BDC Fells A Tree

M

munk

Joined
Mar 22, 2002
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Future site of 'BDC Fells a Tree" Like any new, unpainted building left in the city limits, feel free to graffiti this one until picts and main review are in place.

In the meantime, let's see:
BDC is 18" and weighs 32 ounces
It is the Montana Elk horn Yangdu had limited quantities of to great expense.
(Lemme tell you- I feel Yangdu had been getting high-balled on elk antler prices from Reno area. I told her so and hope this is the last of it. Yes, great antler. Those of you who have a HI blade with some of this stuff, you got the good stuff. Elk bore no relation to munk compound and activities and was killed in another part of Montana without me.)

I learn I really am that fat and resolve to go on diet. A few more of these trees and I won't have to diet.

Tree was half green- that's not good; very heavy. You are not allowed to fell green trees on public land in Montana without very special dispensation. Most of us have to find dead standing.

BDC did great. Because of the chiruwa style handle, much of that 2 pounds was balanced well. Thick handle helped vibration quite a bit.

Could the BDC and like sized blade chop down tree as fast as a larger AK or Ganga Ram? Mostly no, but you'd be surprised how fast it did come down; maybe 10 minutes chopping. (Seemed like longer subjectively- out of shape body)

I drug tree down ravine but could only get it to stream. Could not drag to my bottom slope. Backed Beater up and hooked cable. Rope broke with tree half on my property, and have out into space. Reattached rope and cable and drug her up.

No marks on blade. Still sharp. No dings, wavers etc. Even took some bad hits- my fault. The kind of hits where you turn the blade and it strikes sickenly into the wood and puts sideforce on the edge.

Bura made this blade. Yeah, I know, he's not supposed to be as good as pre stroke Bura, but on most peices I can't tell the difference, and all the recent Bura's I have look great and perform.

Picts to follow... though I wouldn't stare at the screen waiting if I were you.
Next tree is Balance models turn.

munk
 
Staring will make you go blind anyway....

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Picture titles...you can assign them wherever you think appropriate

-munk demonstrating technique to land tree on middle son

no, it's not that little tree, it's the bigger one by my outstretched knee that is about to be cut.

Tree falling. Munk is just sitting there, and you may be right in wondering just what he was thinking of. But the cut was pretty certain, the direction tree was traveling obvious. Still, people who sit by falling trees like that probably deserve a side splinter cuting their cheek wide open, or maybe an early death as tree pivots back and crushes them.

Tree down and laying flat

-we save this big rig for the worst jobs

-tree stopped when rope broke and is about to crunch little tree on my lawn.

- Carter puts cable on Beater truck ball hitch

-Picture of Keith on tree, and Carter waving in background at other end of tree. Yeah, it was that long.

oh, the tree Trav is sitting on is the rest of the first Ganga Ram tree. We'll get that next time or soon. I'm hoping with an open end it drys just a little bit more. Very heavy.
munk
 
Cutting down a green tree with a khukuri will teach you a lot about that particular khukuri- also a lot about that particular tree, trees in general, sharpening, the weather, your marriage, the whole Iraq thing... you'll have a lot of time to think. :D


Mike
 
Me want a son too. Dagburnit!
 
I'm loving the wealth of pics lately bro. Awesome. You're boys look to be having a time in the pics. Good stuff.

Question? What are you doing with all that pine? Do you burn it? Is that firewood. I've always been told not to burn pine in the fireplace. Was that 411 wrong?
 
Nice pics. Great looking logging crew you've got there, Munk. (You appear younger than I had pictured. You must be living right. And, if you're fat, then I'm downright obese.) :)

For those of you who want a son, I have four that I am willing to loan out on a trial basis, minimum rental term of one month. I can keep shipping costs down if you are willing to arrange for pick-up in the Carolinas or Georgia.

Eric
 
Great pics. Where'd you buy that cable? I need one!

I wondered how those 18's would chop!

Very cool. Your kids can brag when they are older about how they did that:thumbup:
 
The cable is awesome- I'm assuming a friend knew a friend and someone got it from the local Big Flat Electric phone company. A guy who really knows big trees brought it to my place, along with some pulleys and other stuff, to help down the big old growth dead standing tree in my yard. This tree is leaning in a bad direction, and we need to put some force on it in another direction before felling it. That never happened- you have to get several vehicles and people together and we haven't yet. The old guy took his hardware back, but left the cable. He knows he left it here, probably figures nothing can hurt it, and I started using it to haul up the smaller pine from the ravine.

The ravine had a 100 years of mining tailings in it. The bottom grew by 80 feet. The govt came in and hauled all the tailings back to the top of the mountain so they can wash down again some day- I guess. The tailings are mildly toxic (not really very bad) and by law had to be hauled back. Makes little sense to me. Anyway, a lot of the natural growth that should be there in the drainage is not, though we've see plants coming back the last few years.

Carter had encouraged growth by a series of small damns and alternative routes for the creek water. I'm sure he could be arrested for this if we lived in a big city state. It has done a lot of good for the re- growth, but tell that to govt regs. The area is an official clean up, and has strict rules.

Anyway, all that is why it looks so dry and barren down there. Most of the hills around me are pretty verdant. There are meadows of grass and flowers and tall trees in thick blocks.

People burn pine here as it is the only wood really to burn. I imagine there are problems with pitch building up in the various outlets if one does not pay attention. Johnny, guy down the street, and most everyone else, simply run the wood burning stove high for about 5 minutes every day and burn a lot of crud out. When there's a lot of snow, you don't worry so much about cinders flying around and lighting buildings. Anyway, I burn the wood I cut. Except for the trees on my own property, I never chop green. The wood I'm cutting has been dead a year, but still has much water inside, and would not burn well unless the wood is cut into small peices and dried. WE call that wood 'green' mostly because of the amount of water in it.

I'd like to try making furniture someday from the Pine. People do cut it for building materials. Ponderosa pine is a little different from most pine. It is tougher, for one thing.

We have lodge pole, and various firs too. There is also aspen and alder, and cedar.

I'll take a nature tour sometime and show off the surrounding area.

munk
 
munk said:
This tree is leaning in a bad direction, and we need to put some force on it in another direction before felling it. That never happened- you have to get several vehicles and people together and we haven't yet.

The ravine had a 100 years of mining tailings in it. munk
Click to expand...

We have a few trees like that. We have never got the people and equipt together in one place to do it.

What is a "tailing?" Toxic? Are they creosote coated or something?

Is the cable just a braided cable looped on each end or is it a choker cable?
 
Tailings are the leftover bits of rock etc from mining, once the mineral you're going after is removed from the ore.

In some mining/refining processes, pretty toxic things are/were used or leftover/concentrated ... e.g. mercury and arsenic.
 
Great review and pictures, Thank you munk and boys.
 
Its humorous some think I look younger than I am. These pictures were taken the day after being violently ill. I ejected all fluids from my gut. I screwed up the electrolyte balance, and became morbidly chilled. My bones were icy cold. I shivered violently, and got a little scared. I got dizzy. I went to bed with a whole bunch of blankets. Got up the next morning and I was greatly recovered, but you can see the puffiness and weariness on my face.

Well, one thing I've noticed about post 40 year olds, man or woman; we notice changes in our physics or whether or not our clothes fit or whatever, but God knows no one else really does. I mean, does the world really care what an old duffer, past the age of the mating ritual, wears, if they exercise, or gains or loses 10 pounds? Of course not. No more than you'd notice a handsome steer in a field of grazing bovines.....

What's that old joke about the sexy Sheep? Oh lord....



munk
 
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