Just my two cents from a guy who grew up as a kid in Ontario & B.C. that has been around falling the better part of my life. If you aren't aware of when a tree is still standing to when it's starting its fall you shouldn't be in that environment. Look up more then looking at your saw, start your cut and let the saw chase the wood. Look up cause a 1" lean a foot above the saw is a yard stick 40' up the tree.
Hearin’ the crack and seeing the taller dig in until that massive snap, scares the mess out of me. Haha. Haven’t seen much big wood action out east. That was awesomez
Around 9:32 the tree starts moving, very slightly but perceptibly. By 9:34, the back cut starts to slowly but clearly open up. At the same time the narrator is saying to escape at any sign of the tree moving. So why does the sawyer continue cutting until the tree cracks wide open at almost 9:36?
I wondered the same thing, but the top comment says they learned in another video here that it's critical to continue the cut or else it would've BarberChaired. I'm still confused though.
The root mass can be lifted when the notch closes up with too large a hinge also, another reason with equal consequences. In that situation it’s safer to release the mass than to take that split second to try and leave, in my opinion. If the hinge area is left too large there’s a much greater chance of tearing the fibers out even if it doesn’t barber, which can release the tree from the stump early and degrade your log too.
Damn. That last one, it looks like it was about to lift itself out of the ground. His reaction was totally "Oh fuck!" *drops chainsaw* Awesome cut though, dangerous as hell still.
When the tree releases and the ground that your standing on drops about a foot from that release, it's always an oh shit moment, no matter how many times you've experienced it. I always probe the ground where I'll be standing during the backcut on leaners, looking for soft hollow spots between roots. The last think you want is a boot punching through and getting hung up when the tree releases. I'm surprised they didn't mention that in the video. Not to nitpick, but that undercut was too deep for my liking, especially on that large of a tree with that much lean...good way to bury a saw.
roach I agree; that undercut looked to be at least 40% of the trees diameter and there was no way that feller could know the soundness of the whole trunk.
Wow! Good thing I don’t have to make a living felling trees. I’ve done a few out of necessity and my natural caution meant it took me about an hour to cut one, 12” diameter tree! You all have my greatest respect. I suspect that there’s a lot of framing wood that took someone with it...
Hey Eric, for some reason the new youtube doesn't let me reply to you but my uneducated guess is that the trees in BC are so big (lots of weight on top) and the outer layer of the trees look quite brittle, so it's hard to estimate the amount of holding wood needed for the trigger. If the tree starts crumbling during the bore cut it's harder to escape.
after watching another video, I noticed this faller kept cutting (2nd tree) after tree slightly moved and crackled.... from what I seen in the other video, it was critical the faller kept cutting... if he would have stopped, it would have barbered.
A true pro would know that bore cutting and trigger realease is the only proper way to safly, every single time to drop a heavy leaner!!!!!!! The guy had to stay in the cut to prevent a catastrophic failure ! Had he bore cut the tree with the trigger method ,all the worrie and stress of such a job is eliminated!! Clean drop everytime ! #borecut the leaners folks ,the old school ways are deadly dangerous and out of date ! I'm just saying !
I sometimes ask me, why you don't make the undercut, then form out your hinge wood, wile leaving a "holding band" in the back of the tree and cut the holding band as a trigger, so you decide when the tree falls without having to stay at the stump while the tree is falling. Like for example here in Germany. But still good work. Stay safe. Please excuse my English.
If it follows Motorcycle nomenclature: High side = the side pointing towards the sky. Low side = side pointing towards the ground: High side / / low side
That's the correct way, but also the issue with heavy leaning trees. They have to keep cutting the hinge as it falls to make sure it doesn't barber chair. But since the tree has a lot of lean it starts to fall really fast and you end up there longer than you want to be.
In the video, from approx 8:23 - 8:36, the narrator says to make the first back cut on the "low" side of the tree, & make the second back cut on the "high" side of the tree. I thought both of these back cuts were made from the "high" side of the tree, toward the "low" side of the tree, where the undercut is located. Isn't the "low" side of the tree the side that is leaning & facing towards the ground? Or was the undercut not placed on the side of the tree that is leaning & facing towards the ground (to change the direction of fall, from the natural direction of fall created by the lean). The video did not make this very clear (to me).
