axe felling

[northwoodsgirl]

i have a question... what is the best way to remove the standing chips attached to the bottom of my kerfs after chopping down and into the trunk? i dont want to slam my axe sideways into the trunk to remove them unless thats the only way. it seems like thats a good way to dull my blade. any experiance would be appreciated. if you leave a comment please state whether you know these facts from past experiance axing trees or if its just a mental suggestion. thanks!

-northwoodsgirl

 

[siguy]

i have also tried to figure out a good way to go about this. unless your notch is pretty high, it can be hard to get low enough to swing up to clear out the chips.

i mostly just keep chopping until the tree falls, disregarding the chips. this is on smaller size wood though (smaller than 10") so that might play a factor. sometimes i take some closer-to level swings, without going at 90 degrees. this helps some.

 

[Blue Sky]

Assuming I am understanding your question correctly, you can kneel down to make the low horizontal cuts that will clear the chips out. Or, you can choke up on the handle and make shorter choppy strokes. Less efficient but workable. Personally I kneel down if necessary.

 

[mhawg]

20 years in the woods, don't quite understand the question but I won't let that stop me. 1.) Blue Sky may be right if you are trying to chop this tree down flush to the ground with an ax. 2.) You should be chopping at alternating equal angles to the tree. Always clear out enough room to get a clean swing so that the current swing clears out the chunk from the last swing. Swinging down all the time doesn't take out much wood and is only useful on smaller brush that can be taken out with these successive slices. The shape of the undercut may be close enough to the ground to require a perpendicular blow to clear out wood but you aren't going that deep so no problem. When you really get chopping, wood should be flying out on just about every blow, clearing out the cut for the next blow to catch wood. I think I already worked up a sweat! I hope that helps. You only learn from doing.