FS C sawyer certification with Dent, 2011

[Burnham]

It's hard for me to believe that two years have passed since my last binnual recertification training under Doug Dent...but such is the case.

I took a slug of pictures, and culled them down to about 60. I won't post them all . I'll start with Diego, he's the super for the Zigzag Hotshots and a darn good cutter. His tree was a spiketopped DF about 40 inches, with significant headlean. He bored the back cut...quartered it from the offside and finished with an overlapping release bore straight out the back.

 

[Burnham]

This one was a bigger tree, really thick bark, about 48 inches DBH. Doug (the cutter, not Dent ), used my beautiful old 084...I'd mounted the 42 inch bar for the day. It needed the excercise, and oftentimes the younger guys love the chance to run it.

 

[Burnham]

Here's a batch one of the guys took of me working a 46 inch DF...066 w/32 inch bar.

I put a sorta goofy gapped face on this one, more as an experiment than anything else. It didn't come off too smoothly, though it did the job. Memo to self...don't try something you don't feel real familiar with in front of Dent .

 

[stig]

You all set conventional faces!

I thought one got kicked out of the PNW for doing that

Jokes aside, to my eye everyone did some fine work. Nice level cuts, even hinges etc.

It looks like you used two tries to set your backcut. There is a slightly slanted cut about 2" below the backcut, what is that about?

BTW Why do you have to be certified every 2 years, seems overdoing it to me.

I mean, once a person has shown mastery of the trade ans stays in the trade, what are the chances tha the skill will disappear.

Can you imagine me waking up one fine morning, all of a sudden having forgot how to put a beechtree safely and precisely on the ground?

Not that I wouldn't love the chance to fall a tree and have Dent evaluate it.

 

[MasterBlaster]

That Dent fellow looks like such a cheerful, funny fellow. I bet he was cracking jokes the entire time!

 

[Mr. Sir]

BTW Why do you have to be certified every 2 years, seems overdoing it to me.

I imagine it's to break any bad habits that may develop and to overcome the complacency that often shows up with familiarity.

I love that 4th pic of Burnham with Dent looking on. He's got that WTF look on his face!

I noticed you only revealed half of that super secret triple-step face cut.

 

[Burnham]

You all set conventional faces!

I thought one got kicked out of the PNW for doing that

Jokes aside, to my eye everyone did some fine work. Nice level cuts, even hinges etc.

It looks like you used two tries to set your backcut. There is a slightly slanted cut about 2" below the backcut, what is that about?

BTW Why do you have to be certified every 2 years, seems overdoing it to me.

I mean, once a person has shown mastery of the trade ans stays in the trade, what are the chances tha the skill will disappear.

Can you imagine me waking up one fine morning, all of a sudden having forgot how to put a beechtree safely and precisely on the ground?

Not that I wouldn't love the chance to fall a tree and have Dent evaluate it.

I did reset that back cut, Stig. What's up with it is as soon as I set it I realized I'd let the bar tip drop...I think I was casting an eye overhead at the same moment I laid on the throttle, and I obviously let it drift down in that moment just before touching bar to bark. So I fixed it .

The big difference between you as a pro logger/arb and the vast majority of FS sawyers is that we are not full time cutters. The skills are degradable if you don't keep in practice. Even the fire guys that cut heavily in fire season then have 4-5 months where they may not lift a saw at all. Journey level sawyers like myself have years of experience to draw on, but many of the FS cutters, especially in the lower cert levels do not.

I get to cut some, not a huge amount, all year long, and have a higher than average knowlege, ability, and experience...I probably don't really need a recert class every two years. But I usually learn something, maybe share something else, and getting together with the other C cutters to fall some trees is good for us all from that point of view.

The proof is in the pudding...since the FS instituted the S-212 chainsaw training and cert/recert program in 1987, injuries and fatalities have been cut significantly.

 

[stig]

The proof is in the pudding...since the FS instituted the S-212 chainsaw training and cert/recert program in 1987, injuries and fatalities have been cut significantly.

That is a hard point to argue against!

 

[Peter]

That is very interesting, I am a firm believer in CPD as in other professions.

Over here we have been lumbered with a vague ill-defined requirement for "refresher training" every 5 years for regular users, every 3 for occasional users, but there is very little guidance as to what is expected to meet the requirement.

Personally I like to add another unit from our modular certification system now and again to keep up to date, but I would love to come over and fell some of your big conifers!

 

[Thor's Hammer]

 

[pete mctree]

Funny Ed.

Nice pics Burnham. I'm with Peter in the que to knock some decent trees over next time I come & visit

 

[wiley_p]

That Dent fellow looks like such a cheerful, funny fellow. I bet he was cracking jokes the entire time!

Not exactly my memory of him.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Enjoyed seeing the pics, thanks for posting them, Burnham. Did y'all notice the dent in Dent's hardhat?

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Wonderful pics of the cert class as always Burnam
You FS guys have all the fun
I would probably be all nervous and screw it up in front of Dent..

 

[woodworkingboy]

My take is that to reach a level of proficiency where you are able to teach the guys that teach, such as Burnham, you have to be a sourpuss.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Dent need to turn that frown upside down.

 

[Jed]

Good Job B: Wow! Yeah, there's pretty much no way that I could ever cut in front of that guy. Well... I can hardly cut anyway but...

Hey: Did the one poopstain kid get chewed out for leaving that meat hanging off his back cut. (from his bar being too short) He should have nipped that out first no? I'd get chewed out huge for something like that.

 

[sotc]

Funny stuff Ed, I had neary the same thought about those two pix!

 

[forestryworks]

Always enjoy the pictures you share, Burnham.

 

[Burnham]

Good Job B: Wow! Yeah, there's pretty much no way that I could ever cut in front of that guy. Well... I can hardly cut anyway but...

Hey: Did the one poopstain kid get chewed out for leaving that meat hanging off his back cut. (from his bar being too short) He should have nipped that out first no? I'd get chewed out huge for something like that.

Which picture, Jed?

 

[sotc]

The off side

 

[stig]

On a tree that size, a smidgen of uncut wood like that isn't going to matter any.

 

[Burnham]

Thanks, Willie.

Dent agreed with Stig on that one, Jed.

That tree had some headlean, the wedge in the back cut kerf was serving mostly as a telltale, and it slowly started to commit to the face before he had progressed even as far as you see in the completed back cut. He stayed in the hole for another second or so to even up the hinge as best he could, then vacated the locale.

If the tree had been a little more sky-bound, I'm sure the sawyer would have rocked around the back a little, dogged in and snipped that point before wedging it over.

 

[Burnham]

Here's another batch. I don't know why that face looks so off level in my pictures...it was a tiny bit out of plumb, but not near as much as it appears. Proof of that is Dent never said even a single word about it.

 

[Burnham]

Dent had me cut a second tree that day, after my less than awesome job on the gapped face. No pics of the action, just a few afters.

This one was the only really bad snag we worked on...a schoolmarm, dead as hell, lost big patches of bark. The bigger double top wobbled like a drunk every time I tapped a wedge.

There was about 16-18 inches of solid wood at the center of the 30" dbh butt. I gutted the hinge from the rear after it stood stronger than I thought it would, to avoid as much wedgeing (which was shaking the weak top) as possible. After that, a few well spaced thumps and it eased over.