First let me say the Patrick is a true gun slinger and a legit pro..
Am I missing something here? I was taught that a swinging dutchman is the use of intentional bypass on one side of your undercut.. When the bypassed kerf closes up it cause the hinge on that side to break early, and theoretically causes your tree to swing. Theoretically? As far as I can tell Patrick did not execute a swinging dutchmen, but he did cut some of his far side hinge... Patrick is a serious pro so I will not question his reason for doing what he did. The tree saved out so its a win in my book.
On a side note happy new year to you Daniel... ...
Thank you. You too. We've got a big year coming with lots of ash trees dying and who knows what's going to happen to the trees from spotted lanternfly.
I've never used a sizwheel and understand the concept that longer hinge fibers on the front of the hinge (beyond the height of the apex where two kerfs meet) have more flex and therefore the ability to spread the force out more evenly over the full width of the hinge (front to back), rather than having a "static hinge" which has the tendency to isolate the most force on the fibers at the back of the hinge, which then just get transferred forward (but still isolated) as the back fibers tear.
It looks like Pat used the sizwheel to help keep the left side of the hinge stronger than the right. This will keep the tree from going right. then he completely blew out the far (right) side of the hinge for either the same reason or because his bar was short and he couldn't reach the far side of the tree well for the steep hill. Or some combination of both. Either way, he believed he didn't need the hinge fibers on the far right corner of the hinge. Pat has the skill to have kept those fibers intact if they were needed.
That complete removal of fibers on one side of the hinge is called a swing Dutchman in Dent's book, "Professional Timber Falling". As we've been through before, sometime after the publication of this book, Dent came to believe that the many forms of the swing Dutchman (this is just one of the possible options that involve removal of the side of the hinge) was
too unreliable to teach. I would argue once again that the technique still has value or Dent would not have suggested using it in the first place. And just because it is too unreliable to teach does not mean that an exploration of the many factors that influence its ability to hold against side weight won't yield some understanding of the potential and limitations of the cut.
One thing we can agree on is that if the tree starts to settle on the kerf cut, that would induce even more side lean which would be counterproductive. I've seen trees settle and begin to lean more just from cutting a notch, so the size, weight, lean, species, condition, and other factors are going to make a difference in what it takes to avoid side settling.
I wonder what pat would think of all your criticisms of the technique when I showed it. You got ugly and mighty righteous. Now you're like hey, if Pat does it, it's cool. That was predictable...
