If the answer to this question is "yes," you're entitled to the respect that deserves (which is substantial -- it's a dangerous bit of work if the tree is of any size). If you're a man and the answer to this question is "no," you may be mocked by women on the internet. Don't expect any sympathy from me, though.
Instead, go learn to use a chainsaw.
I learned how to use a chainsaw as a Boy Scout leader after getting involved in a few service projects that included clearing out deadfalls and building some new campsites. I've learned all manner of practical things on Boy Scout service projects ....
ReplyDeleteSee, and plus, nobody's going to mock you for wearing plaid.
ReplyDeleteI started using a chainsaw on big cedar in the big timber of the Pacific Northwest.- a friend and I would spend all day walking in virgin old growth, looking for fallen cedar to cut into bolts (blocks) that would subsequently be used to split shakes from. Very nice to have a thermos and a sandwich and an axe-and nothing to do but explore- we would canvas every little draw and corner of an area, the fallen cedar, even a hundred years down, would have no rot in the heartwood-often it was covered with a foot of moss and rotten bark, so each log would have to be cut into to ascertain the species.
ReplyDeleteOnce we found a few nice logs then the noise started- some of them were 6' to 8' through- we used big old saws with about a four foot bar and had to cut from both sides of the tee to get a round cut free.. Then we would split them into blocks with a froe and a mallet, sling them into a load and fly them out to the nearest road with a chopper. The job description was termed "shake rat". I never noticed any enhanced female attention.
How many females were physically present to observe you doing all that, though?
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like an awesome job for a young man to me. Hard work! Beautiful country. Fresh air. Chainsaws and choppers.
1) I don't wear plaid. It's too flashy. I prefer solid earth tones (or the occasional red shirt as I'm wearing today).
ReplyDelete2) I don't cut down trees with a chainsaw. I don't own one, but I have cut down trees with a handsaw (don't own an axe either). Is that close enough?
How big was the tree? If it's big enough to shake the ground when it falls, it's pretty awesome to have done it with a handsaw. We have a two-man saw, but felling a tree with it would be really hard work.
ReplyDeleteI won't say it's cooler than a chainsaw, because although it's harder work the chainsaw is dangerous (and both doing legitimately hard work and doing legitimately dangerous things are cool). But it's possibly at the same level depending on the size of the tree.
oh yes- I loved it- early morning walks in the woods- it was like being in a Cathedral, with the light slanting down through enormous trunks. And the smell of fresh cut western red cedar is a tonic.
ReplyDeleteEvery once in while I would get a ride in one of the choppers, they used a 200 ft long line to drop through the trees to hook onto our slings of wood- at that time, most of the pilots were recently returned Vietnam vets, and they were very used to operating close to the ground in thick timber.
No one's going to mock you for wearing just about anything on a Scout outing. In fact, a certain amount of idiocracy in dress expected. "Uniform police" is a term applied to those who comment on people whose uniforms are not precisely according to National Council standards, and it is not a term of endearment.
ReplyDeleteHow big was the tree? If it's big enough to shake the ground when it falls, it's pretty awesome to have done it with a handsaw. We have a two-man saw, but felling a tree with it would be really hard work.
ReplyDeleteProbably only about 6-8" in diameter. Not ground shaking, but far from easy. It needed to come down, and I used the tools I had to do it.
I won't say it's cooler than a chainsaw, because although it's harder work the chainsaw is dangerous (and both doing legitimately hard work and doing legitimately dangerous things are cool). But it's possibly at the same level depending on the size of the tree.
Lucky for me, I wasn't doing it to be cool! ;)
Chainsaws are indeed dangerous and tricky beasts. But I simply don't own one because I need to cut remarkably few trees in my residential neighborhood yard. Renting one was tempting following our recent ice storm this past winter, but they were all out of stock (as I was hardly the only one who needed the tool). Thus, I can't justify the expense.
