Too many trees getting hung up

[DonTee]

I’ve been doing the back cut level with the top of the notch.

Also I might have been thinking of something else when I called it a Dutchman. I think it’s called a gapped face cut. Or something like that.

 

[SpaceBus]

I’ve been doing the back cut level with the top of the notch.

Also I might have been thinking of something else when I called it a Dutchman. I think it’s called a gapped face cut. Or something like that.

I've seen massive notches/hinges used like that in residential cutting videos where placement is crucial.

 

[DonTee]

There’s a video on YouTube where it shows a lot of the different notch cuts. The channel is “guilty of treeson”.

They explain the different cuts and why you might use each one. The notch I’ve been using is supposed to make the butt of the tree hit the ground before the top. And it seems to work pretty good.

My issue was the tree was getting hung up before all the hinge wood broke. With the gap face notch the hinge wood breaks and the butt hits the ground before it gets hung up in the other tree tops. And the couple times it has gotten hung up it’s still easier to winch the tree out with all the hinge wood broken.

 

[DonTee]

My wife and kids have been out of town. I was making really good progress getting some ash cut. But now it’s been raining for like 3 days straight. The woods went from being very dry to very wet and muddy.

We needed the rain really bad, but I hate rutting up the trails with the tractor.

 

[Nealm66]

A swing cut( Dutchman?) is where your first cut of making the under cut goes slightly deeper and captures a bit of the lean. Then your second cut is your intended aim leaving a portion of the first cut. Then from the high side of the lean you start your back cut that will start the tree in motion of the captured lean ( leaving good holding wood) until the tree is committed, then saw the low corner off and guide it to your intended aim. A vertical cut ( Dunbar?)on the high side of holding wood can add strength to avoid it breaking off. Definitely something to play with if you have room .

 

[Nealm66]

I've seen massive notches/hinges used like that in residential cutting videos where placement is crucial.

It definitely won’t help your aim. Your basically trying to aim it with your handle bar when you make the vertical cut. It definitely helps when falling stobs ( the standing trunk after piecing the tree down)to keep the face from meeting up and pulling crazy far from intended target. I just don’t match the cuts and bust the face out with my ax and clean out any Dutchman. This is the most accurate way vs try to aim with your vertical cut. Sometimes on a big stob, I’ll slice the undercuts in half vertical from the front and pop it apart with a wedge.

 

[Nealm66]

I’ve been doing the back cut level with the top of the notch.

Also I might have been thinking of something else when I called it a Dutchman. I think it’s called a gapped face cut. Or something like that.

Matching the cuts will help from leaving hinge wood. Above the undercut is ok most of the time. Below the undercut can create strength in the holding wood and sometimes even pull your shots off with a shallow undercut. It’s frowned upon also because it can pull slivers pretty far up int a marketable log and they will deduct bd ft

 

[Nealm66]

Coming in above the undercut with your back cut is to help create a lip to help the butt from sliding back towards you. This really comes into play when topping through other trees or in a spot where you need to guide the tree as it’s falling. The humbolt undercut aids in this a bit giving the butt something to push off of.

 

[Nealm66]

I should mention, if you try a swing cut, try to match your low corner your going to saw off

 

[Nealm66]

You can also chop a small kicker out of your undercut and get a little swing cut or correct a bad aim. You might find a swing cut helpful finding a hole for the tree to fall through

 

[DonTee]

@Nealm66
I appreciate the tips. I’m just an amateur in the woods, and always looking to better my cutting/felling techniques

 

[SpaceBus]

I almost always use a humbolt type hinge cut, but only because I'm trying to get as much saw log out of a tree as possible. I didn't realize it was also a bit more accurate of a cut.

 

[Nealm66]

I almost always use a humbolt type hinge cut, but only because I'm trying to get as much saw log out of a tree as possible. I didn't realize it was also a bit more accurate of a cut.

It would only be more reliably accurate than the 2 horizontal and the vertical hinge. Otherwise it’s just easier to make and like you say, doesn’t rob from usable wood. Any land owners /loggers around here require the humbolt. Federal forests as well.

 

[Ashful]

I almost always use a humbolt type hinge cut, but only because I'm trying to get as much saw log out of a tree as possible. I didn't realize it was also a bit more accurate of a cut.

If you're taking the logs and leaving the stump, this makes sense. But if you're cutting on your own land, and will want to also flush the stump, then it's just added work with no net gain on firewood yield.

It's not that there's any extra cutting involved, but I find that the Humboldt (assuming you mean making top of face cut horizontal and lower face cut 45 degrees), takes a little more time and care to eyeball plumb and straight, than a regular face cut.

 

[Nealm66]

If you're taking the logs and leaving the stump, this makes sense. But if you're cutting on your own land, and will want to also flush the stump, then it's just added work with no net gain on firewood yield.

It's not that there's any extra cutting involved, but I find that the Humboldt (assuming you mean making top of face cut horizontal and lower face cut 45 degrees), takes a little more time and care to eyeball plumb and straight, than a regular face cut.

I remember working with some old timers that had to go through the switch from the conventional to the humbolt in the federal lands in big old growth. They’re biggest complaint was we had to keep our stumps under 12” which would force a shallow undercut on larger old growth which required motoring out the heart wood from inside the undercut or forced to have to run a longer bar. The biggest advantage to the humbolt is cleaning out mismatches which I always come in short of matching and then clean out the Dutchman to avoid messing with my first cuts aim

 

[SpaceBus]

If you're taking the logs and leaving the stump, this makes sense. But if you're cutting on your own land, and will want to also flush the stump, then it's just added work with no net gain on firewood yield.

It's not that there's any extra cutting involved, but I find that the Humboldt (assuming you mean making top of face cut horizontal and lower face cut 45 degrees), takes a little more time and care to eyeball plumb and straight, than a regular face cut.

I have a 34" stump grinder and cut pretty close to the ground anyway. I cut so many trees that I'm getting pretty good at keeping the stumps short (on flat-ish ground anyway) and my cuts pretty even with each other. Obviously I'm not cutting as much as a pro, but I easily cut 50+ trees a year, although few are over 16" DBH. Our land was logged 50-60 years ago, but we do have a fair number of mature trees. I'm mostly milling framing lumber and posts, so these smaller trees work out well and we can preserve the majestic mature trees, at least the ones that are cooked/twisted. Plus we aren't clear cutting anyway, just thinning out the stuff around our house so the trunks can have a good 30+ feet between one another, and cutting some trails/fence line.