I cut a Persimmon down today that had me kind of nervous. It was pretty bad top heavy on the North and North East side, and had a crazy double curve and lean to it to make things even more interesting. It wouldn't have been nothing much to worry about except I was pretty close to a highline pole and wires running on the North to North east side. I needed to fall it hard East to make sure I missed everything. West and South were not an option for my falling skills unless I went to a lot of trouble and used a rope or something and I didn't feel good about that. I am still learning every time I cut something like this, but I have been pretty consistent on falling them where I want them, but I have usually not had to go against the normal way the tree wanted to go most of the time. This time the bar was set a little higher, and I could tell that a bad mistake was likely to just clip high line, or the pole itself or at least the guy-wire. So, after holding my ax up as a plum bob and looking at the tree from several different directions, I decided I probably needed to add a little insurance by cutting the tree pretty high on the stump to reduce the amount of tree left to fall and reach the high line and I decided to try what is called a Sizehill notch to hopefully hold the tree on the stump a little longer and maybe help pull it like I wanted it to go. And I believe it did help, at any rate, it didn't hurt and I put the tree exactly where I wanted it to fall, but I must admit I was pretty nervous when I started that backcut. I didn't do a very good job on the Sizehill V cut, because my saw kept wanting to kick back on me when I was making the bore cut, sort of, so I didn't make as a big a V cut as I wanted to but it still worked out. I had already cut a round or two off of the tree, to see how hard it would be to split by hand, before I took the pictures so you can't see what the butt of the tree looked like but you can see the stump. I am going to burn this wood, but I cut it mainly because it was leaning out into the road and was getting hard to pass by with my round bail trailer when loaded with hay. I think if I had cut the V deeper it would have held on the stump longer, but didn't do bad anyway and made the tree roll a little while still in the air. But I got to admit, I was running away some as soon as I saw the tree move slightly, and didn't witness exactly what happened, but at least it went exactly where I aimed it. You can see when you look at the first two pictures, that the tree had a pretty good lean to the left which is west, but was quite top heavy the North and North east. I am looking North to North East when I took the first two pictures. It was also leaning to the North higher up on the tree.
Anyway, if it comes up again, I think I can do a better job cutting that Sizehill notch, next time, but I think it did help some by holding that side of the hing on a little longer, for insurance against the top drifting too far north. I should have taken some pictures of the tree while it was still standing, which would have shown how bad it was wanting to go North into the power lines. The tree rolled and twisted as it fell, which kind of makes it look like it was top heavy to the South East, but it wasn't.
Cool it worked out! Never heard of this notch and it's odd that googling "sizehill felling notch" produces zero hits! You sure about spelling?
Pretty sure of the spelling. I googled it and it came up, when I scrolled down a little bit. However, there may be more then one spelling out there. I found out about it watching a felling video where they did about 5 or 6 different felling cuts. I think it is supposed to work better with certain types of trees and not so well with others based on if the fibers of the wood bend or break.
I tried that cut recently as well with a slight leaner that I needed to go about 90* east of the lean. It seemed to work as advertised in the video. It sounds like I picked it up from the video that you mentioned. I'm always interested in learning and practicing techniques out in the woods so when I have to cut things close to the buildings and lines I have a little experience and confidence to do it safely. Glad it worked out well for you. Nice stump. Knowledge and experience are a great thing.
Knowledge and experience is important coupled with a fair amount caution. I know I don't know much, but I try to gain knowledge whenever I can by observing someone else's experience so I don't get too much of my own experience the hard way.
Sizwell or sizwheel here in the PNW. Here's Hotsaws101 (Jack) doing his thing with one on Youtube. I don't use it, but Jack is an absolute master at laying out timber. And tuning saws.
