It’s a very rare occurrence for me. Typically I only have feet to spare and the threat of major property damage. That’s why I usually stick to the tried and true methods.
It's hard to get a heavy leaner to fall 90* to the lean without some bull ropes to assist. One of the cuts I've used is the sizwell notch, but I think the gills / shark allows better hinge holding on the tension side of the leaner. Looking at your hinge in your cut, I try to make the felling cut further through on the compression side (towards the lean) so that there is more holding wood at the tension side. This allows the tree to be pulled over easier with the come-a-long, but keeps a stronger hold on the tension side and may allow it to flex longer before snapping off. In other words, leave the hinge thick like you have it on the left side of your cut in the picture, but only have the normal inch or so (much thinner) on the right side of the hinge in the picture.
Not out of this batch yet. Work has been very busy so it's been hard to cut-out early to work on my stuff... LOL I've also gotten a little behind the last few years on my 3 year plan due to a few health issues, but this summer I'm getting back on track with that but other stuff is suffering... just not enough hours in a day... I haven't touched the sawmill since the springtime. I love making square flat stuff out of round stuff... LOL I think I need to step into retirement sooner than I had planned on... but this working from home gig is pretty sweet and hard to walk away from. I'm planning on working for another year and a half and retiring when I turn 67.
I would have. This was a large Cherry that got swung 70* from the lean that was directly towards the peak of the roof of the pavilion that had to be missed. The hinge was much wider on the tension side to hold the tree from dropping on the pavilion but the narrow hinge on the compression side allowed the tree to be wedged over easier and quicker. We did have a bull rope up high to also assist keeping it away from the pavilion but the hinge / holding wood did most of the work. The tear out down the tension side of the stump didn't occur till the tree was well past 45* on its way to the ground.
That’s a nice looking stump. Go back and look at my first picture and tell me how I should have left the compression side of the hinge skinny Monte. I’ll show myself out since you’re the expert here
I'm no pro expert, but I have experimented a lot out in the woods with felling techniques so that when I'm felling around stuff that matters I have a better chance at success. It's hard to evaluate a situation completely from pictures, but... I would probably have opened the face cut more with an open notch with a bore cut to set the face of the notch a little past where your target will be. Remove the red x area to allow flex of the hinge. Keep the bore cuts (gills) vertical with the grain, angling across the grain is similar to a dutchman of cutting past your target in normal felling. Gills above the felling cut won't help the directional control. I'm thinking they only weaken the stem and could possibly cause a barber chair. The second blue bore cut I would make would be placed 10% of the diameter behind the face cut on the compression side and angled to come out the tension side of the tree so the hinge over there will be 20% of the diameter of the tree. This will allow for the hinge to be angled with more holding wood on the tension side of the tree. The second pic shows the hinge angle that I would target for this. It looks like you set your hinge with a bore cut then backed out of the felling cut at the back severing the holding wood at the rear. That's the way I normally fell leaners, but while swinging them to the side I always set wedges to ensure the tree can't sit back on the felling cut. Your hinge may have failed early as you mentioned by being pulled over hard and slow. If there is less hinge wood it would allow it to come over easier. Too big of a hinge with limited flex will snap off and control is then lost. The open face cut and the gill behind it give the hinge more flex to control the tree farther into the fell. The wider hinge on the tension side of the tree allows more holding wood there to hold the tree from falling towards the lean. Other folks may use other techniques but this has worked for me to get most leaners down where I want them away from our buildings and fences. Not all species flex as well as others so that also has to be considered.
You’re doing a fantastic job of “sounding” like a pro. I’ve dropped several thousand trees in my career, and actually learned from Jerry Beranek directly. Most of the trees I’ve dropped would have cause catastrophic property damage for my clients if I made a poor judgment call. I’ll take my 25 years of professional experience and .Good luck with your boards.
