Bucking Advice?

[Oldman47]

Small hatchet should be plenty. You are not trying to pry open the kerf. You are just preventing it from closing on the saw.

 

[BringinHeat]

You could even use a decent sized stick or branch on the ground for that matter.

 

[maple1]

How do you guys pound your felling wedges in? Do you carry a tool or use a nearby limb? If a tool, what? I am curious. I own an Estwing Fireside Friend splitting hatchet but that dude weighs 4 lbs. I guess a regular hatchet wouldn't be heavy enough?

I use a cheap wood handled axe. Just fits in my ATV box. Great for wedges, but way more useful than a hatchet - an axe also comes in handy the odd time where a hatchet wouldn't be much good. The longer handle is also good at times, you can swing at things from further away. I don't really have much use for a hatchet....

 

[DougA]

If you are trying to use a wedge(s) to tip a leaning tree in the direction you want, you'll need an axe to pound it in. If you are just trying to keep the saw from jamming, a small hatchet or large stick will work.
I've sometimes needed a dozen good swings from the flat side of an axe on the wedge to force a tree over. To me, it's a lot safer pounding on the wedge than running the saw that extra inch on a leaner.

If you are sticking a wedge into a cut when bucking, I put it in with my hand and it just sits there but that's all you need to prevent jamming.

 

[Hasufel]

If you are sticking a wedge into a cut when bucking, I put it in with my hand and it just sits there but that's all you need to prevent jamming.

If I'm bucking a tree that's flat on the ground--especially if there's a lot of debris piled up and I don't have a clear view of the bottom edge--I'll bring my little 3-pound sledgehammer and pound the wedge in as hard as I can. That way I can see the cut opening up when the saw gets near the bottom and I can back out before I run the chain into the dirt.

 

[DUMF]

How do you guys pound your felling wedges in? Do you carry a tool or use a nearby limb? If a tool, what? I am curious. I own an Estwing Fireside Friend splitting hatchet but that dude weighs 4 lbs. I guess a regular hatchet wouldn't be heavy enough?

Hand 'stone' sledge hammer; never an axe; not much weight and easy to loose. The "Fly off the handle" kind of.
Wedges are in the belt. Get green ones. The small hammer has weight, nice size, and it's handy for pounding stump vises for in the field chain touch ups.

 

[TedyOH]

I should clarify that the tree's actually not under any tension other than what's caused by its dead weight

This looked to be the case right away to me - cut from right to left, the trunk should remain off the ground through out the whole process - what a back saver!
I have taken in a 3 ton floor jack before to jack the tree up by the root ball to keep the trunk off the ground and keep from bar pinching. Not sure if you can get one back there, I toss mine in the back of my Polaris.

 

[sportbikerider78]

I've only been doing this 3 years. I'd start at the creek end and explore what type of weight there is on the tree top. Then I'd work my way back towards the root. When I finally felt neutral tension, i'd go to the root side and do another exploration cut. Take the tension off and that makes it safe.

 

[Hasufel]

This looked to be the case right away to me - cut from right to left, the trunk should remain off the ground through out the whole process - what a back saver!
I have taken in a 3 ton floor jack before to jack the tree up by the root ball to keep the trunk off the ground and keep from bar pinching. Not sure if you can get one back there, I toss mine in the back of my Polaris.

I don't have a floor jack but the thought had occurred to me that something like that might come in handy. The tree ironically fell across an old logging road but unfortunately it's not easily accessible, so I pretty much have to schlep everything in & out manually.

Where in NE Ohio are you, @TedyOH ? I was born & raised in Youngstown...

 

[TedyOH]

Where in NE Ohio are you, @TedyOH ? I was born & raised in Youngstown...

Twinsburg

 

[Vikestand]

Start at the end and work your way back to the root. I could be wrong but that doesn't look like it will roll back. You may get lucky and have your tree suspended in air for easy cutting.

Clean up branches etc. personally I would throw a log under the end of it and go bottom up. Should tak no time.

 

[DUMF]

Wedges. Stone hammer. End.

 

[Hasufel]

Finally got around to bucking this tree. I started a couple of weeks ago but it was too warm so I waited for a cool day. First big project for my Dolmar PS-7910! I started at the creek and and worked my way over toward the base. I thought the trunk was resting on the creek bank but I wedged a round underneath to give it a bit more support. Turns out I had a bit of an issue because there was some lateral stress on the tree, so when I tried making the first cut I got the bar pinched as the trunk moved sideways. After a bit of wedge and hammer work I managed to cut the trunk free, but that warmed me up pretty well so I declared a minor victory and called it a day.

Today I finished the job in pretty short order. The first few rounds had to be undercut but before long the tree was hanging in mid-air and I was able to just slice away. It was a little awkward at times because parts of the trunk were still chest-high. All I have for the Dolmar is a 20" bar but I found myself wishing for at least a 24-incher because the trunk was bigger than I had estimated--about 23" X 26" at the base. It also seemed like some of the toughest wood I've cut, maybe because it was a leaner and grew pretty dense to compensate. This also means that the rounds are too heavy to move very far so I think I'll have to split in place. I can hardly wait to start!

The first pic below shows where I stopped a couple of weeks ago after cutting the top part free. #2 was at about the halfway mark today, with the tree floating in mid-air. The last two are victory pics taken after a couple of hours and a half gallon of gas...

 

[billb3]

I've never had a tree that was parallel to the ground "stand back up". I've had them float and bounce up and down.

Until I got a tractor I'd get them off the ground like that to keep my bar out of the dirt. Now I just pick them up with the forks. Nice for big ones anyway.

 

[Hasufel]

I've never had a tree that was parallel to the ground "stand back up". I've had them float and bounce up and down.

Not to resurrect an old thread but I wanted to give you credit for calling this one--I noticed recently that after 4+ months the root ball hasn't come an inch closer to "standing back up." The trunk also floated while I was cutting it, which made life much easier. Good call!