# Video of 1/4 cut technique



## Ekka (Jul 11, 2005)

Video of what we did today featuring the 1/4 cut technique in detail.  

8meg and 5.22mins

just click on here


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## MasterBlaster (Jul 11, 2005)

Interesting. I'm more trusting of a rope over wedges.

It's a shame they just didn't trim those pines.

They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot.


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## Treeman14 (Jul 11, 2005)

MasterBlaster said:


> Interesting. I'm more trusting of a rope over wedges.
> 
> It's a shame they just didn't trim those pines.
> 
> They paint paradise, and put up a parking lot.



Isn't that "paved paradise and put up a parking lot."


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## MasterBlaster (Jul 11, 2005)

You are correct, sir!


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## Treeman14 (Jul 11, 2005)

I watched the video, but I'm not sure what is the advantage of that technique. Why not just use a traditional face and back cut? It seems like more work and more ways to mess up.


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## belgian (Jul 11, 2005)

Treeman14 said:


> I watched the video, but I'm not sure what is the advantage of that technique. Why not just use a traditional face and back cut? It seems like more work and more ways to mess up.



that's what I thought too, but were afraid to ask..


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## Lumberjack (Jul 11, 2005)

I dont understand it either. What advantage is the 1/4 cut over a trad cut? I just dont see it


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## Lumberjack (Jul 11, 2005)

Copied from the TH:
"Imagine if you are trying to fell tall but skinny trees, you cut your scarf to the fall direction, and if you did your back cut in one fowl swoop imagine the back of the bar might still be sticking out of the back of the tree ... you can't get a wedge in there ... you might have the tree sit on the bar if it were windy or a back leaner ... so the quarter cut gives you the opportunity to get a wedge in. 

The felling direction is always the direction of scarf. 

If you have a side lean you wedge that side first, but do not pound away trying to lift or straighten the tree ... what I did in the video was wedge that side to take the weight of the lean on that wedge. When you do the second part of the quarter cut up to the hinge yo wedge that too. Then by alternating how you hit the wedges you get that tree over in direction of the scarf. 

Also, we are not talking major leans etc ... if it were like leaning 15 degrees etc you better back it up with rope. 

With those trees they were basically too skinny to do the back cut in one swoop and get a wedge behind the saw. 

I hope this explanation helped, it is a very handy technique to know, especially on tall skinny stuff."

It makes sense to me now, but I am with Butch, I perfer a tag line over wedges.


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## Tom Dunlap (Jul 11, 2005)

This seems like a good trick to have in the bag, along with the throwline and tagline. There are times when there isn't an anchor for the tagline. Or you might not have the sacrificial groundie along that day. Then, once the tree is on the ground you have to get the rope unsnaggled, coiled and moved to the next tree. By using this method the groundie can be coming along behind doing other work. 

Getting a wedge in is always nice. For a job like that it would be handy to have a carpenter's belt pouch for the wedges and hammer. It shouldn't be necessary to carry around that big maul/ax, use a small hatchet or hammer. 

Thanks for putting the time into posting the video.


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## Ross Turner (Jul 11, 2005)

I was taught that cut years ago,It was called the Swedish felling cut as it was developed for the Nordafeller felling cushion which operated off the emmissions from Husqvarna saws.
Today the saws are no longer available,but i place a felling bar in the first part of the cut(this stops a tree sitting back)then carry on the same as Ekka with the second cut but the first cut would be as low as possible.
As Tom says its a great cut to know.


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## Ekka (Jul 11, 2005)

It's way faster to cut and wedge than set ropes in trees with lots of branches like those pines. 

I just walked along cut, wedged and felled. The groundies were limbing up and chipping the pines. 

With the second one on the video that you saw go over, well thats how easily they usually go over if there's no lean to wrestle with, you have to cut a scarf and do a back cut anyway, it doesn't take that much longer to bang a wedge in.

Problem with a lot of those pines was they were too thin to get a wedge behind the bar.

Hey MB, that's exactly what the customer is going to do, concrete a new driveway and carpark down that back area ... but it's no paradise, just a home run business next to a major motorway.


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## MasterBlaster (Jul 11, 2005)

Haha. Poor pines!


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## Treeman14 (Jul 11, 2005)

I see, said the blind man. :Eye: It all makes sense now. I didn't realize that the trees were too skinny to fit the bar AND the wedge in. Now I get it.


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## chris_girard (Jul 11, 2005)

I too was taught that cut back when I got my state loggers certification. Works great out in the woods and in the urban forests as well, though I will always use a tag line when needed.


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## Ax-man (Jul 11, 2005)

Just a question, wouldn't a bore cut work just as good. Bore in with the nose of the bar behind the hinge, cutting the opposite way you would for a normal back cut but leave a tab of wood to hold the tree, take the saw out, drive your wedges in from both sides of the tab, cut the tab, if the tree needs a little more wedeging just drive them in a little more.

