Used a coos bay in a tree today

[murphy4trees]

Pg 309 of Gerry Breranek's book, "the fundamentals of general tree work", describes the coos bay cut which is primarily used as a safe wat to fall heavy head leaners, because it minimizes the risk of barber chairing or splitting the trunk. The basic idea is to leave a thin strip of holding wood down the middle of the tree, directly in line with the direction of lean. SO for example if the tree was leaning north, the faller would cut in from both sides (east and west)with just a straight kerf cut, leaving a 2-4" strip of wood running down the middle of the tree from south to north... Then the tree would be tripped by cutting that strip from the back side, south) until the tree just pops off the stump. Very little fiber pull and very little chance of splitting the trunk, though Beranek warns that side weight can cause the tree to twist and split.

I mostly use this cut when trimming logs to length for the mill, because it prevents the logs from splitting, and leaves a nice clean cut.

Today I was taking down a 85-95' backyard locust, with a big nasty old rip up about 65-75' from some old storm damage. There didn;t look like there was much decay, and locust is strong wood, and still I wasn't wanting to climb any higher if I didn;t need to...

The remainder of the top had a fair lean, and I could have easily notched it in the direction of lean, but there were a couple other trees nearby and it would have fallen into some of their upper limbs causing minor damage most likely. It did occur to me though that if the tips hung up long enough for the but to swing out, when the top broke free the tips could end up coming back at me. So the optimal cut would have the limb fall striaght down, where it wouldn't reach the tips of the nearby trees...

The coos bay worked like a charm... the top just popped off the cut and fell straight down in its tracks... Its a pretty good cut for head leaners in the tree, though here I was using it more to get the piece to drop straight than to prevent barber chairing. Good to add to the bag of tricks and faster than cutting a notch and plunge cutting for a back release..

 

[BCMA]

Pg 309 of Gerry Breranek's book, "the fundamentals of general tree work", describes the coos bay cut which is primarily used as a safe wat to fall heavy head leaners, because it minimizes the risk of barber chairing or splitting the trunk. The basic idea is to leave a thin strip of holding wood down the middle of the tree, directly in line with the direction of lean. SO for example if the tree was leaning north, the faller would cut in from both sides (east and west)with just a straight kerf cut, leaving a 2-4" strip of wood running down the middle of the tree from south to north... Then the tree would be tripped by cutting that strip from the back side, south) until the tree just pops off the stump. Very little fiber pull and very little chance of splitting the trunk, though Beranek warns that side weight can cause the tree to twist and split.

I mostly use this cut when trimming logs to length for the mill, because it prevents the logs from splitting, and leaves a nice clean cut.

Today I was taking down a 85-95' backyard locust, with a big nasty old rip up about 65-75' from some old storm damage. There didn;t look like there was much decay, and locust is strong wood, and still I wasn't wanting to climb any higher if I didn;t need to...

The remainder of the top had a fair lean, and I could have easily notched it in the direction of lean, but there were a couple other trees nearby and it would have fallen into some of their upper limbs causing minor damage most likely. It did occur to me though that if the tips hung up long enough for the but to swing out, when the top broke free the tips could end up coming back at me. So the optimal cut would have the limb fall striaght down, where it wouldn't reach the tips of the nearby trees...

The coos bay worked like a charm... the top just popped off the cut and fell straight down in its tracks... Its a pretty good cut for head leaners in the tree, though here I was using it more to get the piece to drop straight than to prevent barber chairing. Good to add to the bag of tricks and faster than cutting a notch and plunge cutting for a back release..

That sounds like an interesting cut. I'll need to look it up. I might suggest making a kerf undercut to prevent ripping wood.

 

[Metals406]

Pg 309 of Gerry Breranek's book, "the fundamentals of general tree work", describes the coos bay cut which is primarily used as a safe wat to fall heavy head leaners, because it minimizes the risk of barber chairing or splitting the trunk. The basic idea is to leave a thin strip of holding wood down the middle of the tree, directly in line with the direction of lean. SO for example if the tree was leaning north, the faller would cut in from both sides (east and west)with just a straight kerf cut, leaving a 2-4" strip of wood running down the middle of the tree from south to north... Then the tree would be tripped by cutting that strip from the back side, south) until the tree just pops off the stump. Very little fiber pull and very little chance of splitting the trunk, though Beranek warns that side weight can cause the tree to twist and split.

I mostly use this cut when trimming logs to length for the mill, because it prevents the logs from splitting, and leaves a nice clean cut.

Today I was taking down a 85-95' backyard locust, with a big nasty old rip up about 65-75' from some old storm damage. There didn;t look like there was much decay, and locust is strong wood, and still I wasn't wanting to climb any higher if I didn;t need to...

The remainder of the top had a fair lean, and I could have easily notched it in the direction of lean, but there were a couple other trees nearby and it would have fallen into some of their upper limbs causing minor damage most likely. It did occur to me though that if the tips hung up long enough for the but to swing out, when the top broke free the tips could end up coming back at me. So the optimal cut would have the limb fall striaght down, where it wouldn't reach the tips of the nearby trees...

The coos bay worked like a charm... the top just popped off the cut and fell straight down in its tracks... Its a pretty good cut for head leaners in the tree, though here I was using it more to get the piece to drop straight than to prevent barber chairing. Good to add to the bag of tricks and faster than cutting a notch and plunge cutting for a back release..

Hmmm, you have a drawing or photo of this technique? Sounds interesting.

