Silly question...delimbing...

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Hi,

So, with some shame I'll admit that I've lately moved from just collecting knives to actually trying to use them and learn some "forest" skills...I don't want to call them anything else as I could hardly do anything practical in the woods still.

Anyway, when delimbing a trunk or large branch to use as a walking stick I have a couple of questions.

I assume I want to remove the limbs flush with the main trunk/branch, but

-isn't that where a "knot" would be in the wood and so do I really want to chop directly through that hard part?
-should a good knife be able to hold up to this...would I want to stick to a "chopper" or could I use a smaller bushcraft type blade and baton them off?
-or do I want to chop somewhat underneath the limb into the main trunk/branch creating a small divot of sorts? (hopefully that makes sense).

Thank you
Collin
 
Well first a saw is going to be a lot more efficient and when dealing with live trees causes less damage to the trunk which can open it up for disease. The proper way to do it is to look at the transition where the trunk and branch meet. If you look you'll see a little hump on the trunk. You want to leave that hump on the tree and cut the branch just after it. First saw a bit through the bottom to break through the bark. Then you cut from the top all the way through. Cutting through the bark on the bottom makes it so the bark doesn't peal down the trunk, again opening it up for disease.

You can do it with a knife by either using a chopper or making a bunch of small cuts around the circumference with a small knife until you're able to break the branch off.
 
Shotgun said:
Well first a saw is going to be a lot more efficient and when dealing with live trees causes less damage to the trunk which can open it up for disease. The proper way to do it is to look at the transition where the trunk and branch meet. If you look you'll see a little hump on the trunk. You want to leave that hump on the tree and cut the branch just after it. First saw a bit through the bottom to break through the bark. Then you cut from the top all the way through. Cutting through the bark on the bottom makes it so the bark doesn't peal down the trunk, again opening it up for disease.

You can do it with a knife by either using a chopper or making a bunch of small cuts around the circumference with a small knife until you're able to break the branch off.
Click to expand...

Wow, thank you for the detailed response! I guess I should have been a little clearer though. Let's say I found a large branch already down that was suitable for a walking stick, but the large branch still had smaller ones coming off of it, say finger or thumb diameter...is there an ideal way to remove those?

Thank you again. I really appreciate the help
Collin
 
What I do is trim the stick/branch a bit longer than I need, then invert it and chop the branches off from the bottom side. My blade is less likely to bite into the main part of the stick I wish to save than if I chop them from the top down. It may take several chops to get them smothe (if that is a desire), but better to do that than to go too far into the stick and weaken it (as I would do if chopping from the top down). You can always trim/smooth the stubs more once the branches themselves are out of the way. I cut/trim the ends last. But I am sure everyone does it differently.
 
Hey Collin

When making a walking stick, i just hack the branches away. The upper part, where i rest my hand, is smoothed out for comfort. Any fixed-blade should be able to handle that task without any problems.
 
Fat side of branch up in the air.

Tip of branch towards the dirt.

Keep the branch between you and the limb, better to mess up a cut and cut the wrong part of the branch instead of yourself.

There should be no edge damage, damage from knots usually occur when idiots wedge their blades in a section of log and hammer down into a knot, what happens is the knife goes straight down and the knot applies lateral force on the knife edge, this is what causes edge damage.
 
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