# Back To Logging



## Sawyer Rob (Sep 17, 2007)

Now that fall is nearing, i'm getting back at sawing out white pine logs, to be milled to a materials list for a customer friend. He is still needing lumber for the big porch he is putting on his cabin...

Once in the woodlot, i spent quite a bit of time looking for a tree that would give me a 20' log, as i need a couple for 20' beams!







now, this one looks like it will do "nicely"!






so, i got everything ready and sawed out the knotch..






Once the knotch was sawn out, i was amazed to see all this sap pouring out! I could have easily filled a cup with that sap!






Anyway, the tree was a bit of a "leaner" and for once leaning in the "right" direction, so i didn't bother with the tree jack.... BIG mistake!! The tree fell just a little off from where i wanted it, and of course it fell into another tree!!! The wind affected it just enough to make the difference!!






so, i took a break and waited for the wind to finish dropping it! And i waited and waited and waited!!! It never happened!! After spending some time looking everything over so as to NOT compound my mistakes, i decided to saw down the second tree too!

As you can see, i used the tree jack on this one!






and FINALLY the whole thing went over, relieveing a load of stress for me!!!






So, now it's time to saw those logs out!!! I got my 20 footer, and also a decent 16 footer out of the second tree...






That was enough "fun" ? for me for one day... so in a day or two i'll go back out there and skid those logs in. I need to get to milling them into beams and lumber as my friend is yelling at me to get more sawn!!

Hope you liked the picts...

Rob


----------



## cantcutter (Sep 17, 2007)

nice wood lot....when you do your back cut do you cut from the outside towards the notch? If you plunge the bar through about an inch behind the notch and cut away toward the outside you can stop just before exiting the base and put wedges in if you need them....then cut the remaining sap wood and the tree will fall where you need it.


----------



## woodshop (Sep 17, 2007)

nice little ditty you had there for us Sawyer rob... thanks. They look like nice clean no muss no fuss trees to get some lumber from. btw, I concur with the plunge method cantcutter explained for the backcut. You have to have a sharp saw, a steady hand though and a good feel for your saw so you don't go cutting into the hinge and really make a mess. There a a hundred ways to cut down a tree. You got the job done though. I get a little jittery though when cutting down a tree that has another one leaning on it... scary stuff.

thank again for the pics.


----------



## dustytools (Sep 17, 2007)

Nice pics Rob.


----------



## Haywire Haywood (Sep 17, 2007)

what kind of tree jack is that? It doesn't look like a Hydraulic silvey type.

Ian


----------



## Husky137 (Sep 17, 2007)

Glad things worked out without damage or injury. 

I'm sure you are aware of how unsafe it was to cut the second tree while the first one was leaning into it.

I love my Farmi winch for pulling out those hung up trees.


----------



## wdchuck (Sep 17, 2007)

Glad it worked out for you in the end. Myself, a pulley on another tree with a come along to pull the butt end out, just to get the first one moving a little more. NIce looking woods there too.:rockn:


----------



## cantcutter (Sep 18, 2007)

*holly......* I read through all that and didn't even notice he cut the second tree to land the first one:O :O
Get a winch, tractor, 4x4 or something to drag them back with......no need to kill yourself over a 20' beam.


----------



## Sawyer Rob (Sep 18, 2007)

Hello again,

Yes i understand the safety issues.... NO i wasn't going to leave that tree while i went for a winch or other tool, and yes i do the plunge cut.... And lastly, NO i can't control the wind...

The tree's are up on a big hill, and tall enough to catch some wind... The wind was swirreling around, and "if" i would have used the tree jack it would have made a difference.

Usually it's no big deal where they fall, but in this case, i needed a certain tree and there was less space for it to fall properly... Anyway, thanks for all the answers...

Rob

ooohhh, and i bought the tree jack from www.norwoodindustries.com


----------



## Wismer (Sep 19, 2007)

[/QUOTE]


here's the problem rob, it wasn't the wind that affected in. You can clearly see the problem in the picture.

