I should re stock one of these days. I'm down to two 6", one 8", and one 10" of the plastic ones for felling purposes. I usually pick up mine from Amazon or Bailey's. Most often I use them for back leaners or trees I suspect might sit back on the bar and chain. Most of my tree felling is directional, so the wedges are essential in encouraging back and side leaners to go in the proper direction. However, a good clean face cut is as important as in no Dutchman's!
Oh, I know. I received my notice in a recent email stating they had been hacked since 2011. Needless to say I wasn't too pleased. I just listed Amazon and Bailey's because I had made my purchases of the various wedges from both for fairly reasonable prices. That doesn't mean I recommend them nor that I continue to do business with them.
If you are at all concerned about the wedges doing the trick, you may want to consider using a come along in addition to the wedge. I have 5 right next to power lines I will be dropping soon and the come along will be my safety net.
Solid advice! I dropped 1000s of trees when I did tree work and I still put the rope in a tree if my gut tells me it might be trouble. It won't stop a barber chair, but I can't think of a time I was ever sorry I used a rope/puller on a tree.
Agreed. I have not dropped near as many as you, but sometimes things do not go as planned. Huge gust of wind, barber chair, terrain made you misjudge the natural lean, etc etc. I am sure the neighbors would love me if I put down the feed to a few hundred homes!!
You guys are correct. I go up to the mountains and fall about 20 trees every year and there is always one I do not judge the lean on it correctly and it will lean back sometimes. I carry about 300 ft of steel cable to pull over with.
The cable has some loops on the ends so I just loop it through itself around the tree. I then pull it over with my truck. When you have 300 foot you can reach a long ways. I am 6' and just reach up as high as I can. It works very good.
Yes I have one of those also if I need to get up high. But to be honest I have not run into that yet.
My dad used to make his wedges from dogwood. They worked great. He used a metal one to start a split and if he needed additional wedges he used dogwood. He also used dogwood in notches when falling trees.
For felling I use plastic wedges. I like 12" long ones because the taper is more gradual that the shorter ones and that makes them drive in easier and less likely to bounce/pop out. For splitting I currently use a metal wedge mounted to the end of a hydraulic cylinder.
That's the scary part. They aren't always predictable. Usually a tree with a lot of forward lean is a decent risk for barber-chairing.