I was interpreting it as cut low side back cut first, is there is a low side. In this instance I'm not sure there was a low side on the back cut. He made sure to final cut on the escape side though.
At 2:27 he's not doing the back cut. The cut your referring to at 2:27 is the cut on the diagram at 1:58 - 2:01, which they refer to as a partial cut. There are two partial cuts, prior to the back cut. The bit of hinge he may have cut into at the edge of the tree is not enough to worry about. What's good about this, is that you noticed that he may have cut into his hinge a tiny bit. That just means that when Tom is falling, Tom's paying attention to his hinge. And that's always a good thing.
This is the first time in one of these videos I have seen a guy dump his saw and GTFO. Can hardly blame him when the whole root mass started shaking! 9.35
Why not a plunge and then a back cut done both sides if need be and taking out the centre wood backwards from the hinge? Could leave a big trigger, then step clear and cut with the tip of the bar?
Luckily I cut oak here in the ozark hills of Missouri. It’s very strong compared to the PNW trees. But if it barber chairs it’s scary. I do a normal undercut and then do a bore cut and make sure my hinge wood is where I want it. Then I cut from the hinge to the back of the tree leaving about 4-6 inches opposite to the undercut. Then I pull the saw out and cut the “trigger wood” from the outside in. This makes a barber chair almost impossible(in my experience, all oak)
Why don't you guys use the bore cut strap release? Even in this video the skilled sawyer doesn't know exactly when the tree will go and he has his saw in the cut. A strap release would put him in a better position, would allow a trigger timed event he is in full control of, way less risk. With a borecut strap release you can go larger diameter trees than the chainsaw bar too so that isn't an excuse. Simply bore in from both sides, or as he has done at around 8min just remove some on one side.
your hardwood trees have a knack to barber easily unless bored, on the west coast our trees are different, the only trees i'll bore is hardwoods, softwoods for the most part are all backcuts.
Been doing this all my life. And what your not thinking about is the tree species. Old growth timber in west huge growth rings and soft wood. Big white oak, tight growth rings hardwood strong fibers. Bore cut old growth its app to break off stump and or set down on saw of its leaner like in this video. But most time they are cake fells just huge timber nothing like here in middle Tennessee where 75 ft white oak has 5 times the tention on fibers as a 175 ft old growth or second growth out west. Why because of our canopies. The weight distribution and weight difference. 6 in spruce weighs half of 6in hickory ,red or white oak.
This faller was not aware of what was happening. It starts to fall at 9:32, but he continue to cut and does not get out until the root mass shakes. When you are busy cutting with a noisy chainsaw, you are blind and deaf to the beginning of the fall.
He seemed unaware but appearances can be deceiving. Who knows how well he was tracking the trees movement other than the man himself. On a big tree like this you don't want to partially cut it down and run because then you have created a time bomb with an unknown timer and you've baited the trap with your personal favorite chainsaw. A guy goes back to get his saw and the whole shit show comes down on top of him. Better to see it through.
first, i am just a very green novice trying to learn from any good teacher and mean no criticism at all. my question is why did he not make the angular cut first before the horizontal cut in making the directional notch to avoid the blade being caught? what made him choose the back cut the way he did it instead of bore cuts in this leaner?
Most BC fallers make the bottom cut after the horizontal cut. The side notch back cut is proven safer than a bore cut and is what us taught in BC. A bore cut not done right can result in a root pull, especially if it's leaning because the roots are loose.
dennbb sounds like the methods used have been worked out through experience. I see comments criticizing certain things and I can’t help but wonder about techniques that work in a different part of the world don’t work as well here, and vice versa...
There is a smarter more saver way. You let a Chunck of wood stranding in the back of the tree (called backtoe) you finish tur rest and set you holding fibers as big/small as you want then you move back and cut the back toe when you do it you al ready moved a little away from the tree this way it cant barbarchair you at all.
