Wedge pounders for big trees.

[CurSedVoyce]

 

[SouthSoundTree]

Here's my two favs. The longer handled one has seen nearly 3 decades of service to me. The shorty I got from Gerry Beranek, and it's something I treasure for that reason alone. It works might fine in brushy and otherwise tight swinging conditions. Both are 5 pound heads.

Those are the rough lengths of our Parks axes, though the shorty is not 5 pounds.

Our situation is somewhat unique in that its got elements of residential work and logging. Structures and infrastructure that you don't deal with in logging, along with bucket access, with constraints sometimes similar to logging, having to get wood into a tight lay, and lots of trees in a day. Sometimes we have pulling machines, but also, its not practical to set pull lines every time, even when we do have a machine, so wedges, and occasionally jacks (which we normally don't carry on the truck, but will, once we get our new jobox installed). Many are smaller trees, say under 36" and around 100', and not so bad to pound over, but sometimes larger 4'-5'-6', and over 150'. Sometimes, no wedges are needed, but often some pounding is required, as the lean and lay don't always co-incide. Putting trees back into the forest instead of into developed areas like parking lots and campgrounds means these dead and or rotten trees are left to cycle back into the forest. We try to wedge the back into the woods as much as we can, as its not feasible to bring them to market, even if they might be marketable, which they usually aren't.


momentum = 1/2m(v)2 that is one-half x mass x velocity x velocity

Getting the ax/ pounder going faster is the key, but if its possible to only swing slightly less fast, there can be more momentum with the more massive pounder.

Also, as I recall learning on trail crews, heavier sledgehammers counter-intuitively led to less wrist problems for breaking rocks for rock work projects like drains and retaining walls. Somehow less vibration is what I was told.

This question has come up before, and fallen by the wayside. I recall the deadblow being suggested. We may give it a try.

Never used the magnesiums. We have one that is the hammer shaped one, but only that one. How do they stack? Generally, if we aren't needing to stack, the trees aren't that hard to pound over.

We are also revisiting the plates for stacking with a single wedge, in which case, it may not matter how the mags stack. How are they for deformation? What type of plastic is best. How about some wood put through a thickness planer? Flat sawn maple or oak?? Tight grain old-growth fir??

 

[SouthSoundTree]

Edited my original post to read 8#, not 5# splitting maul. I bet the sledge, which I've recently put on a handle when the maul handle was broken, but I haven't used, is more like 5# or maybe more. Maybe that makes the OP more sensible a bit.

 

[Burnham]

Mags stack ok, a bit of gritty dirt or saw chips between helps. The best plastics are without doubt Hardheads. Properly struck, Mags deform very little, less than plastics.

Heavier drivers may be less stressful to wrists, but I fully believe are more stressful to shoulders. Elbows, I bet are in between .

Stig can advise you on nylon stacking plates. If you don't have to pack them, perhaps use steel.

 

[Al Smith]

.

Al, if you hit 'em square and true, they last longer .

Very true. My aim isn't worth a hoot with an axe .At least the butt end ,splitting I do okay .

 

[stig]

Buy a sheet of ½" nylon and cut that into plates. Works wonderfully.

But like Burham says, if you always drive up to the trees you fell, steel plates are just as good.

 

[Tarzan]

Sean, what Silvey Jack set do you have? I have the "tree saver" set that I bought when I was falling timber...it will Jack over pretty much any residential tree out there...124 tons with both rams. I use them once in a while just to keep them lubed up, otherwise I use 6# council fallers axe with a 36" handle. Got used to using them when I was falling timber on the north coast of Cali. Once you get used to the longer handle, you can learn to take a little shorter grip for tighter areas, but that longer length is handy when you can use it. I busted a lot of axe handles and marred up many wedges before I got proficient with it, now I can pretty much swing right or left and hit my spot every time. For extra lift and driving power, I really like ten inch k&h wedges. I mix and match with 12" cheapy's. All this is based on 13 years of production timber falling, so may not necessarily be the best for residential trees, but it works for me when I don't use a pull line.

 

[SouthSoundTree]

dThanks for the input cody.

We have the 120 ton, double ram Silveys. Heavy suckers, like 70 pounds, seemingly.

Mostly the big pounder wouldn't be for typical residential sized trees when we are working at State Parks. This one went relatively easy, as it was neutral. Duane is 6'3".


Whereas some smaller, semi-hard backleaners took more work.

We are awaiting a Jobox to bolt down to our bucket truck, so we can lock the jacks securely. Since there isn't a welded on locking point on the pump or rams to secure onto our truck, we have to load and unload them. It will be nice to soon have them with us all the time, securely locked at night when the truck is not locked in our shop, and not have to load them when we think we might need them.

