I have a small wood lot at 22 acres total that I planted a number of years back. The planting was done on a 10 foot by 10 foot grid so about 450 trees per acre. Now that the trees have grown to about 20 to 25 feet tall and 6 to 8 inches in diameter I need to do some thinning. In theory, at this point, I need to remove about half of the stems. I have very little experience falling trees but what I can find tells me I need a face cut and then a back cut with a felling wedge in the back cut to keep the tree from sitting back on the saw. My available saws are a Stihl 026 with a 20 inch bar and a Husky 555 again with a 20 inch bar. Both were bought with another woodlot in mind and I realize they are a bit big for this job. My concern is that by the time I have a back cut deep enough to insert a felling wedge I will have cut through the hinge wood, not a thing I want to do. What is my best approach for this situation? Do I go with a farmer back cut just to make it easier to use a wedge?
I wouldn't bother with wedges for trees that size - they won't pinch your saw that bad. You'd need to pull the saw out of the kerf to insert a wedge, but by doing that, you're risking the hinge breaking when the tree sits back, sending it over backwards. By the time you complete the back cut, it should be falling over anyway. If they do pinch your saw, at that point you could probably just push the tree over.
Didn't have one, tie off & pull maybe. Never thought of wedging the back cut first, gave me another way (idea ) to handle some of the stuff I have trouble with. A good logical solution , I'll remeber it & give try it this Fall !
As you can see in the video the man is a pro logger and use a stihl 660 for cutting trees with the same dimensions like yours , so i dont know if the 026 is big and must buy something smaller.
old man, I got a stihl 260 pro, that girl will cut 8 inch trees all day long, for convenience you might want to throw a 16 bar on it but will cut it all. Great 50cc, saw
I like the early back cut followed by the face cut and that 1/4 cut is an interesting appro0ach too. As far as the 026 and the 555, I just think they are overkill for these small trees and my thought was a smaller saw might have a skinnier bar.
Pretty much guaranteed to pinch the bar in the face cut, I would think. The videos show some good ideas, though. If you're comfortable plunge cutting, here's another approach that's been posted here before:
Nope. Just got to get 2 wedges in far enough to stay. If you beat them all the way in you would pinch the bar. I've done it a lot on trees under 12".
That T&G looks like a variation on what was called the 1/4 cut and might be easier to set up. I am going to have to consider all. Of course, a fall in the direction it already wants to go is easy using almost any method.
For a 6" tree that doesn't need to fall in any particular direction I'd just figure the best I could which side was leaning a little and cut the opposite side about waist high at a 45* angle, then flush cut the stump. If it does happen to sit back on the bar it is really easy to give it a nudge with your left hand and hold onto the saw (just to keep it from falling) with your right. I've cleared a LOT of fence lines over the years doing this. Works great if you don't need to drive tacks with where the trees fall.
x2 Unless you have some extra thick wedges, or double stack them, you aren't going to get enough lift with a wedge. Save the stumping cuts until the felling is over. Stumping is hard on chains.