I've worked in logging in northern california for a little over a decade, and though I'm not a faller myself, the only way I have seen it done is with the backtoe method. I've seen guys take down some pretty big hard leaners with the backtoe method with no problems.
The last cut depends on the saw being able to cut a lot of wood quickly to avoid disaster as proven by the fact he had to stand there and keep cutting even while the ground he was standing on was getting lifted up. A dog tooth cut would prevent that since the final cut does not have to go through as much wood and you could even finish it with a pole saw and not have to be right up close to the tree.
That last one was sketchy AF! Buckin doesn't like felling trees directly into their lean, he does it off to one side so they don't have so much stress on the holding wood, seems to work pretty good but I'm sure you can't always do that.
My dad fell interior and coastal wood for 30 years.He never got hit by any falling branches or schoolmarms.I know this video will give someone an understanding of what can happen.The heavy leaners are the worst.If you dont diamond cut them they barber chair,not only dangerous but with too much pull wood on the cuts it downgrades the logs quality.Usually they take a 10 to 20 footer off the butt of the log.Its not worth as much to the purchaser of the wood
Or you could just do a bore cut... practically guaranteed the tree will fall when you let it fall, with a regular backcut you can't control when it'll fall, but if you do a bore cut the tree won't go anywhere until you cut the holding wood.
RoMMeL1337ak47 west coastUSA- here the cut you describe is known as the “70 degree Open Face “ (aka Birds mouth) and performed in the exact manner, and for the same reasons you described.:).
I'd use a bore cut on the 1st tree, the small one. What would you use for the larger tree? Just for the record I'll never fall a tree like that 2nd one.
Great techniques. Poor responsibility. Company's want too clear cut. Why? Greed. Some of these trees should be left for another 40 years, at least. Idiocy. Poor resource management.
Find information and resources on manual falling & bucking here: www.worksafebc.com/en/health-safety/industries/forestry/types/manual-falling-bucking
These r the best videos of tree felling on UA-cam great job
Thank you for helping to keep us safe out in the field. 👍
Just my two cents from a guy who grew up as a kid in Ontario & B.C. that has been around falling the better part of my life. If you aren't aware of when a tree is still standing to when it's starting its fall you shouldn't be in that environment. Look up more then looking at your saw, start your cut and let the saw chase the wood. Look up cause a 1" lean a foot above the saw is a yard stick 40' up the tree.
Thanks for the film materials - from the Poland, it is a great help a lumberjacks / chainsawers :)
Hearin’ the crack and seeing the taller dig in until that massive snap, scares the mess out of me. Haha. Haven’t seen much big wood action out east. That was awesomez
Outstanding video! Excellent information!
Around 9:32 the tree starts moving, very slightly but perceptibly. By 9:34, the back cut starts to slowly but clearly open up. At the same time the narrator is saying to escape at any sign of the tree moving.
So why does the sawyer continue cutting until the tree cracks wide open at almost 9:36?
I wondered the same thing, but the top comment says they learned in another video here that it's critical to continue the cut or else it would've BarberChaired. I'm still confused though.
The root mass can be lifted when the notch closes up with too large a hinge also, another reason with equal consequences. In that situation it’s safer to release the mass than to take that split second to try and leave, in my opinion. If the hinge area is left too large there’s a much greater chance of tearing the fibers out even if it doesn’t barber, which can release the tree from the stump early and degrade your log too.
Because he was too busy running his saw and could not hear the narrator
So it doesn't barber chair
@@Syclone0044 It wouldn’t matter if it did barber chair if he was a good distance away, assuming they are not trying to keep the wood.
Damn. That last one, it looks like it was about to lift itself out of the ground. His reaction was totally "Oh fuck!" *drops chainsaw* Awesome cut though, dangerous as hell still.
When the tree releases and the ground that your standing on drops about a foot from that release, it's always an oh shit moment, no matter how many times you've experienced it. I always probe the ground where I'll be standing during the backcut on leaners, looking for soft hollow spots between roots. The last think you want is a boot punching through and getting hung up when the tree releases. I'm surprised they didn't mention that in the video. Not to nitpick, but that undercut was too deep for my liking, especially on that large of a tree with that much lean...good way to bury a saw.
roach I agree; that undercut looked to be at least 40% of the trees diameter and there was no way that feller could know the soundness of the whole trunk.
