Summing up what you are explaining here Brody, is a quote. The greatest enemy of a really good plan is the *dream* of a *perfect plan.* Just stay classy your own self, and those that see your example - see your example. Those that don't are the ones that also hide their mistakes rather than learn from them. You kept looking UP while you worked, and you OBVIOUSLY had situational awareness, which is why you knew INSTANTLY when that tree set back, AND where your options for "OUT" and "PROTECTED" were. If you're gonna get one thing right, that'd be what I'd pick! When you're standing on a slope like that, it's really hard to guage what true vertical is. That's a fact. Optical illusions are proof of just how tricky it can be. I think the video shows quite well that the lean towrd the back is VERY slight - because the camera is well back, and it's plain to see where stright is when you've in the frame, and upright, basically like what uou were saying about using a string as a plumb bob type comparison. It's darn near impossible to really see when you're close enough to have your hands on the saw. Those of us that get it, get it. Those that don't either never will, or, they have to "find it" on their own. Your safe - Irene is safe - you cleannup your own mistakes by being accountable. I see nothing to criticize. Hey, happy holidays, too, btw. I hope that as I am writing this, you're having some fun uou'll tell is about later! Stay healthy, pal!
Don't get hung up on it bud! I watched a "PRO" tree service guy cut a neighbors tree and make some HUGE mistakes that caused major damage to their house, property, and utilities. Then I got to go finish the job after the insurance company settled with my neighbor because he supposedly got hurt and couldn't finish it. Like you said, even the "PRO'S" make mistakes!!!!
I know it's an older vid, but I feel ya brother. I learned to use a saw first, as a career Firefighter. I used to teach them, after several years, at our State Fire Academy.... then I purchased a heavily wooded lot. What a night and day difference!! I appreciate the mistakes that I and others make. I see em as learning opportunities!! My then brandy new Stiihl ms390, spend many a time pinched in trees. That was 20+ yrs ago. The Stihl is still going strong, a couple bars down the road, and some replacement plastic casing lol... And I still am learning. Good vid, glad I found it. I've been there too, and probably will be again! Stay safe.
I'm Scandinavian and do the face cut like yours. One thing that helps immensely is: 1: go to the other side of the tree 2: lean your left shoulder on the tree 3: line up the TOP (45 degree) cut by positioning the dogs in the bark and pivot the saw so you are happy with direction 4: go down/back to desired depth 5: check both sides to get the bottom of the cut level regardless of lean etc 6: now do the vertical cut by lining the dogs up for the closest side of the bar. Pivot bar end up/down until you are happy it lines up with bottom of previous cut. Look at your tip - get the bar perfectly level. 7: take your time cutting, pivoting over the dogs. Shoulder still on trunk. When you get close, check the far side. Go back and forth until you have the face cut resting on the bar 8: flick the facecut out like a badass and do the backcut. Leaning on the trunk and utilizing the dogs will allow you to build up muscle memory without struggling to keep the saw at the correct angle - your balance is out of the equation with the tree supporting you. Your arms won't have to carry the full weight of the saw but only do the minute changes needed to get it perfect.
just found your channel tuning the CS 590 and looked at other videos. Thanks for sharing your mishap and I am glad you and the Mrs are ok. I have ruined a chainsaw doing something similar. Your analysis of what you did and what went wrong was very helpful to me and I am sure many others. Love your humor and other videos. I subscribed. All the best and keep up the great work.
