For those who have spent most, if not all of their lives trapped in a decidedly more efficient, but no less primitive urban landscape, the idea of chopping down a large tree and turning the fallen timber into perfectly cut pieces of firewood was probably not something you had to confront. But perhaps you always had a void within yourself and the time has finally come to fill that hollow with a chainsaw and an axe.
Felling Trees
There is a precise technique to properly chopping down a tree. This is hard work and can be dangerous if not done right. Depending on the size of the tree--width and height, this process can take mere minutes to many hours. You’ll first need a good pair of comfortable shoes, protective eye-wear, work gloves, and a good chainsaw. If the notion of felling a tree with an axe entered your mind, you should rid yourself of that idea rather quick after a couple swings against a well armored tree trunk. Buy or borrow a chainsaw!
Depending on the context in which you’re felling the tree, you will either have an experienced companion assisting you, or you will undoubtedly be prepared to dispatch the tree on your own accord with all the necessary equipment and a very specific reason. If neither of these are true, what are you even doing in the woods? Just get back in your car and drive home; you’re probably doing something illegal anyway.
Once you’re ready to initiate the first step in your Natty Bumppo wilderness fantasy, it’s important you follow a few critical points in assessing and making cuts in the tree. First, determine the direction of fall and make the first cut a third of a way into the tree, parallel to the ground on the side you want the tree to fall.
Next, make a 60 degree angle downward cut until you meet the first cut. This should take out a large triangle of wood from the tree. At this point you’ve made the face cut that will guide the tree as it falls. You can now move to the opposite side of the tree and set the blade parallel to the ground a couple of inches above the bottom of the face cut. Cut horizontally into the trunk until there is just a strip of uncut trunk. This should keep the tree from kickback as it falls. Finally, cut the strip until the tree begins to topple. Turn off the saw and retreat. Don’t look back until you are a safe distance away and hear the thud.
Chopping Wood
Perhaps the quintessential act of rustic manliness, chopping wood is an artful labor. This isn’t to say that the work is gender specific, but let’s face it, chopping wood just appears brutish. The trick one aspires to achieve chopping wood is working with the wood rather than against it. In general, properly cutting wood is as precision oriented as felling the tree beforehand. Fortunately, chopping wood is a simple and easy to hone technique, you will chop cleaner and faster with practice.
First, gather the need the tools. Good work gloves, a sturdy axe, and some splitting wedges to initially crack open the wood. Also, a short chopping block for resistance is needed to chop the wood into smaller pieces. This is also necessary to protect the blade of your axe from damage when it breaks through the wood.
Set the piece of wood on the block and stand back with feet apart and arms extended. Then line up the axe over the wood, raise it, and strike. This will take practice to get right and may require adjustment to determine the best parts of the wood to strike. Look for well-formed cracks to hit and let the weight of the axe do most of the work. This will usually cause the wood to easily come apart, but sometimes you may need to strike along the sides to avoid getting the axe struck in a thick log.
For the toughest pieces of wood, you can use the wedges to facilitate the splitting. Tap one of the wedges into the log and strike it in until the wood begins to split. You can also whittle away the log around the sides until the log is small enough to split down the center more easily. With practice, you can become a highly efficient wood-cutter. The best part is that you can take this skill anywhere. You’ll soon be the go-to firewood source. Just remember your flannel shirt and steel-toed boots!
By Ben Vaughn
