DIYbanter - View Single Post

In article , says...
Paul Mc Cann wrote:

It strikes me that if you cut through the first one it can only fall the
one way given that the others are in the way. That should give a little
elbow room to cope with the remaining trunks.

I suspect they're quite thoroughly entwined, so the cut trunk will
just hang there.

Well then you could just cut off 12" at the bottom which would allow
some scope to notch one of the remainder.

At the very least this action would have the same effect as notching on
this side. (i.e.) pre-dispose the others to fall in that direction

Notching does two things:-

It will tend to help make the tree fall in the desired direction.

It allows one to cut from the other side so that a 'hinge' is
formed which will allow the tree to be dropped accurately.

While cutting right through the first trunk will tend to have the same
effect as the first of the above points it won't do the second at all.
Since I would like to drop this tree quite accurately (to avoid
damaging trees we want to keep) the 'hinge' is quite important.

One doesn't actually form a hinge when dropping a tree. The notch is cut
in one side which pre-disposes the tree to fall in that direction. When
one has cut sufficiently through from the other side. the hinge is
formed by the tree falling towards the space vacated by the wedge.

Removing a section of the first trunk will have a similar effect when
cutting the remaining trunks. The weakness caused by the section removed
will cause the cluster to fall to that side, thus forming the hinge.
Everything of course is dependant on the actual circumstances. Without
pictures it is well nigh impossible to give proper assistance

If you have no experience of doing this then perhaps you should start
with something easier. What you wish to do really is not that
complicated in the right hands.

Reading through this thread I really think you would be advised to get a
third party to deal with it. The trees probably have to be taken down in
sections, which is always recommended anyway.

--
Paul Mc Cann