High Back Cut, Burnham Style!

[SkwerI]

I'm a lazy urban tree man, not a logger. I have never found a good reason for making my notch at ground level. Mainly because no matter how low I cut the notch, I'm still going to make a stump cut to get the stump low and flat. Therefore I have always made my notch at a comfortable height while standing. Again, I cannot find a good reason to get down on my hands and knees to make a notch and drop cut. I need to be standing and mobile to exit the kill zone when the tree begins to fall.

In short, make your notch at 3' off the ground and avoid the root flare altogether. Notching at the ground level has many negative issues and zero positive ones. Unless you're a logger and trying to maximize your yield, that is.

 

[stig]

Yep.
When I do arbo work I always go high enough to ensure the fibers run straight.
Sounds like the fibers in one side of your hinge weren't.

 

[biggun]

East coast beavers only have short bars.

European beavers bore out the centre of the hinge and cut from both sides.

 

[Burnham]

Brian and Stig have the right of it, Brock.

The grain of most species tends to be more likely to have some twist or other uneven growth form down low near the root branchings. Higher up tends to be more straight grained. But there are no absolutes . Anyway, uneven grain will often give uneven flexing as the hinge bends, and thus you will often get uneven pull on the stem and a fall off your gunned line.

 

[treebilly]

Yup cutting low really is only for loggers. I do it a lot but never when it's a tight lay. Only reason I do it at all is because it's one less piece to move and a flush cut is tough to get and load with forks.

 

[Brock Mayo]

Thanks guys, yeah I normally make my cut around two firewood rounds high. The homeowner wanted to mill that log, so I cut it low. Will cutting off the corners of the hinge help with root pull, if needing to cut low? I normally preserve the corners at all costs, but wondering what precautions you all take when you have to cut low to the ground?

 

[MasterBlaster]

I cut them off.

 

[Burnham]

I don't know. I don't try to cut low.

 

[MasterBlaster]

B, have you ever ground a stump at all?

Was that something you ever did for the forestry?

I wouldn't think so, but I don't know...

 

[flushcut]

European beavers bore out the centre of the hinge and cut from both sides.

LOL

 

[Burnham]

Never, Butch.

Closest thing would be site prep for reforestation planting using a tracked excavator type machine with a disc style mulching head on it. Not very close, really. And then only as a contract administrator. I ran the machine for about 15 minutes once, just for experience.

Like the first video in this link...I can't seem to embed it.

http://www.slashbuster.com/videos.htm

Slashbuster does have a stump grinding head, but we never used one of those. Also a vid in the link, if anyone is interested.

 

[MasterBlaster]

That's one hella piece of equipment!!!

 

[Burnham]

It does a really nice job, if the operator is competent and careful.

 

[MasterBlaster]

I bet it's an experience to operate!

 

[Burnham]

I felt all-powerful!

 

[CurSedVoyce]

The great and powerful OZ!!

 

[murphy4trees]

I'm a lazy urban tree man, not a logger. I have never found a good reason for making my notch at ground level. Mainly because no matter how low I cut the notch, I'm still going to make a stump cut to get the stump low and flat. Therefore I have always made my notch at a comfortable height while standing. Again, I cannot find a good reason to get down on my hands and knees to make a notch and drop cut. I need to be standing and mobile to exit the kill zone when the tree begins to fall.

In short, make your notch at 3' off the ground and avoid the root flare altogether. Notching at the ground level has many negative issues and zero positive ones. Unless you're a logger and trying to maximize your yield, that is.

For us, we are either loading logs in our own trucks with the skid steer or on larger jobs with lots of big wood, we're stacking the logs for pick up ... making the falling cut low enough for stump grinding without a flush cut saves the trouble of handling the loose piece from the flush cut. The log truck doesn't want to take a short piece. The chip dumps don;t want the short piece in with the chips... If you re cutting up the log for firewood, then it doesn't matter much.. When there is a tight drop zone, I of course prefer to keep the hinge above the trunk flare.. BUT with a 100 hp stump grinder cutting the notch just above the flare, which is well below hip height, this can still be done without the need to flush cut the stump, on many trees. And I rarely need to escape from the cut... With the pulling power of the skid steer I rarely need to stay at the stump .... Nice to walk away and just wave the arm..

 

[theTreeSpyder]

To me cutting at ground level is bad because wouldn't think hitting straight grain; and picking up sand during felling.
.
The upside is the tree tipping last piece off of stump for you.
.
i'd hate to say i side with skwerl2;but would do the same;
make separate task/price/grind of stump opportunity.
.
i like Burnham's toy; except killing becomes too easy..
But, it fits very nicely with a salient reverberating lessons from Guy Mueller ;
he noted 1x that stump grindings shouldn't be removed; they belong to the site!
Seems like that machine would lend that way, try to keep mulch level low enough not to suffocate/sour the ground.
For, in life the nutrients were drawn from that ground, leaves would recycle to re-feed same nutrients.
Cycle broken by 'refuse' removal; could even be more colorful and say that removal 'rapes' the site of it's treasured goodies!
One man's trash, well, jest might be Nature's gold!
Nature doesn't make a plan, that She can't capitalize on even the losses!
We interfere; we go with own internal gift of cognitive voice; turning to curse as it is yelling over Nature's screams sometimes that all else hears so well!

 

[murphy4trees]

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Keeping the notch in the straight grain and still making the flush cut easy to handle... much of it depemnds on what kind of equipment you use...

Notch doesn;t need to be 3' high... unless you don't feel like bending over, which we all have those kind of days

 

[murphy4trees]

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KMnnVt2owxc" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

took another 12-16" off this one before grinding ... 3' would have been a hassle

 

[stig]

One thing that got to me while re-reading this, is how much our buddy Jed has developed as a treeman since then.

He was still in the learning state back then and now he is on par with the best.

 

[Jed]

...and now he is on par with the best.

Well there's a roaring joke if ever I heard one. But a midget standing on the shoulders of you giants, I will always steadfastly remain.

REALLY, really good to read ya again Stig. It's been a little while. But my sanity is returning, and I must reamain in the House!

 

[davidwyby]

It’s crazy to read posts of a man I looked up to in tree work from when he himself was learning…and now he is gone. 😕



Buckin’s old stuff is good. Lot of back lean.

 

[Mick!]

He gets on my tits a bit, but that is some ballsy stuff.

 

[gf beranek]

I like the guy.

He's reminding of so many people I've met in the industry. High strung, vocal and big heart.