Osage Orange limbs and trees dropped

[Joe Kuhn]

Here's a walk about video I made for the owner of the house who lives in another state: WalkAbout

To do:

Rake up the small branches on three sides of the house.
Mow.
Get the garbage cans to the curb in time for Monday pickup.
Dig and cut up the stumps from the small weed trees so the mower will not hit and seeding can be done.
Reposition all the border bricks.
Pull weeds in front (not shown), trim front bushes and lay down mulch.
Seed new grass in the back yard and along the side where the brush was. This will take a lot of dirt and seed.
Add some decorative flowers along the side of the house where the brush was.
Add some decorative flowers/bushes by the shed.

 

[Joe Kuhn]

If you end up with some relatively straight pieces several inches in diameter do a little research. You might find you have some nice staves for bow making.

Finally got a chance to dig the piece out from my pile. It's a little over 6 feet long, 3 inches in diameter at the thick end and 2 inches at the thin end, with an elbow in it. What do you think?

 

[Marine5068]

The neighbor down the street is going to sell his house and asked me to help clear his Osage Orange limbs that have killed about half of the grass in his back yard.

His son purchased a pole saw and we spent our first weekend dropping limbs we could reach and dragging them to the curb for the township to pick up. This month we're working on his 2 Osage Orange trees that need to go. They were clearly not tall enough to touch the house when dropped.

The first one has quite a bit of lean to it and some rotted trunk as you can see below. The one to the left of this first tree needed to stay (hidden by branches).

View attachment 857846

I chose to notch it relatively high and short. Short because of all the rotted trunk. (You can see the second one targeted to go to the right of the one with the notch, but again, just the part to the right that is leaning towards his house needed to drop.)

View attachment 857847

The hinge was pretty thick on this first one, so there was more falling work to do to get the whole trunk on the ground. It was stuck on the stump with a thick hinge so I whittled away at it, but it finally was loose so I could then go to the branches. One thing I learned about branches is when a tree is on the ground, you have to reverse how you do them or your saw can get bound up and then you've got trouble.

For branches when a tree is on the ground, instead of cutting below and then on top as you would when a tree is standing, you reverse the procedure and cut above and then below. Then everything falls away and you aren't standing there with your saw's bar stuck in the branch. Duh. It's sort of a bridge (H) type of pressure situation rather than a tee (T) when a tree is standing. When a tree is on the ground, you make a short cut on top and then cut through from below because of the pressure on the middle & top side of the branch. This reminds me of my mother's clothes line I used to see when I was a boy.

Here's another view of that first tree's wedge. Get out of the way!

View attachment 857848

The second tree was wedged closer to the ground and I took a second pass at it to get an even shorter stump. It had a much thinner hinge that broke completely through and was easier to get to the ground.

View attachment 857850

The rest of the story is just a lot of work, but I did learn some things about my saw as well. Here you can see the gold dust I was able to produce with it. I like this saw. It has a nice bark to it and goes through this hard wood fast. I'm sure it helps to have a new bar and chain.

View attachment 857851

I ran it out of gas and after filling, it didn't want to start. I had to turn out (richen) the Low end screw for some reason. Then it started, but didn't want to cut well at the high end, so the high end screw had to be turned out as well. I didn't turn either screw much, just about a quarter of a turn. I went the wrong way on the High end screw at first, but that was pretty obvious when it ran even worse, so I just reversed it and got back to cutting pretty quickly. I might have it all backwards in terms of how I turned the screws, but it doesn't matter. If it's worse, you go the other way.

I'm certainly open to feedback on my whole story. I'm learning a lot from this and enjoy hearing from you guys with the experience.

I like your story and I am by no means an expert feller, but I've been around for 55 years learning all I can so that says something I guess. Been felling trees in large forests, hedgerows, farmlands and yard trees for around 35 of those years.
Osage is very very hard wood and It'll probably take a couple of years or more to season before burning, just so you know.
Great old saw there. It's a good one.
All I would say is to make you wedge cuts wider mouth so when the tree falls it doesn't close before it hits the ground.
That can cause the trunk to dangerously kick backwards or off to the side or upwards from the mouth being already closed while its still in the air and falling.
Not so much an issue on that one there.
Secondly I would say to not fill the stove with all Osage or it could overheat. It puts out tremendous BTUs.
I'd just mix it in slowly with lesser BTU woods.
Hope you get some great fires with it.
Nice scrounge.

