IS BBR the best logger you've ever seen?

[slowp]

So then, which one would you rather fall trees with, the former or latter?

I would go work with either.

One no longer logs, the other was still going when I retired. I have worked with the gonna cut 'er down guy. I had him cut some problem trees around my house later on. He gave me specific instructions on where to hook a chain on the logs to pull them out of the way with my pickup. I followed those and was able to do what I did not think could be done. He retired, then started logging again--he's also got a cat, a skidder, and a shovel. He did have an ancient yarder which ran sometimes. He'd be in his 70s now.

I also was out working with the younger, production faller for a few days while we picked out hazard trees to fall along a busy road. I was confident in his abilities, but I did get well out of the way for a few trees as I am a klutz. One tree folded up while he was cutting and I was glad to see him wave after he got out of the way.

I used to go out with the road crew and cut open roads after storms. The younger faller was driving by when I was up on a cut bank. He stopped, got out, and hollered up, "Now I get to watch you work for a change." He did.

 

[slowp]

If you want to bone up on hand filing a chain, you should consult with a chaser (guy on landing who unhooks logs and cuts off any limbs the cutter left on). They are in charge of The Landing Saw and keep the chain sharp. I've seen a couple of them prop the saw up on end and go down the chain filing on all teeth, no need to flip the saw over.

 

[slabMan]

i feel plagiarized lol

I tried to get that link in there but AS BRASS would have none of it! So I busted out the paste! lmao

 

[slabMan]

I would go work with either.

One no longer logs, the other was still going when I retired. I have worked with the gonna cut 'er down guy. I had him cut some problem trees around my house later on. He gave me specific instructions on where to hook a chain on the logs to pull them out of the way with my pickup. I followed those and was able to do what I did not think could be done. He retired, then started logging again--he's also got a cat, a skidder, and a shovel. He did have an ancient yarder which ran sometimes. He'd be in his 70s now.

I also was out working with the younger, production faller for a few days while we picked out hazard trees to fall along a busy road. I was confident in his abilities, but I did get well out of the way for a few trees as I am a klutz. One tree folded up while he was cutting and I was glad to see him wave after he got out of the way.

I used to go out with the road crew and cut open roads after storms. The younger faller was driving by when I was up on a cut bank. He stopped, got out, and hollered up, "Now I get to watch you work for a change." He did.

I tried to get that link in there but AS BRASS would have none of it! So I busted out the paste! lmao

That is a cool write up--I thought I saw 'northman' in there! [2014]

 

[j-jock]

Double check with TNM above on these-
Straw line - lighter cable used to pull the mainline out to a tail hold.
Road - the area below the mainline, logs are pulled from either side and then up.
Cat skinner - bulldozer operator/road builder. Also the phrase- 'punch a road in' ->build a road.
Powder monkey - person who removes stumps with dynamite (the old way)

If you want some drama for your book-
Tree hugger - person who attaches them selves to a tree in order to prevent it being cut. They can also attach themselves to buildings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tre_Arrow
...and lived on a nine-inch ledge for eleven days...

Must have got confused and thought he was a flying squirrel...
In October 2001, he suffered a broken pelvis, broken ribs and a concussion when he fell 60 feet from a hemlock tree where he had perched to protest a logging sale in Tillamook County.
Yup,

Tail hold sometimes pronounced tale holdt is a stump or tree used to hold the end of a line, be it a guy line or main line, or haulback.

Powder monkey, pretty much any yahoo willing to drag high explosives around, Yes we used to and sometimes still do blast stumps, although most of the blasting is done in hard rock for road building (truck roads) stumps aren't what they used to be...

Donkey puncher, sometimes used for the yarder engineer, its a hold over from the donkey steam engines used to yard logs at the beggining of the last centuery (S?)

Cat skinner like he said any one driving a dozer, usually someone good at it,

Both donkey puncher and Cat Skinner are evolutions of the original Bull Punchers, the hard boiled mean sobs that drove the oxen around dragging massive logs out of the forest. sometimes in teams of 20 or so oxen...

Skid Road, used to be the road that was built to skid logs into town with oxen, now and sometimes then its where the down and out live. In the woods its still a term used for any trail that a skidder or dozer used to drag logs on.

Cat, any tracked machine with a blade not just Caterpillar, kinda like Coke for any form of soda pop (which begs the question how does the poor kid behind the counter know if you want 7UP, Root Beer or just regular old Cola?)

Cutter, timber fallers, at least the hand fallers... lot of it done by machine now.

Feller Buncher, timber falling machine, loosely based on an excavator, though anymore they are completely different.

Grapple Cat, Cat with a log grapple on the back to skid logs with, or any kitty cat which likes to dig its claws into your leg whilst petting...

Bull Buck,

As far as Tre Arrow, read douche bad in the dictionary. Dude has gone on record saying he doesn't use TP, and advocates "activists" tying nooses around their necks so if some poor logger cuts some random line in a tree that just happens to be holding up said activists butt, our poor logger gets arrested for murder. Blood starts to boil pretty quickly when these folks show up to save... well anything...

