How high do you cut your falling hinges?

[murphy4trees]

How high do you cut your falling hinges...
I like to cut them as low as possible, so that I don't have to make another flush cut on the stump. Leaving that stub makes for an extra cut and extra time in handling the new piece of wood. If it's a small or medium tree and the stump is getting ground, I may make it a little higher, up to 10" high, and let the stump grinder finish the job. If its a big tree I'll try to make it as low as I can but stay above some of the flare, high enough so the hinge isn't much longer than the bar of the saw. Of course if there is decay and it's a tricky fall, I'll pick the height with the soundest holding wood.
I believe a great advantage to keeping the hinge in the flare is that it offers much greater strength in the holding wood. Of course the hinge will be longer, and what may be less understood is that there is a stronger quality to the fibers in the flare, as anyone whom has split much firewood can attest to. This offers an edge when falling against a side lean.

 

[Lumberjack]

On a usual tree I make it so that I am at a comfortable height. The stump gets cut off in the second proccess. I really dont like cuttin the notch low, cause it makes me bend over more than I would have to. On the stump cut I can just sit down, or take a knee, and keep my back from bending over for long times (on big trees).

Since I dont sell the wood it doesnt matter tho.

I agree that the trunk flare wood is much stronger, but several people have posted here that the grain of the wood is different so it can sometime react diff than the wood higher up.

But I really got to get to school, so see yall all tonight!

 

[Lumberjack]

Oh one more thing, sometimes I make the hinge higher or lower to miss an obstical, like when dropping a tree, not a pole. This Saturday I dropped a small tree, but I had to make the hinge at about shoulder high so that the limbs would miss the house and the fence.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

What Carl said. It all depends.

Though for the most part it's around 16 inches so that there is a sitck of usable fire wood after the flush.

if it's all going into the chipper, then either real low ar high enough for a descent lenght stick to stuff in the feed.

 

[ROLLACOSTA]

i read on our uk health and safety website where some hack [old guy and couple of teanagers] felled a large cedar trunk 1.5 meters from the ground cut through the hinge and cant quite remember if they done some damage or injured one of them...but 1.5 meter of the ground is what i couldnt get over thats nearly 5 ft im wondering how tall the cutter was lol

 

[TheTreeSpyder]

i go for safe crouch ready to evacuate height while cutting, lending well to aiming too.

If i need the extra length to reach head further over something, give more leverage to C.o.B. or line pull in a shallow leaner; then i look at cutting lower trading away some safety carefully; feeling that trades away evacuation time etc. Or extra leverage against sidelean if that will make a wider hinge; otherwise, you could be increasing the leverage of the side lean qwithout increasing leveraged support in hinge? In a hard forward lean, i would generally elect to cut higher, not lower; as to not give lean more leveraged length; when too much power to it seems as a problem already by virtue of the hard lean.

Every once in a while cut low not to have to deal with another stump cut, but not usually.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Of course it depends on the tree, but I prefer my throwing cut to be my ALAP cut... whenever possible.

 

[rborist1]

:Eye:

 

[Stumper]

It depends of course but if I don't have move my felling cut for some reason I'll usually make it about knee high. That gets things out of the dirt, above the flare and where it doesn't create a big strain on the anatomy.-And the final cut will yieald a firewood chunk.

 

[Eagle1]

MB... you don't drop trees. Don't blow my superman image of you I have in my head. I think if you had to drop a tree, you would ride it down saftyed to a boom.

 

[Gypo Logger]

The lower the stump the better if we are getting a sawlog out of it, however, if it's just a Goontree, than do the Backache Barney stump where one can stand erect for the extra control of direction that it will afford. We can always lower the stump later.
One can always tell it's low enough when the local greaseball can baha over it with his Corvette.
John

 

[MasterBlaster]

Hey! Wheres the top of that picture?

You know... the one where you're holding the log!

 

[Lumberjack]

ANSI 9.5.15 says that all cuts should be made above the highest ground level as to allow the feller to do his thing, and have the ability to escape if neccessary.

 

[rahtreelimbs]

I always try to make them as high as is comfortable. If I need to get out in a hurry for some unforseen reason, the last thing I want to do is have to stand up to get moving.

 

[rbtree]

Whenever we're salvaging timber, I'll cut way low, and use a humboldt if appropriate. Otherwise, the cut will be wherever makes the most sense for the situation.

 

[murphy4trees]

handling extra wood is no fun... on that elm removal we took down around 15 trees.... If I had cut them all 2' high, that would have been 15 extra pieces to move, load by hand and drive off sight...
The way the job went... all logs were moved with the log dolly and picked up and removed by a contracted log loader..
That is a significant time and energy saver for those who strive for efficiency.

 

[Trees Company]

I usaully cut low so i don't have to make a second cut too. And it helps when pulling a tree or stem over.

 

[murphy4trees]

Here's a big backyard tulip removal.... around 36"...
I ended up using the log dolly, pulled by a pick up, to move most of the logs to the street and skidded the last 6' out on a piece of plywood... Handling a flush cut wheel of that size would have been a hastle.. The log loader took it all away and an RG 50 finished the stump quickly...

Why add an extra pice of wood to handle.... load, drive, dump etc.. Fortunately there was a wide landing zone... Even without that the notch was clean and the fall was well directed..

I Am pleased with the poll.... my first...
Seems like there is a good spread amongst us.. I Am wondering if there is a regional difference or experience is a factor...
I started high and got progressively lower as my falling skills and experience grew....

 

[Lumberjack]

Oh I almost forgot to say.

I used it today, and like it.

The tree wasnt huge 30" or so, but dead as everything. I might like it more when i get the aiming down, and I think that I might like it more on smaller stuff (limbs and such). The aiming just seemed weird, probably in my head tho.

O lord, just now on the news, a guy in another county got arrested for crystal meth along with some other stuff. His name? Carl T Rutherford (which is my exact name and middle initial).

 

[murphy4trees]

O lord, just now on the news, a guy in another county got arrested for crystal meth along with some other stuff. His name? Carl T Rutherford (which is my exact name and middle initial).

That is really really bad news.... you must be feeling something like the airline marketing execs must have felt on 9/12/01...
That could take its toll for years... your name is tarnished and there is no way to make it right.... unless maybe get the local paper to run a story about you... What you're doing is pretty unusual for a school boy.. the fact that you stay current with progressive techniques and practices etc... All very cool and a good local spin for the paper... maybe have them do a story called "the 2 Carl T Rutherfords"... If you could schedule taking a test for ISA certification it would even look better... You might be one of the youngest ever CAs... certainly in your chapter..

Back to topic...
One thing I started doing on straight sticks or slight front leaners is to make the notch less than 1/3 of the way through.. This minimzes the extra cutting that an open face creates on a large notch...
Haven't noticed any ill effects.. Seems like there is still plenty of holding wood to do the job...

Your thoughts???