 

[Joe Kuhn]

I like your story and I am by no means an expert feller, but I've been around for 55 years learning all I can so that says something I guess. Been felling trees in large forests, hedgerows, farmlands and yard trees for around 35 of those years.
Osage is very very hard wood and It'll probably take a couple of years or more to season before burning, just so you know.
Great old saw there. It's a good one.
All I would say is to make you wedge cuts wider mouth so when the tree falls it doesn't close before it hits the ground.
That can cause the trunk to dangerously kick backwards or off to the side or upwards from the mouth being already closed while its still in the air and falling.
Not so much an issue on that one there.
Secondly I would say to not fill the stove with all Osage or it could overheat. It puts out tremendous BTUs.
I'd just mix it in slowly with lesser BTU woods.
Hope you get some great fires with it.
Nice scrounge.

"Wider mouth" - got it. And mixed wood - can do. Found some abandoned wood outside a fence 2 doors down that is a much lighter wood and very dry. Will have to talk to the folks that moved in there and see if they mind, or maybe split it for them and earn some for myself. It's people like you that make this such a great site. Thanks for your notes.

 

[Marine5068]

I love the helmets with the pivoting hearing protection. I want one. Recommendations?

I've got an Echo brand woodcutter's helmet, but there are good ones from Husky and Stihl as well.
It's good but by no means a professional set-up.
Got it for about $60 CAD at Home Depot.
Got some half wrap safety chaps at TSC for around $60 CAD as well.
I wear ear plugs under the muffs too and safety glasses under the mesh visor.
Along with good safety boots and gloves and that's it.

 

[Marine5068]

"Wider mouth" - got it. And mixed wood - can do. Found some abandoned wood outside a fence 2 doors down that is a much lighter wood and very dry. Will have to talk to the folks that moved in there and see if they mind, or maybe split it for them and earn some for myself. It's people like you that make this such a great site. Thanks for your notes.

You're very welcome.

 

[Joe Kuhn]

I've got an Echo brand woodcutter's helmet, but there are good ones from Husky and Stihl as well.
It's good but by no means a professional set-up.
Got it for about $60 CAD at Home Depot.
Got some half wrap safety chaps at TSC for around $60 CAD as well.
I wear ear plugs under the muffs too and safety glasses under the mesh visor.
Along with good safety boots and gloves and that's it.

I wear ear plugs from my trapshooting sport, so that helps. And I found out about chaps yesterday while cutting the pile in back of my own house. The saw dust infiltrates everywhere. Pants and socks were full of it and itchy. A helmet and boots are next on my list to get. Gotta protect my top knot and my toes.

One thing I like to do is cut off from the far side of my home made sawbuck. It's made of 3 round trunk pieces with two on top of those. I place the piece to cut on top of the top 2 and cut from the far side so those 2 pieces are between me and the business end of the saw. I stabilize my sawbuck with split pieces of wood on each side of bottom pieces to keep them from rolling.

I purchased these three new tools for the splitting work I'm about to start.



Love the pointed wedge for starting a chunk and that soft 4 lb hammer on the right has come in handy for getting my new long handled axe unstuck. In testing my new axe, I've had trouble hitting the same spot twice. Any tips?

 

[Short timer]

Watch your eyes with those wedges, when they get used often, they can start getting peened thin in areas, sending metal fragments flying from a hammer strike.

Also, you should look into an actual splitting maul like the fiskars X27.

 

[Joe Kuhn]

Saw one of those at the hardware store. Should have known it was a good one as there was only one left.



Here's the feature list for my own reference:

• Designed for maximum efficiency to give you more one-strike splits
• Perfected balance and power-to-weight ratio increases swing speed to multiply power, much like an aluminum baseball bat
• Advanced bevel convex blade geometry adds power and makes the blade easier to remove from wood
• Unique head shape disperses wood from the blade for clean splitting
• Proprietary blade-grinding technique provides a sharper edge for better contact and cleaner cuts
• Low-friction blade coating powers through wood and prevents head from getting stuck
• Inseparable insert-molded head will not loosen and prevents overstrike breakage
• Shock-absorbing FiberComp® handle is lightweight yet stronger than steel to prevent overstrike damage

Dang! Ok, will try one.

 

[buzz sawyer]

You will like the Fiskars.
Put an old tire around the log to keep the pieces from flying away.
Start from the outside and work your way in - usually easier than starting from the middle.
If the log is really hard to spit, cut down partway with the saw - then use the Fiskars.

 

[Joe Kuhn]

You will like the Fiskars.
Put an old tire around the log to keep the pieces from flying away.
Start from the outside and work your way in - usually easier than starting from the middle.
If the log is really hard to spit, cut down partway with the saw - then use the Fiskars.

It doesn't have sights on it though. Maybe I won't need to hit the same spot twice.

I like the tire idea and working from the outside in. Never heard that before. And to use the saw to get started. I should have thought of that one.

 

[Joe Kuhn]

You will like the Fiskars.
Put an old tire around the log to keep the pieces from flying away.
Start from the outside and work your way in - usually easier than starting from the middle.
If the log is really hard to spit, cut down partway with the saw - then use the Fiskars.

I love the Fiskars. It comes loose from a partial split so easily. Wow. My son came out to try it right away. We're splitting wood now!

 

[Joe Kuhn]

...Also, you should look into an actual splitting maul like the fiskars X27.

Yep, love it.

 

[Short timer]

Sweet! They work good compared to what you were using.

 

[Joe Kuhn]

Sweet! They work good compared to what you were using.

Yep. Thanks to everybody for the help. We start stacking today.

 

[Marine5068]

It doesn't have sights on it though. Maybe I won't need to hit the same spot twice.

I like the tire idea and working from the outside in. Never heard that before. And to use the saw to get started. I should have thought of that one.

Best thing to do is to keep in touch with all of us here on the site as we can answer any questions you may have about wood, trees, cutting and tools and techniques.
You'll find that experience comes from others and from...well, experience doing it.
Good luck and be safe.
Wear those safety glasses all the time.

 

[Joe Kuhn]

Best thing to do is to keep in touch with all of us here on the site as we can answer any questions you may have about wood, trees, cutting and tools and techniques.
You'll find that experience comes from others and from...well, experience doing it.
Good luck and be safe.
Wear those safety glasses all the time.

Yep, wearing them all the time. Yep, keeping in touch: Today I'm trying the idea of splitting wood inside a tire as shown below. My son suggested I do this on top of some short pieces, so that's first. Was going to try a piece of 3/4" plywood underneath my tire, but I'll have to cut some...for tomorrow. I'll toss the split pieces directly into my wheel barrow and take them back to the pile at the red arrow when it's full. My reason for putting something under the tire is to keep from beating up my lawn so much as I work through the pile.



My car mechanic gave me the tire to try and showed me his Honda motor powered splitter in back of his shop. I didn't even ask if I could use it. Hey, I've got a Fiskers!

 

[Joe Kuhn]

Splitting on top of a piece of plywood is bad. It acts like a spring - it's not solid, so I went back to splitting on top of short pieces. Took the tire out of play as well. More fun to watch the pieces fly, which doesn't happen that often with this wood. Whittling my pile down more each day.

 

[Joe Kuhn]

It seems to burn in the fireplace just fine, albeit a little slow. We've got a gas fed starter, so it's easy to start in spite of it being so green. Once started, it keeps going well enough. If not, a stir gets it going again.



Splitting the pieces with branch junctions can be real buggers. Have had my Fiskers jump right off them. For those, I use a sledge hammer and this guy:



Working my way through the pile. Should finish up next week. That's a garden to the right of my finish pile. Wife wants to put flowers in there next year, so I put my finished work on the far side of it so as to not block the view from the house. There's that dog again.

 

[buzz sawyer]

That's a bunch of nice firewood! Has it been popping? Maybe more so when it dries out. Keep that screen up.