Hazard tree contract fallers

[NeTree]

Other than ambiance, I can't imagine there's much need for firewood in a place with weather three times hotter than here.

 

[SkwerI]

There's a small market for bbq restaurants as well as some yankee homeowners who think they might need firewood come wintertime.

 

[stig]

in the woods we get fined if stumps are left to high. it is impressive if you can make good cuts with a short bar but id rather make 3 cuts than 5 to get the tree down

I'd rather use a saw with a 24 inch bar( which by the way is considered long here, but I fall a lot of the big stuff) and make 5 cuts, than have to carry a saw with a 40 inch bar all day!

We get fined for leaving the stumps too high too. Also for splitting logs and scraping the bark of standing trees.

 

[NeTree]

Up here there's also the "yuppie" market that buys a cord just to have it stacked all nice and pretty beside their electrically heated home. They call it "charming".

:roll:

 

[Al Smith]

Generally speaking seldom is a tree cut off at ground level around here ,on the fall .Unless the rare occasion it's cut for figure which would only be about 1 in a thousand .

If the woods is being cleared for a housing project etc the stumps are left high on purpose so a dozer or big track hoe can pop them out .

Yard trees they just put em on the ground and get a big saw to stump cut them . In comes the grinder ,in six months you can't tell a tree was ever there .

 

[Bodean]

We just stumpgrind the high stumps.

I'm learning things, I can't wait to try this apex bore cut.

Gord,
We pull alot of trees with machinery at my work, Thanks for the tip you mentioned earlier.

 

[vharrison]

Burn, thanks for sharing! Nice to see ya'll taking care of business!

 

[Altissimus]

Boring Cuts are NEVER Boring...

 

[Burnham]

Burnham, we always make the "German" or bore cut on the downside of the undercut.
Have you tried the hardhead wedges, the plastic wedges with a steel insert for driving. I find they beat anything else for sheer lifting power( except a jack, of course!)
They were totally unknown here until I started importing them from Bailey's and selling them to all the fallers I know.

Oh yes, Stig...they are a favorite of mine. I have only one complaint...they are heavy to pack around compared to a non-hardhead plastic wedge, for this ol' wimp .

There is a potential downside as well...there is enough steel in those things that one must beware of cutting into. Greatest chance I have observed is if you have a pair well set in the backcut and decide you need to gut the hinge between them...easy to ruin a chain.

 

[SkwerI]

I sure am appreciating all this info. I just ordered some more wedges last week including a couple of those steel capped hardhead wedges. Looking forward to trying them out.

 

[lumberjack]

Burn would die if he had to tote my wedge driver.

 

[SkwerI]

Much of my stump work involves removing fence paneling to gain access, so therefore my wedge driver is a 28 oz Estwing claw hammer. I bought an axe but never use it, the hammer is more useful in my 'neck of the woods'.

 

[Burnham]

Burn would die if he had to tote my wedge driver.

Yeah, Carl showed it to me when we had dinner in Tuscaloosa, he had it in the trunk of his 'lil Honda Civic. I could barely lift it, and it made his car ride 4 inches lower on the side that the head was laying towards.

 

[SkwerI]

What is it, an anvil strapped to a length of tree trunk?

 

[Burnham]

Near 'bout. I think he stole it off of John Henry, the steel drivin' man.

 

[Bodean]

You're gonna love those hammerhead wedges, Skwerl.

I swing a 5-8ish pound Falling Boy.

 

[gf beranek]

Wedge driver? 5 pound square head "Stroh" Is there any other?

 

[Dave Shepard]

I used the trailer hitch off a truck once. :roll:


Dave

 

[Altissimus]

G.F.B ...I loved the way you used a rock in the Vid when your axe was probably back in the truck...I think it was cool that you showed your audience that even with pro's sometimes mistakes get made ... a rock off the ground...a cut piece of limbwwod (the Fred Flinstone club) can drive it in a pinch

 

[gf beranek]

You forgot the "battering ram" Dave

 

[thattreeguy]

Burnham
sweet pics of some of the older boys
i work with a group of 70yr+ guys on occasion
one fella still brings his gun sticks to the big trees
the other runs a prentice and man can he run that thing
those older fellas can be great to work with
i learn a lot from them
I like that he's smoking while falling,
thanks for the pics

 

[woodworkingboy]

I haven't bought any wedges for awhile, but I used to be able to get ones from Baileys that had a rectangular steel plug in the middle of the back of the wedge, instead of the whole back being covered in steel. There must be a name for them? They drive very good, maybe even less bounce, and less weight than the ones with the whole back face covered in metal. Bailey's doesn't seem to be carrying them any longer, and I can't find any advertised on the web. Anybody know if they are still available?

I have a 1/2" scar on my forearm from where the corner of a full steel wedge that wasn't maintained, shot back and bit me. All I barely saw was a red hot streak. Fortunately it didn't embed itself, just sliced in passing. It could easily have hit my eye. I think that the plastic ones should be maintained as well....I just take them to the grinder.

 

[Burnham]

Wedge driver? 5 pound square head "Stroh" Is there any other?

Tell, 'em Jerry...I've been trying to bring these greenhorns around for years, to no avail.

 

[stig]

Yes, Jerry and Burnham there are other options.
A 5 pound DSI ( Danish Steel Industry) hammer is one of them.
They stopped making this wonderful hammer about 25 years ago, but one can still find them at fleamarkets and garagesales. Every new apprentice I get go on a quest to find one, once they have tryed mine.
It has the perfect weight for driving wedges in big hardwood trees and the handle is thin enough to have the elasticity to absorb impact and give a little "whip-action" when you hit the wedge.
With a thick handle the impact travels back up into ones hands.
The hammer I use was given to me by the guy who taught me how to fall, back when I was a greenhorn, so it's a bit special to me.
It is pretty beat up, but it's hammered wedges in for over 50 years, and if I don't loose it, will last untill I fall my last tree..

 

[Burnham]

Nice, Stig...great history there, I'd keep on with it too if I were you.

There definately are local preferences and customs that impact our choices of tools.

Now I'd not be able to manage without the chopping edge on my faller's axe, but I have to deal with very thick, spongy bark on the older trees. If removing some of that to facilitate efficient wedging wasn't a frequent task, your hammer looks a treat.

Sqwerl's tiny lil' framing hammer, on the other hand, is just plain wrong on so many levels it near about defies my ability to be snooty about it enumerating them all .