Hey Brody always watching but rarely say anything. But here it is I'm a novice like yourself and have 30+ saws hanging on the wall and pride myself at doing the best I can at felling... that being said I had a big problem like you with my cuts not lining up until I decided to dedicate 1 saw to felling and chose a 372 ported by me big bore. Farmerteck lol... full wrap whole 9 yards... Long of the short I have found that a bar that is well balanced is what you need to be successful and your cuts will start lining up. I'm running a 28" origon lightweight like buckin and it almost balances perfect on either side of the full wrap so I highly recommend this method of thinking for your you...pick a felling saw and stick with it. I've Also learned a hell of a lot felling fence rows for farmers lol by the time u kill 150 trees in a row you'll learn a lot about everything with little to no risk... Just a suggestion I love the show and wach religiously always smashing the 👍button and will continue to do so Thanks Jared Hoath . Ps I'm serious about comiting yourself to a dedicated felling saw... things will come together
Your setup is exactly what I use for my falling too. Except I gotta 28" Husky light weight. And yeah, I bought that saw just for felling. I don't sound off in here often either. I may go in, & port my orange Holtzforma 372 this winter. I sure am impressed with it. 👍
I’ll give you a trick to help you see what the tree is going to do as you cut your back cut. Hang your ax into the backcut with the handle 90* from your face. The handle will move up or down according to the lean of the tree as you start your back cut. The issue of your hinge being to strong is not really a concern, you really just cut too much hinge and the weight took it over, for your experience level. You should also always try to cut from the high side of the stump for safety and to be able to do things to use the weight of the tree to do what you want the tree to do. Knowing that the tree immediately moved once you started your back cut would have told you you probably can’t wedge it over and to develop another plan.
My Brother the key to felling trees 1. Take your time. 2. Make a great face cut make sure that it is perfect. It is the steering wheel for you. 3. Back cut evenly to the hinge banging wedges along the way. Once you are cut up with a good even hinge, then bang till she goes. The funny thing about you is, I watched you with the datiddy saw and you made these perfect stumps the difference is you were not scared because that tree was to little to hurt you. But do the same thing on a big tree but take your time. Buckin billy ray has taught me so much about felling trees. Go watch his old videos and Guilty of treeson channel they actually have a felling tree video that is priceless.
One lesson I learned the hard way was to always put my saw where it is not even possible for it to be run over, no exceptions. I once set down my 311 and proceeded to split all the logs off the stump. When I finished splitting I jumped in my truck and backed right over my saw. It broke my heart I had forgotten I put the saw on the ground but learned a valuable lesson to this day I never put a saw where it is even possible to make that mistake again. First time I've ever watched your channel brother and I just say you are humble and you are on your way to that 90%+ zone. Keep cutting there is no better pastime for a man in my opinion.
This is about learning for all of us. Appreciate the courage and honor the humility I have fallen over 100 trees (arbitrarily standard) and have made mistakes. So in the interest of learning and shared growth please consider 2 points: First, your analysis requires us to believe a slightly taller hinge is less flexible than a shorter hinge of the same thickness. I have found taller hinges to be MORE flexible because the fibers can flex over a greater length. Second, for that tree to be vertical, all the other trees in the background and the fence post have to be leaning in the opposite direction. The camera doesn’t make it look like it’s leaning because the camera is crooked. It looks like it’s leaning because the camera shows the background trees. They make it look like it’s leaning. If you want to blow your mind measure them with a plumb Bob.
Thanks Boedy. We're damned glad you're okay! I've had some freaky ass situations too. These sorts of things need to be shown! Practice absolutely makes us better, also said by BBR. The intro was awesome btw. My last whoopsy was like this'n. Dude, I had to finish my cut! No matter how bad it was. And wouldn't ya know it, the friggen wind picked up, sat back on the stump, & took a giant shit on me. Ya did good, considering. You two got the hell out of there. Jist sayin.
Perfect practice makes for perfection, practicing piss poor technique only ingrains poor habits. each step is the foundation of the next if the horizontal cut is off stop and correct it before moving on to the next.
I’ve been doing fire mitigation on my property the past 2 weeks and have dropped 15 trees absolutely text book. Until the last one that happened to be closest to my house. Face cut was fine. Back cut done. Grabbed my wedges at the moment the wind just happened to pick up which moved the tree the opposite direction, collapsed the back cut and the tree slowly fell into the dog run, crushed a welded wire fence and barely missed my deck. I learned a lot from that mistake. Thanks for sharing, we all fk up from time to time but few actually admit so publicly BTW, I use a mini-sledge to drive wedges and it works like a champ.
Thanks for that. I have fell many trees. Sometimes, stuff goes wrong. So many people act as if they've never messed up. If they truly haven't...hold on- it's coming!
