Marc
New member
My parents had some trees that were close to their house they wanted down. My dad has seen me fall trees for firewood and has been impressed with my technique, which improved greatly after I got a book on the subject, and cut for a bit with a graduate of the forestry program at Paul Smith's in NY.
The trees in question were a poplar, a sugar maple and small (eastern?) cedar.
My old man doesn't like poplar trees close to the house because of their shallow root systems. The sugar maple had a split and was starting to die (although the trunk was still healthy) and my mom didn't like the looks of the cedar.
Sunday morning, my dad decided it was time to work on em since the ground was mostly frozen and partially snow covered. We roped all of them for a little insurance, but they all were straight trees. Well the poplar had bends, but they cancelled each other out for the most part. It was the hardest tree of the three to read, but I knew the center of gravity was not very far off the stump.
Below is the poplar stump, which was quite close to the dog pen (no dog in it of course).
I cut a little high because although it doesn't show in the picture, from the ground to where I cut leaned back a fair bit (the house is about twenty feet to the left of the stump in this picture). I palmed a short wedge (not the one in the pic) but never needed to drive it in. The tree rolled a bit after the hinge broke because of a big limb that it fell on to one side. In retrospect, perhaps a more open face (I was about 70 degrees) and having the hinge hange on all the way may have been a better option, but then, I also wouldn't want to deal with an unbroken, loaded hinge on this tree either. Plus the dog pen is old and unused so wasn't of much concern.
Next up, the maple tree, which was the hardest off the three.
Yours truely with my 372 and axe (and fine looking eggshell I got from work). I didn't take a picture of this stump, but it was about the same as the poplar. I left a good hinge, used about a 70 degree face and aimed to have the hinge break off only when it was almost on the ground. This had a flat, almost single plane canopy so there wasn't the risk of rolling like the poplar. I cut this one above buttresses so I wasn't cutting in the dirty snow.
This shows the proximity to the sunroom on the house-
Notice the dog pen to the right and the branches to the left near the sun room. This was as perfect as my aim gets.
The last tree was the smaller cedar. My dad asked me to show him what I was talking about with a 90 degree face and a hinge remaining unbroken, so I cut one on this tree. It was small, straight, and I don't think it had the height to reach the house if it went the wrong way so I demonstrated for him. Top cut about 70 degrees, bottom cut sloped about 20. End result, hinge hangs on to the bitter end.
My dad retired this Friday, so now he's got some clean up work to do and firewood to stack. Good thing too, because I think he was getting on my mom's nerves.
The trees in question were a poplar, a sugar maple and small (eastern?) cedar.
My old man doesn't like poplar trees close to the house because of their shallow root systems. The sugar maple had a split and was starting to die (although the trunk was still healthy) and my mom didn't like the looks of the cedar.
Sunday morning, my dad decided it was time to work on em since the ground was mostly frozen and partially snow covered. We roped all of them for a little insurance, but they all were straight trees. Well the poplar had bends, but they cancelled each other out for the most part. It was the hardest tree of the three to read, but I knew the center of gravity was not very far off the stump.
Below is the poplar stump, which was quite close to the dog pen (no dog in it of course).
I cut a little high because although it doesn't show in the picture, from the ground to where I cut leaned back a fair bit (the house is about twenty feet to the left of the stump in this picture). I palmed a short wedge (not the one in the pic) but never needed to drive it in. The tree rolled a bit after the hinge broke because of a big limb that it fell on to one side. In retrospect, perhaps a more open face (I was about 70 degrees) and having the hinge hange on all the way may have been a better option, but then, I also wouldn't want to deal with an unbroken, loaded hinge on this tree either. Plus the dog pen is old and unused so wasn't of much concern.
Next up, the maple tree, which was the hardest off the three.
Yours truely with my 372 and axe (and fine looking eggshell I got from work). I didn't take a picture of this stump, but it was about the same as the poplar. I left a good hinge, used about a 70 degree face and aimed to have the hinge break off only when it was almost on the ground. This had a flat, almost single plane canopy so there wasn't the risk of rolling like the poplar. I cut this one above buttresses so I wasn't cutting in the dirty snow.
This shows the proximity to the sunroom on the house-
Notice the dog pen to the right and the branches to the left near the sun room. This was as perfect as my aim gets.
The last tree was the smaller cedar. My dad asked me to show him what I was talking about with a 90 degree face and a hinge remaining unbroken, so I cut one on this tree. It was small, straight, and I don't think it had the height to reach the house if it went the wrong way so I demonstrated for him. Top cut about 70 degrees, bottom cut sloped about 20. End result, hinge hangs on to the bitter end.
My dad retired this Friday, so now he's got some clean up work to do and firewood to stack. Good thing too, because I think he was getting on my mom's nerves.