Saws are replaceable. If it slows down your escape you must discard it.
You can see him thinking... just be cool. this is for a training video and all the rookies are watching me. They can't see my adrenaline right?
@@roadhouse8604 They said 1/4 for the undercut but looked more like 1/3 to me.
Wow! Good thing I don’t have to make a living felling trees. I’ve done a few out of necessity and my natural caution meant it took me about an hour to cut one, 12” diameter tree! You all have my greatest respect. I suspect that there’s a lot of framing wood that took someone with it...
Hey Eric, for some reason the new youtube doesn't let me reply to you but my uneducated guess is that the trees in BC are so big (lots of weight on top) and the outer layer of the trees look quite brittle, so it's hard to estimate the amount of holding wood needed for the trigger. If the tree starts crumbling during the bore cut it's harder to escape.
9:35 ... New Faller Pants please.....
after watching another video, I noticed this faller kept cutting (2nd tree) after tree slightly moved and crackled.... from what I seen in the other video, it was critical the faller kept cutting... if he would have stopped, it would have barbered.
correct a sharp saw is a must too!
Yes this feller did the right thing. I prob would have left the saw on the stump and jumped out of my fuckin boots lol
You can steer the tree better if you stay on the stump. gotta keep cutting once it starts going unless it might get hung up or barberchair
A true pro would know that bore cutting and trigger realease is the only proper way to safly, every single time to drop a heavy leaner!!!!!!! The guy had to stay in the cut to prevent a catastrophic failure ! Had he bore cut the tree with the trigger method ,all the worrie and stress of such a job is eliminated!! Clean drop everytime ! #borecut the leaners folks ,the old school ways are deadly dangerous and out of date ! I'm just saying !
@@jasonblanton7185 how to choose from borecut or trigger for you?
Thanks for posting.
Astutely, the tree faller dropped his chainsaw as he walked away. Should it be locked?
My grandad was cutting those with axe and crosscut. That is a whole different ball of wax.
You should decrease the escape trimming when you reach your recliner.
I sometimes ask me, why you don't make the undercut, then form out your hinge wood, wile leaving a "holding band" in the back of the tree and cut the holding band as a trigger, so you decide when the tree falls without having to stay at the stump while the tree is falling. Like for example here in Germany. But still good work. Stay safe. Please excuse my English.
Some guys do it that way.
What do you mean by low and high side how do you know which is high and which is low?
almost everything on the coast is cut on a hillside.
Same as saying uphill or downhill.
If it follows Motorcycle nomenclature:
High side = the side pointing towards the sky.
Low side = side pointing towards the ground:
High side / / low side
The cut starts opening up at 9:31. At that point the tree is on its way down. Why keep cutting until 9:36 and end up having to make a dash for it?
That's the correct way, but also the issue with heavy leaning trees. They have to keep cutting the hinge as it falls to make sure it doesn't barber chair. But since the tree has a lot of lean it starts to fall really fast and you end up there longer than you want to be.
In the video, from approx 8:23 - 8:36, the narrator says to make the first back cut on the "low" side of the tree, & make the second back cut on the "high" side of the tree. I thought both of these back cuts were made from the "high" side of the tree, toward the "low" side of the tree, where the undercut is located. Isn't the "low" side of the tree the side that is leaning & facing towards the ground? Or was the undercut not placed on the side of the tree that is leaning & facing towards the ground (to change the direction of fall, from the natural direction of fall created by the lean). The video did not make this very clear (to me).
I was interpreting it as cut low side back cut first, is there is a low side. In this instance I'm not sure there was a low side on the back cut. He made sure to final cut on the escape side though.
I like that t cut that's useful!
Why the 1st high backcut above the level of the notch? for safety?
If it falls into something it pushes back at the stump
Yes, it keeps the trunk from stepping back off the stump.
