OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums General Discussion Forum Power Equipment...Mishaps and Funny Stuff So does this happen as often as i hope id doesn't?

So, here is a HELP!!! call i recently received, a friends first shot at using a chainsaw, and they might have mixed up which way gravity pulls things!

Here's the result

Looks like a bit of wishful thinking.
Needed a bigger donkey to pull it over with.


Ive got a little Mac like that one. Its a bloomin ripper.

I used to get my first saw stuck all the time like that. Used to spend a lot of time getting it out, too. Then the tree was still stuck in an upright position. At that point I'd fire up the saw again, cut it the rest of the way from the opposite side (they often still stayed upright even when cut right through, due to tangling of branches with adjacent trees) and then I'd make another horizontal cut a couple of feet above the first one. When the second cut broke through the tree's weight would sometimes cause the loose 2 foot piece of tree trunk between the two cuts, to be fired violently toward me. I was dealing with bigger trees than the one in the pictures, and a 2 foot chunk of it moving at high speed was no laughing matter.

I seldom had much luck judging which way the tree wanted to fall. Most trees seemed to have balanced themselves over the years, and the main factor in which way they fell was the wind.

Hi Guys, this looks a trifle dangerous....what is the correct way to stop this happening?

When I lived in the huon valley in tas many years ago, when felling big gum trees for our firewood/fence posts/etc where possible we would pull it the way we wanted it to fall with the old diesel oliver track tractor we had while somone else cut from the other side.

Up here in leeton I simply cut a wedge from one side about 1/3-1/2 of the way through the tree from one side, then start cutting from the other side, making sure to get myself out of the road for when she goes over.

I might ad that while the pictures do not show it wel, this tree is at right angles to the steep slope it is on, very steep.

My mate stood below the overhaning tree on a steep slope to do this, probably quite lucky, this could have gone wrong in a number of worse ways.

Im not sure if he has been able to pull the bar of the saw out some, but if thats how he was cutting, with the tip of the bar, yes it could have been a hell of a lot worse.

All those stubby bits of branch left sticking out is also a bad idea.


90 deg to the wedge cut, should have been cutting in parallel towards it. Once the tree was weak enough to fall back and pinch the bar youve got half a shot at pulling it back over the other way and break off whats not cut.

I beleve when he started having trobles his answer was indeed to 'Stab' the tree, while standing under it, on a slope.

ie:

All good im sure he could have jumped in the pool to get out of trouble.

I'd caution people not to expect the wedge system of cutting to prevent saw-jams. I used to cut a wedge, from my earliest days, but you still have to make a first cut of the wedge, and that one used to jam the saw. Sometimes it was the back-cut from the reverse side that jammed the saw, after the wedge was cut. It was the wedge having been cut out, that caused the middle section to be fired out sideways when I made a second cut above the first one. (I didn't have any kind of winch to pull the tree over, it all had to be gravity.)

Never, never cut, or trim a tree that is already down, from the downhill side, even though it is often much more convenient to do so. The reason it matters for trimming, is that it isn't uncommon for the tree to roll when you trim it, and it is very difficult to predict. I used to know a guy who was a quadraplegic due to that happening to him. (He felt he just had to clear his driveway in the middle of a night-time thunderstorm, when a tree fell across it. Of course the tree rolled on him, pinning the back of his neck.) I also had one experience where I was trimming a fallen tree - from the uphill side, I'm not that stupid - when it suddenly rolled, taking the chainsaw with it. It rolled 20 metres down a very steep slope and came to rest with the saw still jammed in the branch and still running. Think first, and be careful!

I'll drink to that grumpy!!

Heres one nice little guide i looked at when i got my first chainsaw:

Chainsaw Safety

That safety guide sounds fairly good, though I used to be able to get into trouble even while more or less following it. Most of the trees were branch-locked to each other, so they weren't going to fall anyway. That is how I got into the practice of dropping them vertically two feet at a time by making parallel cuts across the trunk - never do that, it's dangerous as explained above. The weirdest problem I has was trying to drop a fair-sized tree (18" trunk at the point where I wanted to cut it) directly downhill, right close to my property boundary. After cutting the wedge, it gave signs of wanting to drop sideways onto the fence. With the equipment I had, I was fresh out of options, so I dismantled the fence, dropped the tree across the property line, cut the trunk into bite-sized bits, took them back onto my side, then put the fence back up. My main worry was that my neighbour would turn up while I was doing it, and kindly offer to drop the next tree for me, if I had that little control of the outcome.

Its not the most detailed guide, but it covers enough to atleast give people the idea not to stab the tree.

Sounds like a good thing the neigbor did not come home before you were done, would have been quite the sight!

I would have liked to have seen that!!

Darryl, I love the smiley you have directly after you name, infact, right now i woulndn't mind being that smiley, but i must ask about the devil one, is that acctually a dancing satanic bananna?

Call someone who knows what they're doing
Probably NOT Grumpy, from what he's been saying

If you can't judge how a tree wants to fall, you shouldn't really be felling it.
The tree "sitting down" on the bar can often be prevented by using wedges as you cut (plastic ones, please - the steel ones are for splitting timber, and should only ever be hit with a wooden maul, not a sledgehammer)

I think chainsaws should only be sold to people with valid qualifications (min Cert of Competency), I've been in the trade for over 20 years, and have heard too many horror stories - much prefer them to 9" angle grinders though

Although i have not got such a certification, i cant argue with that, In my case, i spent allot of time researching and talking to people about what to do, before i even started my first one, and i was careful to have all the right equipment, and spent a long time practicing with help in small situations to get myself up to speed.

While i was careful to do all this, i know how many don't, they just rip it out and go, without knowing what the dangers are (I know people who have used them many times without even knowing what the work Kickback meant) and so having such a measure in place would certainly help prevent such things, its not something i would be adverse to getting, and even though i have done allot of reading and practicing, now that you bring it up, its something i may well consider.

Some may call it too much, but i consider half a skull not enough!

Problem is that a lot of todays people arent as careful as others used to be, when my parents went for a driving test it was done on a single road with somone watching them, now you need to pull 120 hours on your L's and 3 computer based tests to get through to your full licence and we still have complete morons about.

All I am saying is yes you should have to have some kind of qualification to use a saw but there wouldnt be any need for this if others used some common sense!