As for bore cuts, there are several different situations where they can make a fell much safer. Heavy leans, hollow trees and bug-damaged trees/tops are all candidates for bore cuts. But one must be careful to get the hinge EXACT when using a bore cut. Bore cuts have become probably the most common felling cut I use anymore. They've made my life much easier and safer.....
I began bore cutting on your advice Scotty. It was a fair sized ash with twin tops and a lot of forward lean. I've used it several more time on some heavy leaners and they all went down right where I aimed them and without incident.
Picture an example of an oak or maple. Many times these tend to grow in 2's or 3's. Now picture how you will cut one of those out and you need the entire length for a sawlog. With firewood, perhaps you don't need to cut the full length; different situation there. In addition, it will depend a lot on the size of the tree. Books like to show loggers cutting in all the fancy ways and they like to show pictures from the Pacific NW especially. The really big stuff. Also cutting on sides of mountains, etc. Simply put, we don't have that situation here. In fact, most saw logs are not those 36-48" diameter or larger logs at all. I do remember sawing a few that large but few. And those were really a bear to roll on the carriage. Back then, we did not have hydraulics to roll the logs. The sawyer did it with a cant hook and rarely did he have help to roll the log. It was sweet when on one mill I rode carriage. Then if we got a big one, after I slid the carriage back I'd hop off and help roll the log then hop back up to set the dogs. Fun days!
P.S. The tree I was dealing with was both a heavy forward leaner and on a side hill across the lean and subsequently turned out to be rotten. All good reasons to use a bore cut in my book (and Jepson and Dent). Just saying... Again, I take full responsibility for my mistakes and am grateful that it all worked out safely in the end.
We can all play armchair lumberjack but the main thing is that you are unharmed and shared this. Hard to say who may read and benefit from this discussion.
mike bayerl I don't know if it was in your newspaper but I was reading this morning about a guy that got killed cutting a tree yesterday I think. Only a little ways over the road from me. Sounds like the tree hit some wires and sprung up. He was 69 sad story right around Christmas.
One last warning for weekend warriors like me... I originally said that I didn't see any signs of rot on the tree and that the crown looked healthy. Maybe I didn't see anything on the trunk at eye level, but look what I found today about 35' from the stump. 'Doh! Pileated woodpeckers will be looking for a new home.
