Can you lend me some experience on this dead ash I'm about to drop?

I am about thirty miles from you and I would like to shake hands with you and cut that tree down for you.Let me know when and I will come over and cut it down.

 

Somehow I knew walt would jump on this.
Very nice offer, brother

 

Walt, that's an amazing offer. I'm going to send you a PM with my contact info in it so we can talk about getting this set up!

 

williaty , ^^^^^^^^^^^^ This answer, they don't come any better than walt . As noted, just make sure he doesn't get carried away & clearcut half the county.

 

Stellar offer there walt !
williaty , be prepared to absorb the wood hoarding knowledge that follows Walt around...he's a topnotch feller!

 

This was going to be my advice...a fat hinge...at least 1" if not more on 20". Using a bore cut to set the hinge, leaving a strap on the backside to finish off should help to reduce barberchair possibility. This is about a 16" stump. I used this method mainly due to a hard forward lean. I got too close to the hinge in the foreground on this one, but there was plenty of meat on the far side. I hope this illustrates the cut for you. Cut wedge, then plunge and set hinge, cut outwards towards back of tree leaving holding wood, then come from the back side in to release (step up on finishing cut just slightly). *note* I am by no means a professional. I have used this cut a decent amount and it has worked great for me thusfar. The pic below is not a 'textbook' cut, but it got the tree safely on the ground. lol




Don't forget to look up! Not just for dead branches from the tree you are cutting, but any other crowns that it is touching or will blow through when falling.

And please do not do this! bwahahaha! The tree did eventually hit the ground, I'm told. *I did not cut this!



Edit: Should've read whole thread. Good Man, Walt!

 

Now that is an ugly stump!

 

It was created by a friend. The picture does not do it justice. It stopped me dead in my tracks when I walked past it...had to take a pic. He's not real....outdoorsy....but he's trying. I have showed him the proper way to make a standard cut on a tree...I'm not sure what happened with this one. I believe he picked up the habit from another fellow who has been moonlighting at the clearing being worked on.

Brings the question: What to do when you see someone being unsafe with a chainsaw? I cringed and watched as the moonlighter hacked away on a few small trees a little while back. Part of me wants to jump in and yell STOP! But another part of me understands that grown men sometimes take issue with other people 'correcting' them. I held my tongue and he managed not to get crushed. The stumps looked like a King's crown after he was finished. He did however, get the trees on the ground, so who am I to be criticizing?

 

I am not the saw running expert by any means, but I stop them immediately if I see them doing something I believe is unsafe. Would rather them be pizzed off then dead or cleaning up blood and body parts. Stop them and at least discuss what they are doing.

 

I had another quick felling lesson with my friend on Saturday. A great BIG Ailanthus. Little bit of a forward lean. Good crown weight in the direction we wanted to send it. Stump area was a little quirky with a slight bend first away, then towards the forward lean. Diameter was big enough that both sides needed to be worked (18" bar).

He got a bit carried away on his face cut with depth. Would've been ok if the tree had not been hollow (about 3-1/2" of good wood around outside). Was having him set the hinge on the right side and the tree shifted forwards about 3", partially crushing the hinge area on the opposite side and in the process the side he was working on grabbed his saw tip. No spare saw on site....I was not in cutting mode and his backup was in another vehicle. Found that only 2 chain links were actually trapped and they were only about 1/2" back into the wood. Pocket knife. Dug out enough wood to free the chain, which had jumped the bar rail in the process. Got the saw back in running order and advised to just flat cut in on the left side, not worrying about the right side (plenty of weight to snap it off). 10 seconds later the tree was on the ground, right where we had wanted it to land, missing a small red oak sapling and missing the crown of a nearby walnut as it fell.

He seems willing to learn, but is not understanding the 'why' yet. I'll keep working with him. He's got 70 acres of woods now, so he is transitioning from 'occasional' to 'regular user'. He did learn what the 'line' on top of his saw was for, at least.

 

Walt did just blow through like a tornado and dropped the tree. It was a dammed good decision not to do it myself. Inspecting it, he had concerns about doing it at all and then examination of the stump afterwards showed it was in a bad way internally. I'll have some pictures up later.

 

Can't help but feel a little part of me is in his shoes. Pretty new to all this, scoured the internet, watched countless video's, spoke to few folks all in attempt to not to kill myself and learn as much as I can over the past 2-3yrs. Am sure there are many things I am doing wrong, but am always cautious and have never dropped a really big tree or something I felt I could handle. Last year I had 4 dead trees leaning bad towards the neighbor, they were pretty thin but very tall, bark all gone, I thought a ton about doing it think I even posted on here about them, but in the end I called in a pro I knew my limits and limited experience not worth the $$ savings. Anyways I look forward to getting a lesson or two properly from some of the fine folks on here one day.....!

 

That makes 2 of us! I'm still learning a lot as well!

 

ReelFaster you are definitely not alone in the category of needing to learn more.

Like you, I understand my limitations and hired pro's to take down a few last year.

williaty I'm glad to hear that walt got your problem tree down safely.