely didn’t ask if they tasted like the fruit.

 

[SeanKroll]

Always horizontal first.

I shave most of my critical hinges down to wood, not bark, as well.

Helps face-cut certainty... really hard to not see a Dutchman, and ability to monitor the wood while wedging or pulling. (Grouchy old man voice) Bark don't show squat!

 

[Burnham]

Horizontal cut first, always. I learned that way and am comfortable with it, and can adjust my gun down to the tiniest degree that way without any recutting. Stig, I know, never misses his gun with the angle cut first...but he's special .

 

[Burnham]

Jerry's probably used to doing the angle cut first, on the bottom - then the horizontal cut on top. That keeps the bar from pinching and the piecut falls right out. Plus, more log to go to the mill.

I don't think so. Jer cuts west coast style. That's horizontal cut first, angle (either humbolt or conventional) second.

 

[Jonny]

So there doesn’t seem to be a wrong answer, and it’s really just about how you learned. Makes sense, end result is the same.

 

[MasterBlaster]

"THUMP!!!"

 

[SeanKroll]

So there doesn’t seem to be a wrong answer, and it’s really just about how you learned. Makes sense, end result is the same.

If you're really good at cutting faces dead-on, it doesn't matter. If you need a bit more adjustability for a tight squeeze, horizontal first allows it, much moreso.

Full gap face-cuts, then a snipe seem to follow horizontal-first. This can give you a kick to one side or the other after the intial tip into the lay... IIRC, Jerry refers to this as the Obtuse Snipe. On double-cut/ double-bar length felling cuts, Full gap with a snipe (absent spiral-grained trees, like the last maple I did this on) is very straightforward, especially if you gut the hinge through the facecut, or have a hollow tree.

 

[pete mctree]

I do both. I was taught diagonal first, but I subsequently learned to do the horizontal first out of curiosity. I find it much quicker & easier to align my cuts if I cut the diagonal first, however I find my accuracy improves on bigger trees when gunning with the horizontal first. No rights or wrongs in my book.

 

[Bodean]

I found the more west you go.. flat cut first...
I've met and heard several NE and Euros that put the angle on first.... it was the oddest thing to watch.. but hey hey hey what can I say...

 

[stig]

Doesn't matter a bit.
Just do what you are comfortable with.
As Burnham wrote, I do the angle first, because it is the way I was taught.

 

[Altissimus]

Stig , doesn't matter a bit as long as you're good I concur ... GOL was soooooooo pickyune about this (absolutley must be do angle first or else it's wrong , same with restarting their stalled saw in the cut or moving two feet without intentionally tripping the brake) that Sven comes off as a preachy know it all.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Gun

 

[gf beranek]

Horriblezontal first, of course.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Doesn't that tend to pinch the bar? Making the 2nd angled cut?

 

[gf beranek]

I can't recall that happening very often, really.

 

[MasterBlaster]

But... you understand what I mean? When cutting for the mill?

 

[SeanKroll]

No, not really. Often, a little lift with the bar, and face-cut pops free from a tiny bit of remaining uncut wood, which is quickly cleaned up, or the face-cut just slides off the bar. If it's a problem, a stick or wedge is useful. Wedges make it easy to pop out very-much cut-up facecut.

 

[MasterBlaster]

But do you get what I'm saying? As in a Humbolt cut? Do the lower angled undercut first, then the horizontal cut allows the wedge to just slide out?

No pinching or wedges ever needed!