You cut away half your hinge wood in this picture. Leaving the hinge wood on the left side of the tree, when it fell the right side of the hinge was non-existant, and so the left side pulled it into the second tree. If you had of cut an even hinge, the tree should of fallen just about where you wanted it, especially since it had a favorable lean.

These guys are thinking right telling you to bore cut, not only can you avoid fibre pull, but it's nice on larger trees and leaners because it allows to set your hinge exactly how you want it, and theen cut out the back. It never hurts to take an extra couple seconds and look around the other side of the tree to see how your cuts are lining up. Saves alot of time and sometimes lives.


hope this helps?

Craig


----------



## Sawyer Rob (Sep 19, 2007)

> You cut away half your hinge wood in this picture. Leaving the hinge wood on the left side of the tree, when it fell the right side of the hinge was non-existant, and so the left side pulled it into the second tree.



NO, i did not cut through the hinge... I sawed out the hinge AFTER the tree was leaning, and attempted to push it out of place with the tree jack...

Now, don't tell me you guys had a webcam out there and saw something i didn't????? Can anyone here tell me what the wind was gusting up there that day???? I didn't catch that....

Rob


----------



## MJR (Sep 19, 2007)

Hey Rob, what wind? Those leaves are not moving at all in your pictures?


----------



## cantcutter (Sep 19, 2007)

Its okay......we all make mistakes


----------



## Wismer (Sep 19, 2007)

Sawyer Rob said:


> NO, i did not cut through the hinge... I sawed out the hinge AFTER the tree was leaning, and attempted to push it out of place with the tree jack...
> 
> Rob



Rob i'm sorry, I'm just trying to help? I didn't realize... it certainly looks like it was dropped that way... if it was to push it with the jack why did you only half the hinge away?


----------



## cantcutter (Sep 20, 2007)

Wismer said:


> Rob i'm sorry, I'm just trying to help? I didn't realize... it certainly looks like it was dropped that way... if it was to push it with the jack why did you only half the hinge away?



If you look at the way it is leaning on the other tree, my guess would be that he cut the right side out to attempt to roll it out of the tree.


----------



## woodshop (Sep 20, 2007)

cantcutter said:


> If you look at the way it is leaning on the other tree, my guess would be that he cut the right side out to attempt to roll it out of the tree.



When my feller-buncher was down, they had us felling by hand to try and keep up with the skidder/loader. I can remember getting ahead of myself and rushing through the timber, and once in a while would get a pine hung up in my hast. I know it is dangerous, and I wouldn't tell anybody to do it, but I have actually done this "rolling" maneuver in medium sized (50-60ft 12" dia) Virginia pines down in MD, and have been successful at dropping several trees that way when they were hung up. These were relatively small trees though. I know... still could have killed me.


----------



## Sawyer Rob (Sep 21, 2007)

Now it's time to skid the logs out. The first one went fairly easy, other than the fact they are up on a big hill in a hard to get to spot...






Once out of the woodlot, i started down the hill and into a sandy valley...











Going down the hill, takes you into a sand pit... I have no idea how you'd ever get these logs out of that sugar sand without MFWD as you have to pull the load up a sandy hill to get out of there. Even with MFWD i spun pulling the loaded trailor up and out of there.






anyway, i left my log trailor on the valley floor, and loaded the logs there...






Now, to get the 16 footer out, and it's further in, and in a tough spot! This is as close as i could get, and not only am i at a poor angle, the log has a stump in front of it!!


----------



## Sawyer Rob (Sep 21, 2007)

You can see in the pict how i handle a problem like this one, i use a "pully" to change the direction of pull. I guess i could cut everything out of my way, and i will have to cut some of the smaller tree's out as i log in deeper, but i try to not cut out any more than i have to.











After some "jockying around", i managed to get the log out where i could get ahold of it with my 3 point hitch and i started skidding it out.






Once i had it out, i loaded it beside the 20 footer...






And headed down the trail to the road home...






FINALLY, i'm out on the road and headed for the sawmill!!