Oh dude that sucks! Main thing is thankfully you're both alive and didn't damage any one else's property. Hopefully the sxs is salvageable and we're all human mistakes happen live and learn
Love it Boeds! We all get humbled every now and then, thanks for sharing. I still believe that the thickness of the hinge wood is the main factor here and perhaps not the height of it. But I'm not sure of that so better to improve both right 😂 (Yes the intro was cool) have a good day
Great video buddy, the hurry up and get it done gets ya most of the time, as bad as the situation was I think this video will help a lot and open the eyes of a lot of people for things to look for, hey myself included 👍, just like febreze, don’t go in nose(or saw) blind. Keep them eyes open and head up and take the time to learn from another’s failure. Thanks Boedy.
Well, I had to learn like you, like everyone else. Unlike people in my family, I went out and worked for a pro feller and learned how not to get killed. I think you have that support also??? Anyway, I would not have the same conclusions as your video, although I appreciate it very much so. When you cut through the hinge, the tree set back as you noted, therefore the lean was in that direction, but also a little toward you. I had this same thing happen to me, and there was NO banging it over. We went and got a machine to push it over, and the tree sat on my saw before I got anywhere close the the hinge. In your case, your back cut was not only out of alignment, it is too high. There is alot of people who teach to stay way above the face cut, and this is exactly what can happen. You can easily misjudge and cut your hinge. That step from the face to the back should be an inch or less. Not everyone will agree. Also you are standing on the downhill side, which I don't think anyone would recommend. You have to tell yourself that pressing forward is where you likely make mistakes. Its ok to correct things early, go slow, think, and most people learn that without dying.
I’ve been cutting trees all my life… I’ve hit stuff and so has everyone I’ve ever worked with… the most important thing that you’ve learned is to go slowly and take yourp time… it’s not a race or rushing around will help cause a mistake. It’s fantastic and it’s the funnest hobby going or so it is for me I enjoy a couple days work cutting and then a couple play where I can work on the porting and building saw’s… I don’t count all the dripping sweat as work when it’s doing what you love…some people go to the gym to work out… I prefer the woods! 😂👍.
I’ve had trees go over BACKWARDS on me. What you do is…well, I’ll let you know when/IF I ever get it figured out. I “think” that I might have ended up clipping the far side hinge wood, but I failed to examine the stumps afterwards.
Thank you for showing your failures to learn from. A top that helped me run level cut and hinges, don't use your dogs. Hold the saw away from the wood. It makes you focus more on the bar and helps a lot for amateur fellers like us
@@marcustraber my friend owns a tree removal company so I helped him one day, and my hinges/faces looked absolutely textbook. Looked better than his lol, I tried to dog in and nothing lined up. Amateur tricks for the win
Admitting failure is rare now days, I think it is the participation trophy syndrome that is causing this. They were never told they failed so they think they don't. Good learning experience👍🆙BigGuy
Eh,, no blood, all good. Give the wedge a chance to work. Repetitive banging on leaners will create a rocking effect and work against you.. Bang one good one and let it settle. One bang and let it settle. If you time it right you can help yourself when it rebounds. Hitting when it rebounds back towards the wedge is a waste of energy. We have all messed up. I enjoy your channel
Thanks for sharing your mistake I know how you feel we all make mistake’s i don’t like people criticising and I don’t do it myself. As for tapping your wedges in I like using a orange nylon dead blow hammer the one I use is a snap on 4 lb they really drive the wedges in.
I'm just going to say it. Your entire problem was that you didn't have your rakers set right, thereby not allowing the oil pump to properly lubricate the clutch at which point the compression stroke caused your sprocket to become misaligned. Otherwise it looked damn good.
I know it is hard to tell how someone is actually talking on the computer. I say this because I have a genuine question about your comment. I’m missing something and I don’t quite understand what you are saying. I don’t understand what the raker height has to do with the clutch getting the proper amount of oil. I know the drivers underneath are what carries the majority of the oil around the bar and sprocket. If you see this comment and have a moment to break it down for me I would really appreciate it. Just trying to learn what I can from people. I am genuinely curious and want to understand what you are saying. Thank you.