Good video Ekka, how much does one of those vid cameras cost , gotta get me one, some day.

Larry


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## John Paul Sanborn (Jul 11, 2005)

On really skinny leaners you can bore twice in through the face so you set your wedges in the back of the tree with a shim and feather them up.

These methods are mostly for places where you cannot get a rope up into the tree. I know guys who have gone through GoL and do not use ropes much any more.


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## BigUglySquirrel (Jul 11, 2005)

About that...I used the boring technique on a fair sized pine that the top broke out of and had a decent amount of lean to it. Could have notched and backcut, but wanted to practice. Was felling it into concrete so I limbed it off then notched it. Made my bore on one side, then the other....tab broke prematurely. No harm done, we had the bases covered and I realize that I didn't leave enough of a tab to hold (we're ALL still learning). My point is that the 1/4 cut looks like a more "foolproof" technique, if you will. Thanks for the vid ekka, good stuff.


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## TimberMcPherson (Jul 12, 2005)

Great vid, thanks for that ekka! Great for thinning to waste operation.


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## a_lopa (Jul 12, 2005)

i can beleive that some of you guys dont get it.

 weird,what goes on doing a tree felling ticket in the U.S?


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## pbtree (Jul 12, 2005)

I like the video - but then again what do I know??????


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## Kneejerk Bombas (Jul 12, 2005)

That was a good video. It was fun to watch. What are you doing, making a training video?

The thing about pines is they really wedge over nicely. Some trees lend themselves better to wedging than others. With hardwoods I'd prefer to use a rope.

One thing you might try is to let the wedge work a little longer, you were really smashing that thing in. The wedge moves in the kerf in a fraction of a second, it takes a moment or two for the top to move over. If you slow down a little, you'll have more movement and less work.


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## Lumberjack (Jul 12, 2005)

Mike Maas said:


> ...you'll have more movement and less work.




Sounds like mayhem to me!


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## a_lopa (Jul 12, 2005)

an inch down the bottom's is a foot up the top.i just made that up! it could be true


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## musher (Jul 12, 2005)

a_lopa said:


> an inch down the bottom's is a foot up the top.i just made that up! it could be true



More like several feet, depending on the height of the tree and the depth of the felling cut.


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## jamie (Jul 12, 2005)

i was taught something similar, gob it, start the backcut and stop halfway round the sweep, insert breaking bar (for trees that size) move up a bit and continue the backcut above the first one...

oh and most of my felling cuts are 2 foot lower than the ones you did. got a bad back? 

jamie


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## Tom D. Wilson (Jul 12, 2005)

i was taught that tecnique but know it as a split level cut, i prefer sicking a felling leaver in instead of a wedge particulary when working close to the ground, coz when the tree starts to go you can just help it onits way, no need to reach for your hammer to knock the wedges in more. But the way i was taught was to bore in behind the hinge when taking out the first 1/4, rather than cutting up to the hinge, this is to ensure that the hinge is nice a parrallel. i use to use it on trees bigger than my saw till i got the hang of a fan cut.


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## jamie (Jul 12, 2005)

fan cut? excuse my ignorance to your fancy terms

jamie


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## Ekka (Jul 13, 2005)

Well, thanks for all the feed back.

I'm not making a training video, just taking video's of what we get up to daily, and I tried explaining that cut in the past but I don't think some guys got it.

There's always plenty of ideas and differing techniques, I encourage any of you to get some video footage on what you do, the way you do it, it's fun and we can all perhaps learn something. It also "humanises" the avatars and names we have on line ... at the end of the day we are all here for a reason.

Imagine some-one showing a quick video on pulling a muffler apart, sharpening a chain or splicing a rope etc ... there's heaps to do when you think about it.

This 1/4 cut technique is a little gem, I knocked down those 23 pines in under 2 hours, with an 025, no ropes and knots and throw lines etc, fast as ... but they were a suitable species for the technique. 

I've had my DV camera for about 3 years, never really thought about hooking it up to the PC. Bought a firewire card etc for $49.00 and a basic program came with it ... should have done it years ago.

Anyway, I'm sure there's more to come.  

Thanks again for your feedback and have fun ... 
...its not a job, its an adventure.


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## Tom D. Wilson (Jul 13, 2005)

jamie, fan cut is just another term i was taught for the standered back cut when dealing with trees with a diameter 1 1/2 x and more than the length of your bar, also i'v heard it known as a sweep cut, and the one you do on the big uns, the quote technical terminology.


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## jamie (Jul 13, 2005)

bore in and sweep round.... ok, 

i dont really pay attention to the fancy names for all the cuts i know what works and use it

jamie


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## Ekka (Jul 13, 2005)

Hey Jamie

I know what you're on about and it's a good method. I think Toms on about that technique where you do the back cut and drag the saw across the back of the tree and the nose of the bar sets the hinge up ...

