A friend is clearing an area and offered me my choice of a tree (for bowl making). I took two chainsaws and we picked a large sweetgum in a cleared area. The only tree nearby was about 10 ft. away, and dead. There was a good breeze so I made my felling notch on the downwind side. The tree was straight and had very few limbs. As I was cutting the upwind cut and about to yell "timber", the tree just leaned upwind, away from the notch and came to rest against the smaller dead tree, pinching my chainsaw firmly. To lessen any damage, I disconnected the bar and chain from the saw. I got my second saw out of the truck and gingerly cut the smaller tree and it fell away. The original tree just stayed where it was. A little nip in the bottom of the notch and the tree fell with a crash, spitting out the chainsaw bar and chain. Still using the second saw I cut the first block off the large end of the trunk (25 inches diameter). Although this end seemed to be off the ground, as the saw neared the bottom of the cut the kerf closed on my saw. After putting my first saw back together I made the second cut until it too started closing and pulled out. The third cut closed and grabbed the saw at the bottom, but when it did, it released the saw in the first cut. And so on and on. All afternoon. I harvested 22 trunk sections ranging from 25 inches diameter to 18 inches, loaded them on a trailer and got them in my back yard. Tomorrow I start sealing the ends and cutting bowl blanks.
- posted
11 years ago