@@eriklong6390 this entire comment is a joke. Boedy and I are friends and I'm giving him crap about everything unrelated to anything that happened. Nothing I mentioned has anything to do with another- like raker height and oil etc- it's all a good laugh is all. If you have any specific questions however I'm happy to help you learn!!
@@IowaPerformanceSaws HAHAHA! I was literally racking my smaller than normal noggin for a few minutes thinking to myself, “What are these guys talking about.” Lol all good. By the way, thank you for offering your help.
Can't tell you how many times I ran out in the woods after work with only an hr or two before it gets dark to cut down a few trees and end up going home without a chainsaw bar because it's pinched in the tree. You are exactly right saying you don't know until you know...
Before you use a sledgehammer on wedges try more wedges. I use a long, around 26 in, handle axe with a 800g (1.87lbs) head. It's the Husqvarna "Traditional (Multi-purpose) Axe". I hit with a little bit more force as the axe has swinging on it's own. The trick is to alternate between wedges, and have long thin wedges. Also the bigger the tree the more wedges you need. Dropped a tree on my 560xp last winter and not a scratch on it, tough little saws.
Gotta think too… each hunk of tree you moved was a ton.. 2,000 pounds??! So it’s 6/8,000 pounds that you might be trying to lift.,, I don’t agree with that height of that side theory… you need 10% of your diameter in your hinge… so 2” to 3”… then it’s pounding time…. She got down in there and Wacked the buggie! I was crying… then Mrs. Bodie laughingly said..,hey…. The tail lights still work as it’s dragging azz back to the house!!! As soon as I heard her say that I knew I loved you both even more!!! Yeap!!! You learn by doing!!! Even if you do your setup with a smaller bar saw to make sure it’s perfect… you always want to make it look perfect.,, then when you are off a little it’s okay… That’s why they call them accidents buddy… shit happens.., this is dangerous shit so you want to make each step you are making when you are setting up your stumps to be perfect. It’s a slow and deliberate process… use a trace saw or marking paint or whatever you need to make it look perfect and then you complete the steps…. Treeson has definitely made falling mistakes on video… The BC Fellers series is great training video to watch and then you go practice…. You are definitely one of us kinda people who lead rather than fallow… a local tree guy might work you on Saturday’s to pick up some of the techniques but in residential tree removal you usually only flop the stick at the end after it’s been stripped… unless there’s room and it’s more like farmer folks as I call them who don’t really care about the turf and want the cheapest job they can get then you can drop the entire tree. Logger Wade had a little one day logging felling training day down at his place a couple years ago. I don’t know if he has videos of that or still does it? I’ll tell you for me… I had a hard time with making my face cuts line up and I would purposely take a high stump so I could make 2-3 more face cuts and follow through with the back cut! We Buried some 12” popular or other soft wood sticks with the backhoe… just so they were sticking up out of the ground 10’… then you could get 2-3… sometimes 4 practice runs working on those stumps…. I visualize my face cuts in 1/2 or two parts… I make one side perfect and then I make the other side match… then I’ll grind my line to make sure that it’s all squared and there’s no Dutchmen cutting back into my hinge woood… then you can make your back side of your holding wood or hinge…
Dude shit happens. I don’t know shit about shit. But I now know to watch out for this thanks for the video to teach. You will learn way more by doing than watching for sure.
agree with you 100%.. ive got about ten felled under my belt. struggling with facecut depth and meeting up my humbolt cuts< HA HA HA !! got to keep learning , or give up, and yes all the pros have screwed the pooch a time or two !!