 

[1I'dJak]

faller friend of mine mentioned that cut to me as well...but called a 'westcoaster'.... i tried it on a 40'hard lean alder and it didn't barberchair... like u said, good to add to the bag of tricks

 

[gavin]

for large heavy leaners, this is from the infoflips we have to carry in b.c.:

 

[windthrown]

Cool flip pages on cutting... where do you get them?

 

[murphy4trees]

gavin.. yah that's the right idea, but no 1/4 undercut... the strip of holding wood goes all the way across the tree..

 

[ray benson]

Cool flip pages on cutting... where do you get them?

The on-line version. B.C. Faller Training Standard BK96 a 2 part download, each about 1 mb.
http://www2.worksafebc.com/Portals/Forestry/General.asp

 

[gavin]

gavin.. yah that's the right idea, but no 1/4 undercut... the strip of holding wood goes all the way across the tree..

the 1/4 is the depth of the undercut compared to the diameter. the holding wood does go all the way across the tree.

 

[gavin]

Cool flip pages on cutting... where do you get them?

you can download them from teh site the guy posted, but i don't think i'd ever be able to figure out how to cut them out and glue them together. the b.c. forest safety council (the organization that does all the certification) sells them on nice ducksback-kinda paper for $25. or i think you can get them from the printing company (flip productions or something like that).

 

[windthrown]

Cool. Up to now the best simple falling sites I have found are all in Canada.

 

[murphy4trees]

The cut Gavin posted is NOT THE CUT I AM TALKING ABOUT!

In reviewing the diagrams, I noticed my last post improperly used "holding wood" to refer to the strip of wood that runs parrallell with the direction of fall .. So in the interest of complete clarity... The cut I used has no undercut or "holdiong wood" as per gavin's diagrams.

There are only three cuts made... one on each side leaving a strip of wood running dead center through the tree in line with the direction of fall, and a third cut to release that strip from back to front.

So in Gavin's diagrams, option A (the one on the left).. the strip of wood left after the first two cuts is similar to the strip of wood with the arrow from #4 running down it, except that the strip runs all the way through the tree completely across the diameter of the tree.

I hope that is clear, I know it is redundant.

 

[randyg]

for large heavy leaners, this is from the infoflips we have to carry in b.c.:

Is this cut for side lean trees or heavy leaners intending to fall in the same direction as the lean?

The "low side / high side" notation on either side of the hinge is throwin me off.

 

[randyg]

The cut Gavin posted is NOT THE CUT I AM TALKING ABOUT!

In reviewing the diagrams, I noticed my last post improperly used "holding wood" to refer to the strip of wood that runs parrallell with the direction of fall .. So in the interest of complete clarity... The cut I used has no undercut or "holdiong wood" as per gavin's diagrams.

There are only three cuts made... one on each side leaving a strip of wood running dead center through the tree in line with the direction of fall, and a third cut to release that strip from back to front.

So in Gavin's diagrams, option A (the one on the left).. the strip of wood left after the first two cuts is similar to the strip of wood with the arrow from #4 running down it, except that the strip runs all the way through the tree completely across the diameter of the tree.

I hope that is clear, I know it is redundant.

Hey Murph.
If you did undercut first like Gavins pic shows, might be a better cut than the one you used. A little more time to set it up, but far less likely for the limb or top to decide to tip to one side or the other or twist even? Not that you are going to be leaving hinge wood, you can still race through that strap to the holding wood and cut it to. Undercut the bottom thickness of kerf, not a notch (face cut) and when saw hits the holding wood it will just pop and VOILA, same results as the cut you made, but a margin of saftey built in?

 

[gavin]

the cuts are for falling with the lean (but as we all know with big heavy leaners you want to fall them a bit off the direction of lean) the numbers in the circles are the sequence of cuts. you do cut the thin strip down the middle, you jsut do it last. the idea is that the strip holds the tree, but with less wood so you can can cut through it fast to reduce the amount of holding wood left when the tree goes to reduce barber chair.

 

[Metals406]

Seems to me, that if you used a cut like this, the tree would run the risk of falling to either side.

 

[Blakesmaster]

From what I've gathered...

The cut murph was describing has nothing to do with the cut first pictured. The cut first pictured I use all the time when I don't want a heavy leaning limb to fall leaves first, catch air and swing the butt back towards the tree. Murph's cut I've never tried before but it seems it would work much like what we call an "arrow" cut that's used to get smaller limbs to go straight down except it works with bigger limbs you can't get your saw through fast enough to arrow them. Looks like a good cut as long as you have a heavy lean in the right direction. I might lightly tap in a wedge on each side for some added stability though.

 

[windthrown]

Yah, now I am confused. I would bore the back cut and leave a fatter hinge width on the side away from the lean of the tree.

 

[Blakesmaster]

I think what he was trying to prevent was the top from laying over. He wanted it to go straight down. With a hinge the top would have had time to fall into the other trees and when the butt came off it would have swung back and got him.

 

[windthrown]

Well, I would expect any falling tree to pop the hinge and rock back over the stump. If there is any rotation or roll during the fall it is going to be erratic. I guess I was confused about the angle of the tree lean here. The low-side and high side in the diagram also throws me off. If he is trying to fall it directly with the lean, that makes it a lot simpler. I was thinking he was trying to fall it against the lean to some degree (to keep it from laying over one way or the other). I have used angled hinges and bore cuts to protect an area that I do not want a tree to fall in. Not perfect, but they tend to be good ways to get a tree into a specific area (I got the idea off of AS some years ago).

I would think that a bore cut strap would stop the fall the same as the 'arrow cut' though. Put in wedges on either side of the bored back cut and it would help prevent it from falling off-angle. I guess the arrow is just a fat strap.