Ever dealt with something like this eel?

[DW]

https://www.reddit.com/r/OSHA/comments/781h0l/lumberjack_barberchair/

Scares me to watch it.


#livelikezac

 

[WapitiBob]

Dip Shiits like that guy usually end up dead before they make a video of their stupid tricks.
Cat face told any faller with 3 firing brain cells their might be a problem. The dust from the back cut told a faller with only one that the tree had no holding wood and he better change his tactics but nope, were gunna make this video.

 

[elkassassin]

Back in the Day of Cutting Huge Yellow Pine!

I Never Cut a Big Rotten Tree that done that!

But I Started Cuttin on this Big SOB that had unusual Big Limbs & Lots of them!

Just as I'm gettin Close to Fallin the Tree it starts to Spin!

JFP!

Thought/I mean Knew I was in Trouble there for a few Seconds that seemed like Minutes!


Hey DW!

I'll Bet BigStick/Bushelor woulda Kicked that Tree's Ass!










Back Me Off to 1,700 Yards,650 is a Little Close & I'm Not Comfortable with it!

A GUT SHOT at 1,700 Yards will Still Make Some Good BRAGGIN Rights so I Can Say I At Least Hit Him!

 

[Tristate]

That looks terrifying. I have cut several trees that were hollow inside and never seen one come apart like that. Everything I cut is hardwood though so maybe it behaves differently. After seeing that I will be much more careful.

So help me out what is the safer approach to cutting a tree you believe is hollow?

 

[elkassassin]

>That looks terrifying. I have
>cut several trees that were
>hollow inside and never seen
>one come apart like that.
> Everything I cut is
>hardwood though so maybe it
>behaves differently. After seeing
>that I will be much
>more careful.
>
>So help me out what is
>the safer approach to cutting
>a tree you believe is
>hollow?

Hey Tri!

It's Called Knocking on Wood!








Back Me Off to 1,700 Yards,650 is a Little Close & I'm Not Comfortable with it!

A GUT SHOT at 1,700 Yards will Still Make Some Good BRAGGIN Rights so I Can Say I At Least Hit Him!

 

[eelgrass]

This is a good question for Longun. I was never a faller but WapitiBob is right, anyone with any experience at all could see that coming.

Trees like that were just left alone as there is no usable wood and the enviros like snags.

If it had to come down, we had a powder monkey who couldn't wait to blow something up. When he yelled "Fire in the hole!" You better look for something to hide behind.

 

[Tristate]

That's a good one eelgrass. When we cut a hollow one coons and squirrels start shooting out every which way you can imagine. I couldn't imagine what it would look like if we blasted one down.

 

[eelgrass]

Tri, when I first started working in the woods we were logging old growth Redwoods. The biggest trees were saved until last, so they could have a clear path to the ground without breaking, or breaking other trees around.

Anyway when one of those big trees started to go, flying squirrels living in the tree would abandon ship. It was funny to see a half dozen squirrels sailing off across the canyon.

 

[Longun]

Catfaced Tree is really bad deal---I'd bore'em if all bug dirt..it was left or I knock it down with another tree...really bad hazard..Flying squirrels used to scare me sometimes flying out of trees..could'nt ever figure out which way to run when they looked like widow makers falling to the ground..took one home for the kids as a pet one time...problem is they are nocturnal...run the cage wheel all night long..

 

[DeerMadness]

That's a nasty s.o.b.

 

[Soj51hopeful]

I cut a few that were cat faced but not that rotten. I think that guy would have done better with a deeper face cut and a little higher on the back cut.

 

[1911]

Do the tree hugging forest hippies behave similar to the squirrel when they abandon ship?

 

[eelgrass]

>Do the tree hugging forest hippies
>behave similar to the squirrel
>when they abandon ship?
>

I wish I knew. I always wanted to test it out though.

 

[2lumpy]

Three years ago I started cutting standing beetle killed spruce, last year a couple of big diameter trees (big to me anyway, 30 plus inched across) were showing some rot at the bases two or three feet up from the ground. These trees have been dead standing for 4 or 5 years now, in winter snow up to three feet deep.

I watched this video last year and it scared the B-Geepers out of me. I'm a halfwit under the best of conditions and after watching I could just see me hacking into one of those spruce, with a rotted base, and having it splatter me from one end of the Monroe to the other. To be honest, I've not cut another tree since I watched this, and I still need another dozen or two trees to finish my project. I'm a natural born coward!!!

If you ole'timer timber cutters have any insight, I'd appreciate your recommendations. Are these base rotting spruce as dangerous as these catface trees you're referring to.

What if I cut them 5 feet up from the ground, above the snow level? It's clearly a different kind of rot, then the kind you're discussing, but is it any less dangerous?

Thanks.

DC

 

[eelgrass]

DC, it sounds like the biggest danger would be loose bark piling down on you once you start cutting. Don't take my word for it though.

 

[2lumpy]

Yup, it does rain down. Never had a real heavy piece hit me but it's an issue, for sure.

DC

 

[bullskin]

Had two close calls while working as a wild lands firefighter years ago. On one occasion I was cutting a 22 inch doug fir snag and a slab of bark fell from about ten feet up and hit me square on the head while I was looking at my cut. I probably didn't weigh more than thirty pounds, but it about drove my spine through my skull. On another, a fellow sawyer cut a tree that was way too close and it came down in a direction he did not expect. The only way I knew that something was up was that my swamper had frozen in his tracks rather than reach for the small tree that I was just completing the cut on. I glanced up to see him staring over my shoulder with his mouth wide open and I knew something was wrong. I spun my head around to see a 70 foot tamarack coming my way. I had no time to run. I could only throw myself backwards. The top of that tree slapped my hand, which was still on my saw, just below where my head had been. The top was only 2 inches in diameter, but that's plenty big enough when it comes down like a fly swatter. It broke the handle on the saw and busted up my hand, but didn't break my neck. My swamper buddy may have lost his voice, but I am grateful that we had the experience together to notice the interruption of our normal rhythm.

As for big, rotten trees...they're nothing to play with. We let them burn.

 

[WapitiBob]

We had a faller get killed when I was a kid. Little lodgepole maybe 8" at the butt, no reason to cut it except it was in his way. He cut it and it hung up, kept working and eventually worked back under it and it came down on him.

 

[wytex]

Should have had an escape route at 90 degrees from the tree. Looked to me like he should have seen a problem with that tree before he made the first cut.