Hi deeredude,
Here is a list of things that jumped out at me and some of the things I didn`t like were a recurring theme. I exchanged a few emails with this guy and asked him to revise or remove what I consider to be an overall dangerous tutorial, where upon he called me everything but human and would not discuss the specific items that I addressed with him. He also has an extremely cavalier attitude about PPE and how insurance will cover his mistakes should he land a tree on a customer`s house, read his comments and you`ll see. It bothers me that this guy purports to be a professional and is showing others how to fall a tree. Others who might not be as lucky.
Here`s my quick list, admittedly some of this is my opinion but I believe that my opinion is generally based on standard convention, our friend Dave offered no explanation where he diverged from convention.
First.....
A notch 1/3 of the way through the typical tree is way too big and leads to a hinge that is too wide and a center of gravity biased toward the actual COG of the unnotched tree.
The bottom cut of his notch is horribly uneven which sets him up for a dutchman that can throw the stem as the hinge closes.
Checks his sight line backwards and there is no indication that he has taken offset into account.
The goofy twig trick. Too fraught with potential for error and unneeded if he started the face cut from one corner of the bottom cut and fulcrummed his way around.
He gave a nice demonstration of his lack of finesse with the saw, he had an awful hard time starting the face cut and he looks like a real beginner with a saw.
He bogs the saw like crazy, no wonder he burnt up a clutch on a two month old saw.
@4:28 when he removes the wedge from the face you can clearly see where he cut too deep on the bottom cut on the left hand side as we look at it, creating another dutchman. He has now set himself up for a potential double dutchman on that side.
You cannot accurately assess the direction of fall by stepping back and looking into the notch, too much potential for parallax and you lose the benefit of looking down the intended fall path for obstacles and things that you don`t want to smash.
He mistakenly describes the step in the felling cut as the hinge but even 3 inches might not be enough considering the way that he made such an unlevel bottom cut, especially if his intended students were felling trees with limbs on them..
He used a rope on a delimbed tree in an area big enough to land a 747, he does apparently have enough experience to know that he can`t trust his felling ability. The fact that he only delimbed the tree but didn`t chunk it down using ropes tells me that either he doesn`t appreciate that a longer spar has much more potential for damage to structures, landscaping, and people. That he doesn`t know how to use a rope for anything but pulling on, or that he just doesn`t care what may happen.
Bogged the saw horribly at 6:20.
Goofing off on the "bad" side of the tree at 6:25 AFTER the back cut is well established. Almost too bad that it didn`t slab on him just to see his reaction.
7:26, cuts off the corner of the hinge where he`s already established two dutchmen, further increasing the probability that the tree will swing or jump to the left of the stump as it falls, toward the house BTW.
At 7:30 you can see that in reality he has very little hinge, without someone pulling on that rope he little assurance of where the tree may have gone.
At 7:35 you get a view of the house to the left of the stump(and where they pulled the stem) and the bushes to the right, why did he "intentionally" create that crappy notch that would want to steer the tree toward the house?
7:43 He states that ideally the bottom cut would be parallel, so what kept him from making the "ideal" cut for this demonstration that he created?
8:05 He lies about cutting the corner off the hinge saying that he did that intentionally to steer it, why would he steer it toward the house and have someone pull it the other way, toward the bushes?
It`s my opinion that this guy isn`t skilled enough to be making demo videos as a purported expert. I`ll be back to read everyone`s comments and I know that if a person is critical, as I have been, that I should expect some critical commentary directed toward me. Send it. I`ve got thick skin and callouses on my behind, but make sure that your making sense or I won`t be the only fool.
