Little bit Hollow eh?

[SmokinPiney]

We dropped a couple oaks around the property today but this one sure was hairy. I noticed a small indent in the trunk right below where i wanted to cut my notch so i started to cut with caution. Soon as i sunk the bar in on the first cut it blazed right through to the middle of the tree and blew a bunch of dust out. At that point i knew it was hollow so i made my notch quickly as the wind picked up and made the back cut enough to let the wind do the rest. I'd say she was hollow....

That's a 26" trunk with only about 6" of wood that was holdin it up. It was that hollow to about 8ft up.

 

[hareball]

About how tall was she??

Nice to see another Piney on board

 

[SmokinPiney]

She was just shy of 40ft. Just a short fat one lol..

 

[ROBERT F]

Thats what I call danger cuttin'. never know what the hecks gonna happen or how quickly. fun if you like that kind of adrenniline

 

[thewoodlands]

We dropped a couple oaks around the property today but this one sure was hairy. I noticed a small indent in the trunk right below where i wanted to cut my notch so i started to cut with caution. Soon as i sunk the bar in on the first cut it blazed right through to the middle of the tree and blew a bunch of dust out. At that point i knew it was hollow so i made my notch quickly as the wind picked up and made the back cut enough to let the wind do the rest. I'd say she was hollow....

That's a 26" trunk with only about 6" of wood that was holdin it up. It was that hollow to about 8ft up.

I'll have to remember to tap on some beech I'm cutting in the spring, they seem to get to a certain size and do the same thing.


zap

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Those are the worst trees for cutting and I hate them. I'd probably just wait and let the thing fall when it's time was up. Yup, I hate those things. Glad you got it down okay and there will be lots of great firewood in that tree.

 

[leaddog]

It would have been more dangerous if it would have been hollow up at the top. then when it goes down the top breaks out and comes back at you.. I've never seen it but have heard about it and so I always look the trees over real well to see any signs of it. I heard it takes very little to break it off. Just touching another limb can sent it flying.
leaddog

 

[billb3]

We have lots of those here, unfortunately.
Usually full of carpenter ant colonies further up.
Wind storms usually snap them and knock them to the ground, some will have signs of having cracked and healed in the past, sometimes several times.

 

[SmokinPiney]

It would have been more dangerous if it would have been hollow up at the top. then when it goes down the top breaks out and comes back at you.. I've never seen it but have heard about it and so I always look the trees over real well to see any signs of it. I heard it takes very little to break it off. Just touching another limb can sent it flying.
leaddog

Yes that can happen but most of the time hollow tops come down just the way they should. But that's why you should always get clear once the tree starts to fall.

I've had hollow trees (just like the one in the photo) explode at the base as soon as i made the back cut, and sometimes while cuttin the wedge. Definately not a fun situation! Just gotta be extra careful and my old boss used to say "listen to the tree" along with watchin it. It'll usually tell ya what its gonna do.