southsoundtree
Been here much more than a while
- Location
- Olympia, WA
I thought I could "Paint" the way to reduce the angle on a "walk down", but my Paint-ing started to look Picasso.
I'll try to verbalize it.
With the tree hung, and getting more vertical from "walking it down" or "tripping" it, the underside is tensioned, and the top compressed. If you cut a back cut in the top side, inserting wedges, then cut the face on the bottom side, leaving a good, and thin hinge, you can bang the wedges into the backcut to force the kerf open and the face to begin to close. This will bow the tree outward/ upward, with single or stacked wedges, until the down pressure from the weight of the tree closed the face, pushing it away from the stationary tree. The butt of the log will hold in place on the ground, and the tree should fall away from the stationary tree. You can have you ear protection removed, allowing you to hear and watch as you pound the wedges. The tree will have to be somewhat upright, for this to work (if it isn't somewhat upright, you can still "walk it down" another time or two).
You will clearly have a harder time with larger trees, and multiple single wedges, or multiple stacked sets of wedges will likely be needed, but no more gear than a feller would normally have. Maybe if you are production felling for logging you would not have a ton of wedges on hand. We had a 10 person crew, so we could get a few from others working nearby. I don't know what logging feller carry for wedges.
If you have a rope, you can tie it near the face and pull, or tensioned to another tree and push down on the rope to magnify your force. This might only mean having a short piece of rope rather than what an urban/ suburban tree crew would typically be carrying.
If you want the butt to move to the side, instead of straight back, opposite the stationary tree, you can do the same, but turned 90 degrees. You will be working "sideways" to the compression/ tension. As always, watch your kerf, and wedge as needed. This may work better on the larger trees, as you are not lifting the tree, but rather moving it sideways. You will have some lowering of the angle, but not as much as if you can move it straight back, opposite the stationary tree.
I imagine that you will be able to work somewhere between the direct and perpendicular directions relative to the lean.
Sorry, no pictures, and this would be hard to recreate, unless we get a good storm.
I'll try to verbalize it.
With the tree hung, and getting more vertical from "walking it down" or "tripping" it, the underside is tensioned, and the top compressed. If you cut a back cut in the top side, inserting wedges, then cut the face on the bottom side, leaving a good, and thin hinge, you can bang the wedges into the backcut to force the kerf open and the face to begin to close. This will bow the tree outward/ upward, with single or stacked wedges, until the down pressure from the weight of the tree closed the face, pushing it away from the stationary tree. The butt of the log will hold in place on the ground, and the tree should fall away from the stationary tree. You can have you ear protection removed, allowing you to hear and watch as you pound the wedges. The tree will have to be somewhat upright, for this to work (if it isn't somewhat upright, you can still "walk it down" another time or two).
You will clearly have a harder time with larger trees, and multiple single wedges, or multiple stacked sets of wedges will likely be needed, but no more gear than a feller would normally have. Maybe if you are production felling for logging you would not have a ton of wedges on hand. We had a 10 person crew, so we could get a few from others working nearby. I don't know what logging feller carry for wedges.
If you have a rope, you can tie it near the face and pull, or tensioned to another tree and push down on the rope to magnify your force. This might only mean having a short piece of rope rather than what an urban/ suburban tree crew would typically be carrying.
If you want the butt to move to the side, instead of straight back, opposite the stationary tree, you can do the same, but turned 90 degrees. You will be working "sideways" to the compression/ tension. As always, watch your kerf, and wedge as needed. This may work better on the larger trees, as you are not lifting the tree, but rather moving it sideways. You will have some lowering of the angle, but not as much as if you can move it straight back, opposite the stationary tree.
I imagine that you will be able to work somewhere between the direct and perpendicular directions relative to the lean.
Sorry, no pictures, and this would be hard to recreate, unless we get a good storm.