I took about a 2ft long piece of survey line and tied a washer to the bottom. You mentioned it in the video too. Worth keeping that little guy in your pocket. And you're not an idiot. You're learning. We all are. The minute we quit learning is when we slip up and die. Don't hesitate to pop a squat or take a knee and really evaluate your cuts. When something feels like it's wrong or acting unexpectedly- check if there is a visible cue. When we get frustrated its almost our instinct to go "harder better faster" when we just need to chill and figure out how we ended up frustrated in the first place. And fuck the haters. Not one of them would have the balls to do what you did today. None of them.
hell i cut one saturday got in a hurry and it sat down on mu saw i cut the compression wood last I think your face cut was ok i cut mine crooked from time to time the big thing I seen was the hinge just let go due to a little too much cutting as long as the hinge is wide enough the fibers on the height are running the same so they will break the same as far as it being a 1/2 inch on one side as 1-1/2 on the other not beating on you cause ive fell a bunch and still mess up but just trying to help keep rockin only way to learn is from mistakes
Some will lie and say they knew all the wrong things with the cut. My question I'd was they there. No you was. Your wife was. I definitely can say I learned a few things from this and the original video. Was a bad situation, was for a good reason though. The lord works in Mysterious ways. Why we will never know until it's already too late. Love the video buddy! Gotta say I'm definitely not the 20 or 40% can not say I know because my age people criticize. Delt with it a lot since I'm the quiet guy when I'm around (mostly) ever since I was young. When you're around guys that show you and teach you the beginning side of felling trees. You know. You learn to sharpen, you learn to fell, you learn to run a tractor. Just because you think, doesn't mean you know. Sometimes you have to think on things!
When you do your face cut do it upside down. That helps keep the stem from slipping across the stump, and to throws it off of the stump. It's kind of a PIA starting out, but it's worth the effort.
get a proper axe or maul with some weight to it to hammer those wedges in. it would have improved the chance of a good fell massively. that axe just hasn't got the weight to drive in those wedges.
I dont want to be that person but you should let a pro give you an analysis because you are missing a lot of small things, you are right about some and others sounds more like excuses. Anyway thanks for having the balls to upload it. 👍
As u said,EVERYONE has made mistakes s,and the best way of.learning.is.to.just.go.do.it.i have done my share.of bad fells...Smashed.fences,a smashed.trailer,landed .a couple.on.the.house.and ive narrowly.avoided personal.injury more.times than i can remember.its not coz im lucky,either.im fucking blessed is my only explanation.but ive learnd alot.mam still.learning..will continue to learn.and as i take on more experience and.knowledge my confidence.grows.and that confidence lets me.take.on bigger challenges.with those.chqllenges come bigger.risks and more learning.
This is a really good video. My son and I have a small firewood business and often times we end up with someones "junk trees" Think 3 and 4 foot base elm or pecan that we have to be super aware of when cutting. Any ideas help.
Invest in your business for a splitter. That Elm is a TOUGH SOB to split. Sell the Pecan to folks for smoking wood for cooking and you’ll be a step ahead. That Elm can ALSO be sold in RR cross tie lengths to sawmills for the RR. It’s awesome strong but it’s stupid bad for twisting/warping with humidity variations.
I got my first chainsaw 2 years ago and have probably dropped 8 or 10 trees since and 2 have gone backwards lol one was almost exactly what happened here I misjudged the weight of the branches on the heavier side and thinking I could wedge through it in wind lol..WRONG! (at my skill leve) now I have a rule drop off the saw and gas where you want...but park the quad sxs or truck where the tree CANT hit it and the only way is put it out of reach lol if it's roughly an 80ft tree park 100+ ft away...walking sucks but not as much as other outcomes ;) this wasn't criticizing just an FYI in hopes that mine and others mistakes can teach the people who haven't fucked that up yet what they need to know before they learn like we did lol
@Novice Lumberjack lol as long as we learn that's what matters. Thanks for the amazing content and honesty it's good to see guys like yourself and other more seasoned guys making mistakes and it's a shame to hide them and the knowledge they can provide
You need to attend “Game Of Logging” class, or more commonly called GOL class. It’s a 3 day long class but you’re going to learn “SO MUCH” from it. Your going to need to be a bit better equipped such as having a belt and having a axe carrier and and having a wedge carrier on it. I want to attend one of those classes but most are in the northeastern US. You’re going to want a good/new file as well. They will check to make sure that many things are up to snuff about your saws including but not limited to tuning, cleanliness, can you file, how well you file, and so on. I want to attend a GOL class so bad that I can just taste it’s, and like you I’m just doing things like this for “giggles”. Have you at least 3 wedges and a 5 pound axe (with your issues), and make sure that your “felling” axe is no longer than 28” from tip to tip while measuring the wood. You can also get a very short plumb bob that is between 3” and 12” long, or you can just make 1 out of old pull chain similar to what you find on ceiling fans.
