Video: Notching Theory for Felling a Tree

Learn how to make notches in the trunk of a tree in order to fell it in the desired direction in this free how-to video.

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Norbert Aug 30, 2011

bad forethought, as per scale of drawing. ink must be expensive!

woundedego Aug 02, 2008

What the -- is that around his neck?

woundedego Aug 02, 2008

I thought you were supposed to go 2/3 through the tree in the felling cut?

nikname Aug 02, 2008

Excellent Detail and constantly mentioning safety is certainly most important! We had a gentleman in our neighborhood who was killed while felling a tree due to ignorance of tree felling safety. Thanks so much for making SAFETY your priority! Fantastic video series!

woundedego Aug 02, 2008

I thought you were supposed to go 2/3 through the tree in the felling cut?

Video Transcript

We are going to discuss how to cut down a tree safely today. This video is brought to you by Black Dog Video. You can visit it on blackdogvideo.biz. I want to explain the notching of the tree with the tree here, the ground here. I put a G on for the ground and a T for the tree. I put T down the bottom here. And usually I cut as close to the ground as possible but for demonstration purposes, I will now show you here. We want to put a notch in the tree in the direction we want to fell it. We never want to go more than halfway through the tree; preferably, a third of the way. We never want to go over half the way through the tree. We always want to keep it from a third to just under a half and so. Most trees are pretty well balanced. Sometimes they are leaning but most of them are balanced. So you put a notch, you cut the back and it falls that way. What we do on a lot of trees and if you are doing just one in your yard that is definitely what you want to do is put a rope on it with coming down and as we show you put a come along to pull on it and so that will also encourage it to go this way. We put the rope on first obviously and then notch it and then we put a felling cut. Now the felling cut should be just above. Should meet just above where the edge of the notch is. We like cutting at a little bit of an angle so we put a felling cut here and what you do is you watch the gap here. When it starts opening up, you know the tree is starting to go, take two steps back, you look up and you make sure you know what direction that tree is going for your escape route.

Notching Theory for Felling a Tree

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