Walnut & open face cut

[Larry]

I took the Game of Logging course a couple of years ago from Soren Erickson and learned the open face cut.  I really like the method and directional felling and use it most of the time now.  I mainly do small logging jobs and saw timber on my own property to feed the sawmill.  My problem is cutting walnut.  Today I cut a couple of 18" DBH small walnuts and got some slabbing on the face.  My hinge was 1/4" and I bored the center out so that each hinge was about 3" long.  I then cut ears on each side.  I still got just a little bit of slabbing -- it was confined to the sapwood and only went up the log about 4" from what I can see.  4" is still to much for me.  Anybody got any suggestions?  I read somewhere that a guy used a chain with a boomer on top of the felling cut to cinch the tree but I don't want to carry that much more weight around.  Would one of those heavy tie down straps work?  I do have my old method for cutting walnuts and always had a nice square butt with no slabbing.  I call it the Cut & Run (like you was on fire) but I don't want to go back to that method.

Larry      

[Ron Wenrich]

Your cut and run sounds like you are jumping your tree.  No real notch.

Here is a link for proper tree felling from Manitoba.  http://www.gov.mb.ca/labour/safety/publicat/guidelin/trees/trees.html#009   It talks about side scarring.  Maybe it will help.

[Bud Man]

Larry--Another site is OSHA LOGGING ADVISOR  

[L. Wakefield]

   Yow, Ron! That 'boring' cut they show almost all the way to the end of the Canadian webref- is that done by revving up the saw and just sinking it into the tree tip first?! (I can't see from the picture how else you'd do it..) I've never seen that done- any comments or cautions?   lw

[woodmills1]

L plunge cutting can be one of the most dangerous operations.  if you rev it up and have at it you could get a most unpleasant kick back.  when i do this i start with the bottom outer end of the bar against the tree and kind of rotate counter clock wise into the tree as i speed up the saw.  what i try to do is have a pocket cut before the tip of the saw is in contact with wood so any potential kick back is stopped by the plunge cut hole itself.  as you probably already know any tip contact with a running chain will throw the saw.  that is contact on bottom tip pushes saw up and top tip pushes down.

[L. Wakefield]

   I know it well. Bunnies being timid creatures (even bunnies with chainsaws ..), I haven't suffered any injury from kickback, but I felt I'd been well forwarned about it when it first happened to me. How hard is that plunge cut on the bar tip? I've always looked at that as a (relatively) fragile part of the saw- both from the construction and from the torque that the weight of the saw would put on it.   lw

[Ron Wenrich]

I haven't done a whole lot of cutting lately.  Plunge cuts are used a lot in ash.   It helps to prevent any splitting of the butt.  It is probably safer, since you won't get a barber chair.

I used to use plunge cuts for bucking logs as well.  It prevented logs from splitting and you didn't pinch your saw.  You have to be careful, as pointed out above.  

As for damage to a bar, the tips are often replaceable.  I don't recall doing any extra damage using plunge cuts.  Besides, the cost of the bar is much less then the cost of a log that goes from veneer to a #1 or less.