It wasn't the fact that the notch was crooked that's why it fell towards you the reason it wasn't lifting is was because your back cut had to much holding wood on your far side and your hinge was to shallow combined with cutting the bark off and cutting to close to your hinge an inch of hinge should wedge over
I know im dumb but. i can see whats wrong and weight at the top but besides the little mess up nothing but a old fence got smashed and thats what's good it still went good I almost forgot your cart thing got a little smashed but its still good it didn't smash a house or anything like that
The people that are quick to point out someones failures and wrong doings make perfect boss's. 😁 Most people learn the best by their mistakes. Try a deeper face cut next time also.
Mine went down good today i missed a old septic tank i missed the person's house and missed the power lines I don't usually cut from standing up on a ladder but I didn't have any other choice and no ropes for the sugar maple I don't have all the filming setup stuff or know how to do all that stuff so i took a short video of how it looked after it was all cut down Im gonna joke with the guy tomorrow and bring him another young red maple and tell em I got you another tree you can plant it closer to your house now if you want or bring him a cedar tree i get a laugh out of that cause i know he wont want another one. Yup I did it with a cigarette hanging out of my lips I done it and it still went well all because it didn't hit nothing valuable
Logger Wade does this thing called a triple hinge. I've used it before. Works,and once you get the hang of it ,you can put one exactly where you want it.
I think the bottle jack method would've been the way to go here but hey , nobody hurt and nothing broke that can't be fixed . You live and learn . By the way , was Irene in the sprint team at school ?
In 30 years of running chainsaws im pretty confidence i have felled Over 100 medium to.large trees.that being said,i did alot of things wrrong for.the first 27.lol.im by no means a pro even with my experience
Start dropping smaller easier trees and playing with the hinge wood. It will really teach you what you can do with hinge wood. Btw its TJ that came and cut at your house.
Our problem is we don't do it on regular basis I've dropped thousands of trees through my life but before last two years I hadn't dropped a tree for 15 years last year and this year I'll be dropping like 75 trees 2 ft and larger you just have to take our time on the dropping and look at all the situations and like an old guy who taught me when I was young dropping is not exact science we are going to always have a situations where a tree will not go as you think because you don't have X-ray vision don't know how the wood structure is inside the tree make small mistakes air movement and cut wrong and s*** happens stop beating up on yourself and nobody got hurt
I like joking with my old friend and tell him you gotta get way up there in that tree he's scard going up high like that even on smaller tree's its just funny to see his face he'll say fuck no i ain't that's for you
I'm a USFS sawyer level C and have trained a lot of new sawyers. I am in no way trying to bash your abilities, just pointing out what I see, as I would with any student or trainee. Your hinge wood was NOT too strong. Nor was it too tall. The height of your hinge doesn't come into play all that much. I noticed right away, before you backcut, that your notch was bypassed on that right side that eventually failed. When you corrected your top cut to line up with your bottom cut, you missed a little bit. Had you noticed and taken the time to correct this, you likely would have been in the clear. What this did, was when you went to tickle your hinge a little thinner right before it fell, you met that bypass and severed that side of your hinge fibers. I like to do my top cut first and then meet up with it in my bottom cut. This helps me get things lined up correctly so I don't bypass my hinge. I am also an "open-face and bore-cut" sawyer and that is how I teach. I agree with the previous commenter about attending a Game of Logging training course or something similar. If you were near Western North Carolina, I'd be happy to spend a day with you. I'll also say that wing cutting off that bark it absolutely something that professionals do, it helps you see your hinge dimensions and creates a more slender butt log to load on the truck
I would be willing to travel to Western North Carolina. And I am absolutely serious. If you could come up with some sort of training day, I would love to do this. I could video it and we could all learn. I am in Atlanta, so you aren't that far from me.