Next job will be to mill these logs into lumber!!

Hope you enjoyed the picts!!

Rob


----------



## aggiewoodbutchr (Sep 21, 2007)

I got to find one of those grapple forks for our skid steer!


----------



## roy clarke (Sep 21, 2007)

That's amazing Rob, how did you train your tractor to do all that by itself?


----------



## cantcutter (Sep 22, 2007)

roy clarke said:


> That's amazing Rob, how did you train your tractor to do all that by itself?



Us 'mericans are amazing.....we can train anything to do our bidding.....except our President of course.....damn cowboy


----------



## BobL (Sep 22, 2007)

Nice picture story Rob - keep the pics coming.


----------



## woodshop (Sep 22, 2007)

Thanks for the pics, I am enjoying this, and wishing I had the space for some of your toys.


----------



## smokechase II (Sep 22, 2007)

*Humboldt*

Using a variety of undercut skills, depending on the tree, can work out.

A steep faced Humboldt, when there is a possibility of a hang-up, can be a big help.
The butt wants to slide off the stump. As always, careful on getting your bar tip stuck.

One could do an openface, where the bottom of the face is the open part. Mimicking the Humboldt and still getting the longer control hinge wood.

Also, making a deeper, into the tree, face does more to encourage the butt separating from the stump. The butt sliding off the stump can jerk the tree free of the limbs holding it above. The open face on every tree thought process isn't always desirable. There are times when getting the butt free of the stump is a tool and also a safety item on slope.

I'm throwing this your way as I think is worthwhile as in the case of the hung-up photo you posted it looks like it was an easy to resolve problem.

*********************************

The best way to deal with this is to do a better job sighting / hinge wood.
Make sure on tighter lays that you sight from down and behind the saw powerhead. You need to see both the target and sight in the same view. If you have a wide lay, you can sight from above, but it is a bad habit.

The post about doing a boring back cut to get the hinge wood just right has a lot of merit. Especially if your bar is long enough.

*************************************

Here is a web sight (pun intended) that shows how to use that tree jack in conjunction with a hanger. I think this cutting of the hinge technique shown is the best. Provided you have a saw with a real bar on it.

*http://www.skogforsk.se/KunskapDirekt/default.aspx?p=11362&bmp=11727*

From the left side menu select: *Film för bredband*

Then again from the left side menu: *Avverkning med motorsåg (10 min)*

At the 5 minute mark is the cutting technique mentioned.

Learning Swedish is not required.


----------



## Sawyer Rob (Sep 23, 2007)

Now it's time to mill the logs into lumber! After rolling the 16 footer onto the mill, i took the first cut...







After taking a couple 5/4 boards off, i turned the log using the mills cable winch log turner...






After sawing, takeing more 5/4 boards and more turning i worked my way around and got the log down to where i could get some 3x8's. These will be rafters on a large porch i'm sawing out...






I also edged all of the 5/4 boards at this time...






Here's the lumber from the 16 foot log...






Continued....


----------



## Sawyer Rob (Sep 23, 2007)

Now to mill the 20 footer!






Man... a 20 foot log is a loooooong log, and a LOT of extra work handleing it and the lumber... Here it is, turned and ready for another cut...






All the side lumber was sawn out into 5/4 boards, but this is what i was after! It's a 6"x10" beam, 20 feet long!!






Here's all the lumber back on the trailor, ready to be delivered!






So, off i go to deliver all of the lumber to my customer/friends warehouse! I unload it there, and he takes care of stickering it under the roof in the back ground!






That's it for this time... and i hope you enjoyed the picts!!

Rob


----------



## BobL (Sep 23, 2007)

Sawyer Rob said:


> That's it for this time... and i hope you enjoyed the picts!!



Thanks Rob, that 20 6x10 footer looks impressive.
Bet your favorite drink tasted real nice after that lot!


----------



## dustytools (Sep 23, 2007)

Once again, Great job Sawyer Rob!!! One of these days Im gonna have me some toys like that.


----------