 

[SouthSoundTree]

Buy a sheet of ½" nylon and cut that into plates. Works wonderfully.

But like Burham says, if you always drive up to the trees you fell, steel plates are just as good.

I've been pushing for both. We have just been so busy for the last couple months, and coming couple months that we haven't had time to address it. Add to that people who don't know what we do, or how we do it, scrutinizing equipment purchases.
My supervisor got questioned for buying bar oil. They thought we were oiling a drinking bar that the Arbor Crew had someplace.

Any particular type of nylon?

 

[stig]

No, either extruded or molded will work. I checked it out with an engineer at a plastic factory when I first started making non-steel stacking plates.

Last time we ordered from Bailey's we had a lady from customs call and ask why a logging company was importing 2oo gallons of hand lotion.

That was the "Motion lotion" bar oil

 

[Tarzan]

We are awaiting a Jobox to bolt down to our bucket truck, so we can lock the jacks securely. Since there isn't a welded on locking point on the pump or rams to secure onto our truck, we have to load and unload them. It will be nice to soon have them with us all the time, securely locked at night when the truck is not locked in our shop, and not have to load them when we think we might need them.

Yes, keep them locked up! Last set I seen in a Madsens flyer were around $3700, so if mine got stolen, I would cry like a baby

 

[Al Smith]

An axe is made to be swung cutting head first .With a curved handle conventional splitting axe it's just bass ackwards to swing it heel first .I don't know how you can hit anything with it that way .Well at least I can't hit anything that way,give me a BFH.

 

[Jack]

Well, there is the rafting axe ... but there's a time & place for both.

Right tool for the right job ...

... for the open minded, that is

 

[Al Smith]

That thing looks like a long handle hatchet .I don't know it seems like the tall timber crowd have a propensity to pound on things with an axe for some reason .I grew up not pounding on anything with the head of an axe .The old man would have given me a talkin to over that for sure .

 

[flushcut]

I don't know it seems like the tall timber crowd have a propensity to pound on things with an axe for some reason .

It may have to do with chopping out your saw in a buck gone bad and is lighter than another saw. Maybe one of the timber cutters will chim in.

 

[Burnham]

An axe is made to be swung cutting head first .With a curved handle conventional splitting axe it's just bass ackwards to swing it heel first .I don't know how you can hit anything with it that way .Well at least I can't hit anything that way,give me a BFH.

That's why we don't use a curved handle conventional splitting axe, Al . Jack shows the right tool, as I did in my pic posted just before.

 

[Al Smith]

It's the right tool for a west coast faller .We don't have those long handled hatchets around here .We have a big hammer .

 

[Burnham]

It may have to do with chopping out your saw in a buck gone bad and is lighter than another saw. Maybe one of the timber cutters will chim in.

Not really, Rajan...you could chop for days before you'd free a bound saw, in big timber. The cutting side of the single bit is to take off thick bark to improve the wedge function, mostly.

Carrying, and swinging, a full length handled axe in the brushy mountains is a bitchy hassle...that's why the 26 inch handle is favored.

 

[Jack]

It's the right tool for a west coast faller .We don't have those long handled hatchets around here .We have a big hammer .

aaah, the BFH

 

[flushcut]

Not really, Rajan...you could chop for days before you'd free a bound saw, in big timber. The cutting side of the single bit is to take off thick bark to improve the wedge function, mostly.

Carrying, and swinging, a full length handled axe in the brushy mountains is a bitchy hassle...that's why the 26 inch handle is favored.

See that's why we have experts like you B to correct the unedumicated.

 

[Burnham]

aaah, the BFH

I will reinterate two points...(1) a hammer, BFH or not, is wrong, in fact is "clearly pursuing a deviant perversion of what is right and proper"; (2) if a 5 lb. head single bit axe on a 26 inch symmetrical ash handle doesn't qualify as a BFH, I don't know what the hey does .

 

[Al Smith]

An 8 pound sledge would be a BFH but a 12 pounder tops that .While I do have the later it very seldom gets used for obvious reasons. Number one is it's too much of a BFH .Kind of a 3 hit wonder .After three hits you wonder why you got the thing out .You have to rest for 10 minutes before you get another 3 wacks in .

 

[Jack]

 

[Burnham]

 

[Jed]

Ahhh Sean!!!! Quit showing-off!!! I would give anything, I mean ANYTHING (morally permissable) to have sore wrists from pounding wedges, and I dare-say the rest of us res-arbos would too.

Now I'm green with envy, not to mention frustrated. We're coming into hedge-trimming season too here at Davey. :roll: