The Springpole Release

[slowp]

Here is a typical vine maple springpole. Cut it wrong and you can get hurt. I returned today and took care of it with hand saws. Before leaving home I improvised another duck tape and sleeping pad sheath. This is my most dangerous saw. I seem to cut myself with it or impale myself. It is a sharp beast.


OK, with a handsaw, you make cuts like this underneath the curve. Your saw will get pinched when it is enough then you move over and make a series of them. With a chainsaw, you just cut a bit into it and repeat. You might still feel the saw start to pinch.


Then, carefully cut down from the top. I was being extra cautious, so put additional little cuts in along the top of the curve. See the split? Then, I cut it off.

All the tension was gone, and it dropped harmlessly to the ground.

 

[Metals406]

Wait? Maple? That's a hardwood, and you're from the west coast. You must not know what you're talking about.

 

[slowp]

Wait? Maple? That's a hardwood, and you're from the west coast. You must not know what you're talking about.

OMG! I shouldn't have messed with it, and I've got a Bigleaf Maple picked for the next gym visit! What to do??

 

[1270d]

What's the deciduous snobbery thing? Is there a thread somewhere I need to go read or what? I cut more hardwood than most but try not to be any kind of snob?

 

[Cedarkerf]

The joy of Vine Maple, thrown chains and your teeth rattling in your head.

 

[slowp]

It'll launch a chunk of firewood up pretty high into the air. Don't ask me how I know this.

 

[northmanlogging]

deciduous snobbery, the act or feeling of broad leaf trees being superior their needle leafed cousins, see phallus envy.

The act or feeling of hard wood cutters feeling that soft wood cutters are hacks, see undergarment bunching/knotting

 

[northmanlogging]

If'n I remember correctly their was some butt surfer saying awhile back that cutting of vine maples and spring poles in general with a hand saw was incredibly dangerous and anyone trying would surely die or forever be maimed if they had the audacity to even try.

notably he was mistaken... about many things...

 

[slowp]

If'n I remember correctly their was some butt surfer saying awhile back that cutting of vine maples and spring poles in general with a hand saw was incredibly dangerous and anyone trying would surely die or forever be maimed if they had the audacity to even try.

notably he was mistaken... about many things...

They'll teach you how at the sawyer clinics for trail volunteers.

 

[lmbrman]

Here is woodyman from MN showing his technique for springpoles at the charity cut. I think he called it 'partial release'.

 

[Philbert]

I thought this thread was a sequel to "The Shawshank Redption"!!!

But seriously folks . . .

I have seen instructions to run the chain (top of bar) back and forth laterally under the bend, almost like a grinder, to remove compression wood and relieve tension on the top of the bough.

I prefer to use a pole saw to 'defuse' these from a short distance.

Philbert

 

[slowp]

I thought this thread was a sequel to "The Shawshank Redption"!!!

But seriously folks . . .

I have seen instructions to run the chain (top of bar) back and forth laterally under the bend, almost like a grinder, to remove compression wood and relieve tension on the top of the bough.

I prefer to use a pole saw to 'defuse' these from a short distance.

Philbert

I have heard and seen it at the chainsaw precert. They called it shaving and it would be hard to do with a hand saw.

 

[madhatte]

Got a nice dent in my hardhat not too long ago from a stray hunk of vine maple I wasn't paying enough attention to.

 

[bitzer]

Conifers are an entirely different animal to me. Therefore I've got much respect for them. I love cutting some nice tall pine and spruce (tall for here is about 100ft.) The guys who think cutting them is easy have no real time on the saw in any kind of timber. Hardwood almost always has some kind of lean or limb weight. For me judging conifers can be tricky. I just don't have the stump time on em. Throw some steep ground in and about double the height of what I'm used to and I'd have a lot of humble thoughts. I nearly always cut spring poles at the end. A small undercut than a quick over. Just gotta know where to stand and what its going to do. Hope ya don't mind me editing your picture Miss P! Couldn't find one of my own. Unless the tip is up too high, then I nip at it like that. That's with a chainsaw of course.

 

[bitzer]

What's the deciduous snobbery thing? Is there a thread somewhere I need to go read or what? I cut more hardwood than most but try not to be any kind of snob?

There are a lot of claims by guys who have no real time on a saw that cutting conifers are like cutting telephone poles. Just an ongoing rant kind of thing.

 

[slowp]

Conifers are an entirely different animal to me. Therefore I've got much respect for them. I love cutting some nice tall pine and spruce (tall for here is about 100ft.) The guys who think cutting them is easy have no real time on the saw in any kind of timber. Hardwood almost always has some kind of lean or limb weight. For me judging conifers can be tricky. I just don't have the stump time on em. Throw some steep ground in and about double the height of what I'm used to and I'd have a lot of humble thoughts. I nearly always cut spring poles at the end. A small undercut than a quick over. Just gotta know where to stand and what its going to do. Hope ya don't mind me editing your picture Miss P! Couldn't find one of my own. Unless the tip is up too high, then I nip at it like that. That's with a chainsaw of course.

View attachment 326315

And you'll get the trebouchet effect. If you've got a long bar and chainsaw and there is nothing to be launched, that'll work. But with my little pruning saw (which I have named Cudjo), I will continue to do the time release cuts. It's just the safer way.

Vine maple is one of our more notorious species of brush.

I don't know how to draw on my pictures so go ahead. But, should you ever be watched by the trail sawing gurus, they'll want you to do the little cuts method and ding you for the red circle cut. They're just trying to keep folks healthy and doing the same thing.

 

[bitzer]

I know. I was taught to cut em that way too. With a chainsaw of course. I wouldn't go gnawing away at the end with a hand saw.

 

[slowp]

I guess I could have put a Barbie doll on it and launched her. The Used Dog might have retrieved the doll, or not.

 

[northmanlogging]

Thing with conifers is to do your best to judge lean, use and axe plumb bob whatever, then stuff a wedge in her as soon as there is room, cause even if you do judge the lean right the wind will be there to prove you wrong anyway.

 

[slowp]

Darned if I can figure out which way they want to go.....Dammit Jim, I'm not a faller, I'm just a country forester....
This little one sat back but I got the saw out in time and I have no idea why those little stairsteppy things are there.