That's a tree only a professional should cut. beautiful watching a true pro at work
Damn close to a tree even a professional shouldn't cut.
At 2:27, has the back cut extended too far over the notch and eliminated the hinge, at least near the edge of the tree? Does it matter?
At 2:27 he's not doing the back cut. The cut your referring to at 2:27 is the cut on the diagram at 1:58 - 2:01, which they refer to as a partial cut. There are two partial cuts, prior to the back cut. The bit of hinge he may have cut into at the edge of the tree is not enough to worry about. What's good about this, is that you noticed that he may have cut into his hinge a tiny bit. That just means that when Tom is falling, Tom's paying attention to his hinge. And that's always a good thing.
2:48 Moves directly behind the tree where it is most likely to kick back if the holding wood doesn’t break as anticipated. 🤦🏼♂️
So many variables is it possible to be 100% safe?
Ok this is a late and off topic question but what kind of bird noise was that during the early part of the heavy leaner? Y’all got pterodactyls in BC?
Hi, that's a raven.
Do BC Faller Training Standard cover bore cut strap releasing nowadays?
no need for that on the west coast, thats a hardwood technique.
No.
This is the first time in one of these videos I have seen a guy dump his saw and GTFO. Can hardly blame him when the whole root mass started shaking! 9.35
Is 6:57 safe?
Wow! 😬 Dropped the saw and dipped outta there! 🫡
Isn't this tech good for nearly all trees if you have uncertainty, besides rot? Looks like he had some rot..could of turned out badly for him.
I'll probably never cut a tree down... but if I have to, I should not die if I watch all of these.
Why not a plunge and then a back cut done both sides if need be and taking out the centre wood backwards from the hinge? Could leave a big trigger, then step clear and cut with the tip of the bar?
that wood of worked,, ten men wood do ten different things , although cedar rarely chairs, i think a bore wood of made this a better smoother video
Luckily I cut oak here in the ozark hills of Missouri. It’s very strong compared to the PNW trees. But if it barber chairs it’s scary. I do a normal undercut and then do a bore cut and make sure my hinge wood is where I want it. Then I cut from the hinge to the back of the tree leaving about 4-6 inches opposite to the undercut. Then I pull the saw out and cut the “trigger wood” from the outside in. This makes a barber chair almost impossible(in my experience, all oak)
Why don't you guys use the bore cut strap release? Even in this video the skilled sawyer doesn't know exactly when the tree will go and he has his saw in the cut. A strap release would put him in a better position, would allow a trigger timed event he is in full control of, way less risk. With a borecut strap release you can go larger diameter trees than the chainsaw bar too so that isn't an excuse. Simply bore in from both sides, or as he has done at around 8min just remove some on one side.
amen !
your hardwood trees have a knack to barber easily unless bored, on the west coast our trees are different, the only trees i'll bore is hardwoods, softwoods for the most part are all backcuts.
ya boring is way superior but wcb don't like it
Been doing this all my life. And what your not thinking about is the tree species. Old growth timber in west huge growth rings and soft wood. Big white oak, tight growth rings hardwood strong fibers. Bore cut old growth its app to break off stump and or set down on saw of its leaner like in this video. But most time they are cake fells just huge timber nothing like here in middle Tennessee where 75 ft white oak has 5 times the tention on fibers as a 175 ft old growth or second growth out west. Why because of our canopies. The weight distribution and weight difference. 6 in spruce weighs half of 6in hickory ,red or white oak.
This faller was not aware of what was happening. It starts to fall at 9:32, but he continue to cut and does not get out until the root mass shakes. When you are busy cutting with a noisy chainsaw, you are blind and deaf to the beginning of the fall.
He seemed unaware but appearances can be deceiving. Who knows how well he was tracking the trees movement other than the man himself. On a big tree like this you don't want to partially cut it down and run because then you have created a time bomb with an unknown timer and you've baited the trap with your personal favorite chainsaw. A guy goes back to get his saw and the whole shit show comes down on top of him. Better to see it through.
