First try at square filing

Tried to post a video of Jason's chains in the real world. But my phone is disagreeing with me.

 

That would be a heck of a tree for around here, although I have a dead one in a fence row that is about as big in diameter, and has a lot of scary widow makers in it. I want to cut it down, but frankly, I am a little scared of it because of the widow makers, and no good escape route plus I need to fall it, probably against the slight lean it may have. Maybe I will get lucky and just find it down after a strong wind, someday.

 

Biggest oak I've cut up. Jason made short work of the big stuff with his ported 394 and 42. Was a blow down so no felling necessary.

 

The big Sugar Maple I had next to the house was 2/3 dead and had a bunch of widow makers in it and I did NOT want to be under it when it started moving so the plan I used was:
1. get a bull rope up in it where I knew I'd have leverage on it. I used a toss rope to get into a spot about 35' up.
2. get the neighbor's tracked skid steer on the other end of the bull rope. His is a 70hp brute not a little bobcat.
3. get a nice clean notch in it square to where you want it dropped. My neighbor who grew up around chainsaws and woodstoves his whole life had no clue that the black line on the side of a saw was a felling sight. I imagine a lot of folks wouldn't know since "real" men don't read the manual...
4. put a little tension on the bull rope, not a bunch. It can be tightened up if the tree starts settling back on the wedges as you cut to the hinge.
5. start the felling cut and get some wedges in behind the saw.
6. with a helper watching the top of the tree, I took the felling cut towards the notch making sure to keep the holding wood hinge even on both sides.
7. as soon as my buddy saw the tree start moving he signaled me and I pulled out. as I was leaving I gave the wedges a final tap to make sure the tree couldn't settle back. They had loosened up so I knew the tree was starting in the right direction.
8. once we were all out of the widow maker drop zone, we pulled it over with the skid steer. if it would have taken very much to pull it over I would have narrowed the hinge a bit more.

I felt comfortable in there cutting knowing that I wouldn't be under the widow makers once the tree started going over.
I'm not saying this is the best way to do this, I'm just saying that it worked / works for me and I'm comfortable with the safety of it. I always try to stay within my skill / comfort zone when felling trees because it comes with many dangers.

youtube is ripe with folks that demonstrate the dangers of felling trees when exceeding their skill level and not having a well thought out plan. Every tree I fell, even the small ones, I take a few moments to plan before cutting, execute the plan, then review my execution, and grade the hinge and how close I came to the target. A lot of the trees that I fell are out in the thick woods and I try to fell them in the clearest path to get them on the ground without getting them hung up. Hanging one in another tree just wastes a lot more time and presents another whole set of dangers to deal with.

 

Yes, that's the way I would probably go about it on this tree. I am getting pretty good at sizing up trees and falling them where I want them to go. But this tree is definitely a level above what I usually cut, although about any of them can kill you if you mess up bad enough. Fortunately, there's no emergency to cut this one down.

 

#metoo

 

This is the best cutter I've filed in a year of practice.

 

How did that cut!!!!

 

Sadly I'll never know. That chain was donated for the round file build off in Ohio last year and never made it. It's still hanging in my garage never seen wood. Might bring it saterday.

 

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You gotta try it out....what size is it? I might have just the saw to try it

 

60DL 3/8 .050
I need to add a 16" d009 bar to my collection. This is what it turned into. Probably cut like garbage as I have no idea what I'm doing.