Speaking of fashion in the woods--
ReplyDeleteYears ago, my father and brother and I were taking a walk well north of the Arctic circle, on one of the drainage's leading into the Arctic ocean. We came around a turn and found to our amazement a small cluster of folks who looked, as in the Greg Brown song, like they had "walked through L.L.Bean and everything sort of stuck to them." The prominent feature on each was a large totemic can of bear spray on a leash around the neck. Obviously it was their first time in the wild. They were silent, acted a little scared,and kept to themselves, while their guide, garbed in running shoes and tight purple spandex,(like Dave Barry likes to say, "I am not making this up") proceeded to regale us with snarky comment. He looked and talked like he had just stepped out of the lodge at Vail- I suspect the guide outfit had need of a guide because of unforeseen circumstances and he was what they could come up with. The commentary was priceless. Having been following moose tracks for some time, Dad asked him if he had seen it? "no, but I did see a whole herd of polar bears.." Hmm. He looked at my "bear spray", a short barreled shotgun, and asked if we were sheep hunting. I replied dryly, "yes, I like to get really close." While he was puzzling this out, he then asked my brother , who was wearing a ratty old office shirt, "oh, you must be the rocket scientist", to which my brother, an expert in aerodynamics and thermodynamics, replies,, "well, yes, as a matter of fact, I am a rocket scientist". Now the poor guy was really flustered, he was not sure if we were putting him on, or serious, and was, I suspect, for the first time in a long while, at a loss for words. He roused his crew and somewhat forlornly they wandered off up the trail. After looking at the topo map it was clear they had a tough time ahead.
My brother and I still chuckle about the purple spandex.
Sorry, the website is so pathetic. They don't even know what a Humbolt face cut is.
ReplyDeleteOr how it pertains to logging.
pheh.
0>;~]
Lucky for me, I wasn't doing it to be cool! ;)
ReplyDeleteWell, of course not! Trying to be cool is the least cool thing of all.
Oh no- I just looked at the site you linked too- don't those guys would last too long in the woods. Or at any tavern in a logging town on Saturday night..
ReplyDelete"...most of the pilots were recently returned Vietnam vets, and they were very used to operating close to the ground in thick timber."
ReplyDeleteYep! Which is why the Forest Service is quick to hire any that apply. They are invaluable and fearless when it comes to fighting wildland fires.
Real men use an axe.
ReplyDeleteThat's just what I was about to say! It was good enough for George Washington.
ReplyDeleteBack when I represented evil lumbermen in bankruptcy, I was invited to watch the field workers take down a 75-year-old redwood tree with a crew of about three guys and some kind of power saw, I forget what exactly. It made the most amazing noise I've ever heard when it fell, like an earthquake. A tour of the lumbermill was something else, too: they were starting with trunks about four feet in diameter.
Around here, we mostly hire guys to take trees down, but we also mostly cut them up into firewood with our own chainsaws. I don't know anyone who doesn't have a chainsaw.
It's work I cheerfully leave to my husband, sometimes serenading him with "I put on wimmin's clothin', and hang around in bars . . . ."
While I think legitimately hard work is very cool, I'm not sure I agree that real men make jobs harder on themselves than is really necessary. Real men have enough work to do that the chainsaw is necessary.
ReplyDeleteIf it was good enough for Abe Lincoln...
ReplyDelete...it's probably not good enough.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, work smarter, not harder?
ReplyDelete0>;~]
The Forest Service still employs men to cut down trees with a 2-man saw. A lot slower, but no fire hazard. In fact, they publish a guide on how to use them and how to sharpen them. This includes plans on how to properly pack such a saw on a pack animal. It also has plans for a jig to hold the saw while sharpening and setting it and machinsts' plans for making the various tools needed.
ReplyDeleteI have a few such, both felling and crosscut saws. At our winter camporee we have the Scouts practice using them (on felled logs, not standing trees). But I'm going to try using the felling saw on a standing tree one of these days to see how it works out.
I imagine it must work fine -- that's how they cut the huge old growth forests that were still here in the 19th century.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read the manual, but I'd suggest the use of wedges as you saw. The biggest danger if you are felling a large, live tree is that it will not fall the way you want it to fall. Putting a wedge in can mitigate that risk somewhat. Of course, a traditional saw may even be safer, since you can more easily hear when the tree starts to give.