... it works too but I like the bore technique when the trees over 1.25 bar length.

Hey, I might get some video of one today, we got to fell a palm and I'll do your bore technique.


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## Ekka (Jul 14, 2005)

Oops bad luck, you'll have to wait till Satdy now, I just felled that palm into the pool with conventional back cut.

Gotta fell some gums on acreage on Satdy, hope I got a camera man.


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## Billy_Bob (Jul 24, 2008)

With the first tree on the video, after you make the face cut and take the wedge of wood out, you say "What we do because we are working with pines...." [then I can't understand what you said because you started the saw]...

Then you make 2 small cuts on the sides below the face cut.

Why do you make these two small cuts? What is the reason for these cuts?


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## ropensaddle (Jul 25, 2008)

Treeman14 said:


> I see, said the blind man. :Eye: It all makes sense now. I didn't realize that the trees were too skinny to fit the bar AND the wedge in. Now I get it.



I can't hear youuuu said the deaf man


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## clearance (Jul 25, 2008)

*3 year old thread.*

I could have cut those trees down using a much simpler method. Also, one of the guys chipping brush looked like he had no eye protection, also, who really starts a saw like that?

Simple method-1-put in the backcut 2-insert bucking wedge 3-put in undercut (carefull not to cut off holding wood!) 4-hit wedge.

This method is in the Fallers Handbook, published by W.C.B. ( Worksafe B.C.). Its works great, used it many times. Why complicate things?


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## TimberMcPherson (Jul 25, 2008)

Wow that was 3 years ago? The quarter cut method is popular in thin to waste operations here, we took down 80 or so pines a while back where we used this alot, using lines was a BIG waste of time as by the time we were done we were working in so much slash throwlines would get caught all the time, even in the tree. We did use pull lines but only when we REALLY had to. Took at least 10 times the time to do it with lines.
This method is safe, quick and only requires one guy to do it providing you understand its limits. You can get more trees down with less danger of getting hurt running ropes across the drop zone.


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## toddstreeservic (Jul 25, 2008)

clearance-Thats how I start my saws? Whats wrong with it?


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## TimberMcPherson (Jul 25, 2008)

Its how we start our saws to. Industry standard, safe and very practical


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## Billy_Bob (Jul 25, 2008)

We're discussing felling small diameter trees over in logging and someone pointed me to this video/thread.

So I thought I would ask here about those two shallow side cuts below the face and back cuts... (I've never seen this done, so wondering what the reason is???)


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## Scots Climber (Jul 25, 2008)

Good video, although there are better and much faster ways of doing that.


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## (WLL) (Jul 25, 2008)

i think the side cuts are too avoid peeling


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## clearance (Jul 25, 2008)

toddstreeservic said:


> clearance-Thats how I start my saws? Whats wrong with it?



It looks stupid, seems that if the saw doesn't crank then the handle could hit your nuts. I started a thread here about drop starting, many whined but no one had been injured by it. Whatever, have fun, start it your way. Never seen anyone start a saw like that here in 20 years.


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## TimberMcPherson (Jul 26, 2008)

clearance said:


> It looks stupid, seems that if the saw doesn't crank then the handle could hit your nuts. I started a thread here about drop starting, many whined but no one had been injured by it. Whatever, have fun, start it your way. Never seen anyone start a saw like that here in 20 years.



In 20 years I havent hit myself in the nuts doing it that way yet! Thats the great thing about arborsite, you pick up on things you might not normally see. (I do drop start my 88, its to hard for me to start conventionally)

Just try it, working in bush and slash its really good, very controlled.


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## Pete M (Jul 26, 2008)

Billy_Bob said:


> We're discussing felling small diameter trees over in logging and someone pointed me to this video/thread.
> 
> So I thought I would ask here about those two shallow side cuts below the face and back cuts... (I've never seen this done, so wondering what the reason is???)



Them is called "relief cuts" aren't they?


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## Ghillie (Jul 26, 2008)

Interesting technique Ekka.

Always looking for new things to put in my bag-o-tricks.

Fred


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## Nailsbeats (Jul 26, 2008)

Pete M said:


> Them is called "relief cuts" aren't they?




Relief cuts, Pins, Ears, that's what I have heard them called. The cuts will allow the tree to break off clean if it tries to peel down the side of the stump. Very critical to do this if you are making a cut in the tree and you have your buckstrap around the tree. If the cut is allowed to peel down you can get sucked into the trunk and squeezed bad. I know from experience. I peeled a big bastid once and thought I'd be pissin blood.
It's a couple seconds well spent, especially when something doesn't follow the notch perfectly, it really pays off.


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