Oct 22 Coppice harvesting efficiency. Part 2. By Tracy

Chainsaws can be pretty heavy tools and, as with any tool, if we use it incorrectly we can end up with very sore backs and arms. As I mentioned in the Part 1 – the most important thing we learned on this course was how to bench a log and land trees on it. Here are some pictures of Mike using a bench to land the tree,

Using the improved height to sned the tree more easily

and easily dragging the log onto the logpile (well, more easily anyway!)

I learned more technical cuts than I had on my first course, this one was a split level cut which is very useful to aid the direction of a falling tree.

(Yet another reason why a course is useful!)

I learned that Sycamore wood is not as strong as Chestnut – it has shorter fibres. This needs to be taken into account when felling as it will affect the use of the hinge.

In part 3 I will tell you more about the Danish Pie cut, winches and ropes!