angled back cut when felling

If we spent 10% of this brain power on finding the best ways to keep trees alive, we and trees would be a lot better off.

I compromise and angle it 22.5 degrees now. I find it harder to try to line it up when it's flat. Dinosaur vision issue maybe.
 
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I just read back thru this mess again. It gets stupid funny, if that makes sense. Yes, I use a sloping back cut. Been using it for 30 years, It has never failed me and I have never had to use a wedge, except for the one time I did NOT use a sloping back cut. People can use what they want, and use what works for them, I have also used angled felling cuts, to make a crooked tree to roll, to get it to fall between other trees. I wonder how many people will tell me I am wrong for that, too. haha.
 
For me, the main goal in felling a tree should be "control." Without control, your just rolling the dice. The funny thing about these dice though, is that they land on the number you want the vast majority of the time. So people get the illusion that the way they've been felling trees for years works perfectly fine and has the greatest degree of control. But just because you haven't crashed your car while being distracted the first time, doesn't make it safe.
The physics described on why the angled back cut are to a disadvantage versus the flat back cut are solid. A solid hinge will give you the 'greatest' degree of 'control' every time. Its still not an exact science because every tree is different and gravity is gravity, but having more control and less uncertainty is your best bet.
 
An angled back cut has to cut through a lot more wood than a straight one. On big trees you want every advantage you can get, so why even risk it? Angled cuts seem to be harder on the saw, and do you think the pro loggers, who have felled more trees than we can even imagine, don't know what they're doing? You don't see them using them. Learn from the pros people. Those loggers have tried it all. Angled back cuts make you look like a rookie. Sorry if that hurts your feelings.
 
Chick said:
The old logger that taught me to drop trees, showed me the angle back cut. He would cut, split and deliver 130 cords of wood a year, plus take down trees for people. I have used it for many years, and it has never failed me. He started in the 30's with a cross cut and axe. Been gone to see the lord for about 10 years, but said it just kept a tree where it was suppose to be, if a breeze came up. Theory goes out the window to experience.
Click to expand...

wow, I can't see making a cut any longer than necessary when using a cross cut saw, especially when logging, think about all the lost lumber from the angled cut.
 
Great discussion. I agree with the comment that there is probably a higher risk of the back of the stump splitting with an angled back cut, IF it is particularly steep. When you have a tall, angled "ear" sticking up like that and 3 tons of tree presses against it (when going in the direction you don't want), I could easily see it splitting right down the trunk and the fall going very badly. Obviously, if the back cut comes straight in, or maybe at a slight angle, if the tree does fall back, it's going to sit on a flat, very solid platform. I recently started another thread in general discussion that focuses on the other half of the equation, the face cut, for those interested.
 
I call it the green horn cut because every new guy I have talked to thinks the angle gives some kind of advantage (home owners included). I will admit that I was one of them a while back. With the slanted back cut it is more difficult to line up the hinge and if you are off by a margin good luck trying to correct it.
 
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