I'd never post this on any website with for tree professionals, but, in the end it was very well controlled. Story goes, I had to get a buckskin bald, dead red oak down and out of the way so we could run a fence through. On the positive side, most of the branches had already been shed, so less risk of a widowmaker dropping on my head and it's natural lean was perfectly in the safest direction. On the negative side, it did have a little lean and the back side of the lean looked to have a few cracks starting already. Let's say, I was on HIGH alert with this one. Once I got the saw running, everything went PERFECTLY. I made a shallow, wide open face cut and noted that there was alot of very solid heartwood left. Then a plunge cut, establishing the hinge and then carefully heading back toward the "tension" side, paying very close attention to everything, like the color of the chips and the speed of the cut to warn me about rot. Once I had enough room to get some wedges into the cut I stopped sawing, about 3" short of the back side. Then, I heard a very slight "crack" from the tree and I skeedaddled out of the way. The tree did a very nice, slow, controlled fall, literally exactly where I was aiming (better lucky than good). In the end, I'm calling this a "win." Here's the "back" tension side of the. Notice the crack and rot in the sapwood. I did alot of pounding and chopping on it to try to assess it before starting. Heres' the stump. It looks like a barber chair, but basically, the back of the "chair" is just rotten sap wood. The heartwood was solid, and I executed a perfect plunge cut and sawed out the back. Th e hinge was very solid wood.
Actually, the rot was pretty substantial. Most of the "wood" was really just powder. Just enough heartwood in the center to maintain the integrity of the tree whilst I felled it. I bucked it up, but once I could inspect it closer, it was mostly garbage. I've got plenty of much better oak to C/S/S, so most of this went into the junk pile. It would have been good "campfire" wood, but not worth the effort to make it into stove wood. I know this sounds snobby, but I have several dozen chestnut oaks in various stages from dead standing to bucked but not yet split. These are much higher quality wood and will keep my busy for a several years. "An embarrassment of riches" for sure.
I would say good job. Knowing you had a good natural lean in the direction you wanted using the plunge cut with a 3" hinge. Turned out good.
I have a smaller chestnut oak that's in similar condition. I will have to be extra careful knowing that the sapwood can be that punky.
First pic shows a questionable tree from the get go. Nice job getting it down, we know how the unstable dead standing trees can be. You might get the beginning of your notch started and all of a sudden, crack... too bad the bugs and rot got most of it
