Face cuts in Australia

[Dennisthemenace]

Nobody uses Humboldts, any ideas why? Shorter bars maybe?

 

[Exophysical]

The main reason to use a humbolt is so that a lumber or plywood mill can face off the butt quicker, more easily, with less waste. In most other cases you will gain fiber by using an over cut and a lower stump, though if the butt has a pronounced flair it could cause complications in the debarker which a pulp or OSB mill might not want to deal with, at which point an undercut once again becomes beneficial.

So the practicality of the Humboldt depends on a bunch of different factors. For general firewood its pretty hard for me to imagine a scenario where an undercut will gain you anything besides style points.

 

[EchoRomeoCharlie]

The main reason to use a humbolt is so that a lumber or plywood mill can face off the butt quicker, more easily, with less waste. In most other cases you will gain fiber by using an over cut and a lower stump, though if the butt has a pronounced flair it could cause complications in the debarker which a pulp or OSB mill might not want to deal with, at which point an undercut once again becomes beneficial.

So the practicality of the Humboldt depends on a bunch of different factors. For general firewood its pretty hard for me to imagine a scenario where an undercut will gain you anything besides style points.

All that and in big wood it lets the face wedge fall out easier. So someone production cutting will be less fatigued at the end of the day messing around with it.

But yeah, there's nothing magical about the Humboldt style face cut....it's just another option in the tool box. You can cut a Humboldt with a short bar...that really doesn't have anything to do with it in my opinion.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

There is also the terrain in which it's cut. If it's on a steep hillside, a humboldt face cut on the downhill side is almost below ground level on the uphill side so you're getting the most from your log.

 

[HumBurner]

The main reason to use a humbolt is so that a lumber or plywood mill can face off the butt quicker, more easily, with less waste. In most other cases you will gain fiber by using an over cut and a lower stump, though if the butt has a pronounced flair it could cause complications in the debarker which a pulp or OSB mill might not want to deal with, at which point an undercut once again becomes beneficial.

So the practicality of the Humboldt depends on a bunch of different factors. For general firewood its pretty hard for me to imagine a scenario where an undercut will gain you anything besides style points.

It also has a lot to do with wood type and direction of fall/control needed and the terrain. Advantages and disadvantages to both, especially when working in the woods on steep terrain.

 

[Philbert]

My understanding is that a Humbolt will also ‘throw’ a trunk off of the stump.

Philbert

 

[rtrsam]

My understanding is that a Humbolt will also ‘throw’ a trunk off of the stump.

Philbert

Yeah, sort of. Maybe. Less likely to have the butt end of the tree sitting on top of the stump but other factors (large limbs low on the tree) can counteract this. If I want to make sure the tree leaves the stump I'll shoot it off with a kerf cut, cutting the flat part of the hinge beyond the angled part a couple inches. Usually on steep ground where I want the tree to go way downhill from the stump. Kerf dutchman will work with a conventional face cut too.

 

[oldbuzzard]

Yeah, sort of. Maybe. Less likely to have the butt end of the tree sitting on top of the stump but other factors (large limbs low on the tree) can counteract this. If I want to make sure the tree leaves the stump I'll shoot it off with a kerf cut, cutting the flat part of the hinge beyond the angled part a couple inches. Usually on steep ground where I want the tree to go way downhill from the stump. Kerf dutchman will work with a conventional face cut too.

So this would be a Dutchman that is undercut evenly across the face cut?