P.S. most green movements are very well funded, Green Peace has been on a hiring drive for nearly a year now, trying to hire people to "recruit" more people to their cause, paying fairly well too. (like $15. an hour) Makes me wonder just how many "protesters" over the years have been making better than minimum wage to basically go camping.

But I digress and am dancing the line of politics...

Everything I have seen above, is the same In BC,
Bull bucker, the boss of all the the fallers (cutters)
Gyppo outfit. A small time private contractor. They may contract out to a larger company, or have purchased their own timber lease.
Grapple yarder, A yarder setup to operate a set of claws to grab and pull the logs up the hill to the landing.

 

[slowp]

MY BAD aS--
Hello forum, I just wanted to introduce myself since I am new. My name is Stefan Magi Fionn (pen name), I am an author and I am currently writing a fictional book where the main characters are loggers in washington state/ oregon state (havent made up mind yet to what state). I have been trying to do research on what gear, tools etc, method of operation, jargon of logging crews in the pacific northwest. It is difficult for me to pin point that area with regards especially to jargon on the web. For instance, loggers in the south may have a different way of going about there business or the jargon they use opposed to that of the pacific northwest.

Another question: When Loggers go into a forest to harvest timber, do they do so by the plot (taking everything)? Or do they go in and mark certain trees and leave others behind? What trees are most sought after?

Thanks in advance for any help you will be able to provide, I'm having alot of difficulty finding the accurate details that I need.

Logged

thenorthman​

• Senior Member
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• Posts: 850
• Location: Western Warshington...
• Now we're logging
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Re: Attn: Pacific Northwest loggers: whats your daily line of work like?​

« Reply #1 on: August 27, 2014, 08:41:52 AM »

I guess to start, there are several types of sales, but basically they are thinning or clear cuts. Thinning's being only taking selected timber usually for stand improvement, many reasons for a thinning. Clear cuts are done to harvest everything, usually all one species of timber since most forests around here have been planted, although you still get volunteers of different species of timber, clear cuts are done for several reasons as well, mostly as a way of replanting a whole new crop, some timber grows better with no competition.

As far as marking timber, that is usually left up to the foresters and sale managers, if loggers where to be left to mark their own timber, all sales would be clear cuts...

As far as jargon goes... there is a list somewhere... much of it crosses over east to west, north to south...

Landing, area where the logs are stacked and processed waiting for transport to the mill.

Yarder, machine with multiple winches and usually a tower to drag logs of the side of a mountain

Yard, dragging logs in to the landing

choker, cables used to hook logs to be yarder, consists of to bullets/ferrules, a length of cable, and a bell that the ferules fit into to create a snare, hence choke the logs, like they could breath right...

chaser, person responsible for unhooking chokers at the landing, usually a newbie in the woods

brush apes, persons responsible for setting chokers in bushes

rigging slinger, lead of the brush apes

choker man, minion of the rigging slinger

yarder engineer, person that controls the yarder

Talkie Tooter, way of communicating between landing and brush apes, system of radios attached to a whistle on the yarder, a series of beeps like morse code is used.

Hook Tender, person responsible for the rigging on the yarder, also responsible for picking the next setting of the rigging and

Rigging, miles of cable, mountains of snatch blocks, and heaps of shackles required to keep a yarder crew working.

Side Rod, boss of a side

Side, any unit being logged

Show, see side

Shovel, log loader, usually a converted excavator, with log grapples and a healing rack.

There are many more but I have to go now...

I am confused. WHO is the book writer, and what specific questions does the writer have? This post quoted, seems to be both questions and then a lesson in terminology.

I have a background/education in forestry and retired after working as what loggers called, The Forester. Am an expert with a paint gun. (spray type).

 

[slowp]

Saw a post that states if loggers marked timber, it would be clearcut.

Not so. The last few years I worked, our budget had been nuked so timber marking by the agency was not an option. The prescription for each unit was described in the timber sale contract, and the purchaser/logger was responsible to implement the prescription.

There were a few professional timber markers who did some of the marking. On other sales, the fallers were put in charge. The fallers did as well as the pros and took the job just as seriously as falling.

I was out frequently checking the marking and the cutting. It went smoothly for the most part after we all understood what was to be done.

A couple of fallers said they liked marking, as they had to think a lot. The prescriptions were a bit complicated.

 

[slabMan]

I am confused. WHO is the book writer, and what specific questions does the writer have? This post quoted, seems to be both questions and then a lesson in terminology.

I have a background/education in forestry and retired after working as what loggers called, The Forester. Am an expert with a paint gun. (spray type).

"Stefan Magi Fionn (pen name), I am an author and I am currently writing a fictional book where the main characters are loggers in washington state/ oregon state (havent made up mind yet to what state)" Are you sure Carl Sagan said that quote? I thought that was the Russian writer [Issac Asimov]...but I have been wrong before! lol

 

[slabMan]

"Stefan Magi Fionn (pen name), I am an author and I am currently writing a fictional book where the main characters are loggers in washington state/ oregon state (havent made up mind yet to what state)" Are you sure Carl Sagan said that quote? I thought that was the Russian writer [Issac Asimov]...but I have been wrong before! lol

Northmanlogging is your guy for your question above. He is the author of that good info and 'terminology'.

