Sunday 17 February 2008

Another felling video

Another Sunday afternoon, and another few hours coppicing. We made quite good progress actually, and I found a good tree to do a video of a "boring" cut on. This is a type of felling cut used on trees that are heavily leaning and at risk of splitting. This particular tree wasn't, but it was dead, so in some ways it was still a good cut to use to fell it.

The procedure is that you cut a wedge out as normal, but then rather than making a felling cut, you "bore" in from the side of the tree to make a slot right through it. You'll notice that I start the boring cut using the bottom corner of the tip of the saw, and then straighten up - you have to do it this way, otherwise you'd get kickback and not be able to get the saw in. After cutting the slot, you can then make a final cut to sever the section at the back of the tree that's holding it up. This can be made horizontally or coming down at an angle (which is what I did in this case). Here you go:

After felling it I logged it up, as it was dead - we'll split it later and keep it for burning on camp fires over the summer.

I've got a lot of work on this week, so Tracy's going to go and get some stuff done at the wood, including meeting the guy who runs the Rother Butterfly Conservation Project. So, I've left her some stuff to do...
Mike

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