He's supposed to keep cutting to make sure it doesn't barber chair. They also finish steering the tree by cutting the holding wood as it falls.
first, i am just a very green novice trying to learn from any good teacher and mean no criticism at all. my question is why did he not make the angular cut first before the horizontal cut in making the directional notch to avoid the blade being caught? what made him choose the back cut the way he did it instead of bore cuts in this leaner?
Most BC fallers make the bottom cut after the horizontal cut. The side notch back cut is proven safer than a bore cut and is what us taught in BC. A bore cut not done right can result in a root pull, especially if it's leaning because the roots are loose.
dennbb sounds like the methods used have been worked out through experience. I see comments criticizing certain things and I can’t help but wonder about techniques that work in a different part of the world don’t work as well here, and vice versa...
I like ya cut g
9:34
That’s my dad
0:43 and tension ;-)
What chainsaw is that
that be a 660
Looks older than that to me. Probably an 064 or 066.
There is a smarter more saver way. You let a Chunck of wood stranding in the back of the tree (called backtoe) you finish tur rest and set you holding fibers as big/small as you want then you move back and cut the back toe when you do it you al ready moved a little away from the tree this way it cant barbarchair you at all.
I've worked in logging in northern california for a little over a decade, and though I'm not a faller myself, the only way I have seen it done is with the backtoe method. I've seen guys take down some pretty big hard leaners with the backtoe method with no problems.
The last cut depends on the saw being able to cut a lot of wood quickly to avoid disaster as proven by the fact he had to stand there and keep cutting even while the ground he was standing on was getting lifted up. A dog tooth cut would prevent that since the final cut does not have to go through as much wood and you could even finish it with a pole saw and not have to be right up close to the tree.
That last one was sketchy AF! Buckin doesn't like felling trees directly into their lean, he does it off to one side so they don't have so much stress on the holding wood, seems to work pretty good but I'm sure you can't always do that.
I didn't like the way that last big one popped.
i think i would have got moving quicker than he did when it started moving.
My dad fell interior and coastal wood for 30 years.He never got hit by any falling branches or schoolmarms.I know this video will give someone an understanding of what can happen.The heavy leaners are the worst.If you dont diamond cut them they barber chair,not only dangerous but with too much pull wood on the cuts it downgrades the logs quality.Usually they take a 10 to 20 footer off the butt of the log.Its not worth as much to the purchaser of the wood
How did you like that kids ? Nice ending ey ?
Why not just use a bore cut, much less chance of a cock up occurring and safer
As she falls the Joe escapes in line with tree. Not a pro
Or you could just do a bore cut... practically guaranteed the tree will fall when you let it fall, with a regular backcut you can't control when it'll fall, but if you do a bore cut the tree won't go anywhere until you cut the holding wood.
not on the west coast thats a hardwoods technique.
RoMMeL1337ak47 west coastUSA- here the cut you describe is known as the “70 degree Open Face “ (aka Birds mouth) and performed in the exact manner, and for the same reasons you described.:).
no its not.. its a technique for trees like the one in the video,. heavy leaners .
Nice
Never make your escape route directly behind a tree. It should be at an angle that's not perpendicular or parallel to the the notch or back cut.
That last one will get your blood pumping
I would have shit bricks when the roots started kicking up as that big one started to fall...that's never a good feeling
Those techniques are actually dangerous .. bore and release is the safest way
Apparently that doesn't work so well with the softwood found in BC.
2 words: GOVERNMENT REGULATION. In Canada a permit is required to sh*t in the woods.
Yes I was falling in bc when that stupid law came...we all laughed...and joked if the bears had to get a permit to shit...who dreams up this...
Look up ffs.
Far better off boring them .
this should be cut with safety hinch on the back of the tree
whats wrong with you guys????? you need some serious training
I'd use a bore cut on the 1st tree, the small one. What would you use for the larger tree? Just for the record I'll never fall a tree like that 2nd one.
Great techniques. Poor responsibility. Company's want too clear cut. Why? Greed. Some of these trees should be left for another 40 years, at least. Idiocy. Poor resource management.
earth first...other planets later.