 

[northmanlogging]

I am confused. WHO is the book writer, and what specific questions does the writer have? This post quoted, seems to be both questions and then a lesson in terminology.

I have a background/education in forestry and retired after working as what loggers called, The Forester. Am an expert with a paint gun. (spray type).

??? I don't remember? its from awhile ago, years even? Never heard anything else as to where the writing went.

 

[slabMan]

2014 FF SITE "attn pnw loggers, what is your line of work?"

 

[Gologit]

Never watched him. What is your definition of "logger"? There are some damn good ones, and my definition would be one who hires good fallers, good rigging crew or skidder operators, and makes the land owner happy with the results. It isn't just "dropping" trees.

I think those people don't make youtube videos.

They don't need to make videos. They don't need to polish their ego. The best fallers and loggers I've ever seen were quiet men, humble even.
They didn't need to brag. Their work spoke for itself.

 

[slowp]

I watched a little bit of a billy whoever video. Just a bit before the lecture about hats began. He looked to be a bit jerky while bucking. The good guys make it look easy and smooth. He long butted a log and I don't know why. Maybe the diameter was too big for the mill? An explanation would have been nice. Then the video switched to in the house and a hat discussion began. I switched it off.

 

[Mike Ray]

I watch a video on you tube about a makita 7900 as I like my makita's, this was a young guy working with a more experienced faller. They were production fallers and I was paying more attention to the saw but toward the end it showed the more experienced faller in action, and showing the younger guy a tip on his falling cut that he could maybe fall 20 more trees in a day, he was a very humble guy but definitely knew what he was doing, but alas he was running a stihl.

 

[slabMan]

I watched a little bit of a billy whoever video. Just a bit before the lecture about hats began. He looked to be a bit jerky while bucking. The good guys make it look easy and smooth. He long butted a log and I don't know why. Maybe the diameter was too big for the mill? An explanation would have been nice. Then the video switched to in the house and a hat discussion began. I switched it off.

You thought Buckin Billy was a bit 'jerky' in the cut? You may be right, IDK. He definitely has some good grinds on his cadenas! He likes to say, "Stand up and buck". That is easy to do when you are not into the dirty wood. I also switch him off when he goes back to the 'house and hat' [ADHD] mode! lol

 

[slabMan]

I watch a video on you tube about a makita 7900 as I like my makita's, this was a young guy working with a more experienced faller. They were production fallers and I was paying more attention to the saw but toward the end it showed the more experienced faller in action, and showing the younger guy a tip on his falling cut that he could maybe fall 20 more trees in a day, he was a very humble guy but definitely knew what he was doing, but alas he was running a stihl.

I think that was one of the WCS [west coast saw] vids of "Gordy" running a Dolmar [makita]. Gordy seems humble, as you say.

 

[Mike Ray]

went back to ck it was guilty of treeson.

 

[slabMan]

All of my 6421's [3] I have had seemed like they lack top end and seemed a bit heavy for the pop you get out of them...The 7900's also appears to lug a bit compared to even a ms460/461/462,. This vid supports that call, IMHO.

 

[056kid]

Haven't read to see if he's been mentioned, but Marcel Levesque is a good place to start, along with loads of people who were/are proficient in the big timber. There are some very skilled fallers here on AS, though.

There's a happy medium between speed & destruction, & taking all ******* day to put a face into a 2nd growth redwood. One of the aforementioned names here is a hell of a faller, but he takes so ******* long to get a tree down. Yes, you can take your time & save them out to the whispy tip tops, but show me why it's impossible to make all of the same judgements & cuts, achieving the same results, just in 1/3 of the time or less. For a person who takes about God constantly, he sure does get a tad bit sanctimonious when challenged on his pace. Like nobody posing the question could POSSIBLY be better.

 

[056kid]

the treeson guys posted a vid all about the who's and whats of different face cuts, and I was out... so? if there was a dude in Arlingtown that can cut that would be news to me, bunch of tit pullers up there lol, gotta head up 530 to find any decent cutters Shortly after the face cuts vid, they parked a crane on a spensive McMansion down in Itchysqaw, and frankly I wasn't surprised. (pretty sure I picked logs up after that crane operator, like 2 weeks before the house incident...) To be fair, I find a lot of the tree service type vids pointlessly complicated and drawn out... so don't hold what I say about Guilty of treesinning too high. Like a lot of tree services I feel that things get overly technical so they can justify what they are charging.

Hotsaws101 is a skookum cutter fer sure, look into Dangercat(his I'm doing something ill advised channel) Learned a bunch from him when I got serious about cutting timber.
TarzanThomas is a pretty good channel too, though he's switched over to more tree service type stuff he still gets a few clearing projects now and then.

Cranes piss me off...

The operator hung that top in the road & then got out of the crane to screw around in his pickup. The top started rotating & almost hit the ground on the nearby powerline....... Everybody had really dull saws as well.
They will block the road for a day with no notice, just to kill a 14"dbh 50' tall pine tree. I can only imagine what they charge to have something like that on the job.