Alder around here is one of the worst species that will chair out when they lean ,I nip all those in the sides .
Like you said the tree came down safely and that's what matters.
Sure they chair from time to time. Usually some huge rotten POS that you can't cut up fast enough or that didn't show a lightning seam that grew over. I chair about two trees a year out of many thousands. I sure as hell don't drag straps or chains around with me when I cut. Those only come out to pull the log truck around.
Well you could put your face in(wide open if you're nervous), gut the heart wood from the face, then bore cut the back. I rarely bore cut any more because it is too time consuming and too great a risk to have the tree sit on your bar, but that's the way they want it done by the books. The way I do it is put in your face, bore heart wood again, then cut the back cut one side at a time. The side I'm closer to I will cut from the back to the hinge. Then I will go around to the other side of the tree and cut from the hinge to the back. Mind your tip and don't keep it in any spot too long. You can feel when it gets tight. I just came off of a big oak job that I had to cut nearly everyone like that. I'm in the business of making logs so split logs don't sell to the mill. If you are really serious about learning I will post pictures and maybe some video. There's no reason why a guy can't learn to be safer when he is cutting. I cut alone and cut about a million bf a year. You need every trick you can get to walk out of the woods every day. Every time you cut a tree you increase your chances of that not happening.
Wonder what it would be like to dump this one? 
I agree.
So true.
Thank you sir! Here's a good chair from 4 years ago. Hickory that split 25 feet up. Was around 30" on the stump. It had a lightning scar on the one side that I didn't see. I couldn't saw fast enough once it started opening up.
I didn't. I was handed a saw one day and was told put a notch in where you want it to fall. Then I was left alone for the week to clear a few acres of some big nasty box elder. Day two I had a 4ft boxelder explode on me. It was like lightning. Maybe the scariest thing that had happened to me up to that point. I never told anyone. I started reading some books and eventually started watching YouTube when guys started putting tree cutting videos up. I tried different ways to manipulate the hinge in order to manipulate the tree. I also started quietly reading and learning and posting here. 90 percent of my learning had been at the stump. Instincts play a big role. Not everyone has them.
It's amazing how easy bitternut hickory will split. I split one length ways once just by dropping the log from the logarch to the ground.
