removing a (large) tree quietly... (and "penumbras")

[sedstar]

when i first got into this sh!te of night vision? I had a decent test-area. the os side f my house overlooks hill and town, eh? I had multiple sight lines, from under 25 yards, to hundreds of yards. Well, until SPRING got underway, that is.

trees sprout up quick, and what was once a sapling last year and thru the winter? Sprouts new branches, and new bunches of leaves... and grows taller QUICK. My previous decent views? All blocked off in months.

local kids have made of with my prized double bladed axe. Plus? I cant very well go chainsawing in TOWN, i'm not 100% EXACTLY where i shall "drop" the sucker. I dont know you have the same "crap" trees there in england? But, they grow QUICK, and they are leafy.

I had a ruddy go at the one bugger? With a small hand axe, and a small hand saw. GOD, took forever, and really an axe isnt THAT quiet. BONK...BONK...BONK for over an hour off and on? Hardly the ninja tree dropping i was looking for.

suddenly? It struck me... where the *&^% is my old "hand chain saw" i had made a ways back? Me buddy and his dad? were like beavers... tey had a fireplace, and were always looking for more wood. me and his kid? chopped down a big tree, where we really werent suposed to, but... the BIG tree took out several littler ones (which were big too), and once its DOWN, they get called in to take them out.

but, us choppign with axes, was noisy and time consuming... and hard on the arms and back after a time.

ONE day? I had bought a short new chainsaw blade... i used my motorcycle chain-breaker on it... and made HANDLES out of pieces of wood. I would stiff steel wire around the handles and thru the ends of either end of the chainsaw blade.

you hold the handles, and simply work your hands back and forth... and VOILA, it simply zips! thru a large tree in a fair short time. y buddy and his dad? have a large chainsaw, and he was laughig at my contraption, until he saw it WORKING. Neither of us could believe how fast we went thru a large sized tree, ad with no real effort.

quick, painless... and very very QUIET, as a side benefit.

i chopped and sawed for an hour around the tree, to "kill" it... and figured i need to find my old hand chainsaw... or simply make another. Oh, i have SEEN the ltitle bugger over the 20 years in this old house... SOMEwhere. What with 12 large rooms, and 3 full basements? WHose to tell WHICH pile of sh!te and boxes its amidst and among, eh?

I simply bought another short new chainsaw blade (me chainsaw went t!ts up over a decade ago, lol)

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neither can i find my motrcycle chain breaker anymore either, LMAO... i took a dremel and ground against one pin of one link. Both sides... then POP!

i DID manage to find my old package of steel wire, though! (same one i think, lol) had a broken broom handle, and used a file to make 2 grooves i the 2 handhold pieces i cut off with a hacksaw. simply wound the picture wire thru the chainsaw end, and around the handle ad twisted the wire ends tight, did it for both handles.

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i just tried it out... how do you brits say it? oh, it works a treat!

the tree is DEAD or dying, so... the new chainsaw blade working by hand? Went thru like a hot knife thru CHEESE. I didnt even go thru where i had beenn sawing and chopping... went thru just above, so, i could see how QUCK it would have been?

within a MINUTE or less... i actually had to slow down, as i was going thru too quick... not wanting to have the tree kick into me unexpectedly. THATS another great thing abotu this contraption. you can SLOW DOWN near the end? and lighten up your pulling... workign slo at the end, till you hear that first, dim, crackling start... another good rip or two? and you move and shove it.

pretty safe too... things happen slow. They crackle, then the crackles speed up... and you learly see which WAY the tree is going, and you have plenty of time to move around. Tree fell, dog barked loud, started other dogs barking... then that was about it.

i got lucky... bugger got hung up on anther tree, so it didnt go near the litle cliff to the road.

Now the BIGGER one? heh heh... next night? i imagine it will kick over too, dont you know, lol....

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my "chainsaw buddy" pointed a few things out to me back then. For ONE, it was working realy quick, better then either of us thought or hoped. For another? he pointed out at that HAND SPEED/ the saw likely would almost never wear out or even need sharpening. HEAT and not taking breaks is what kills blades on a chainsaw he explained... we were generating neither.

him and his dad, we so impressed? They made one, for the purpose of getting a saw "unstuck" on the rare occasion you pinched a chainsaw in a big tree accidentally. Formerly/ They had to use a hand saw, and it took forever... a month later? They reported its use to retrieve a pinched chainsaw, and they simply felled the tree just above where it was stuck.

as a side benefit? other than no one hearing a chaisaw running, ad that nothing quiet is almost as fast as a runign chainsaw? If anyone were to inspect the stump later on, for any reason? They are assuming someone cut down the tree with a....CHAINSAW! (well, any idiot can look at the base of the tree, and the stump... and see the tell tale marks an pile of chips...lol)

"thats odd.... i havent left home in three days, and this thing was taken out last night! How could i NOT hear a chainsaw runnign this close to the house? didnt know i slept THAT soundly..."

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there are other odd uses for it. It simply rolls up and fits into a small sack or pocket of anything. Easy to take along fishing or camping. large driftwood about, and you want a fire?

nice and quiet, and QUICK... you stand on a large log and drop off logs quicker than you would imagine...

here in america? at walmart, a 14 or 16 inch brand new chainsaw blade? is every bit of 14 dollars... which is just shy of "ten quid"... handiest little bit of kit, only a chainsaw beats it for speed, and nothign is faster or quieter, or more portable.

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oh yes. forgot to mention "penumbras" and such.

umbras and penumbras are technical names for the parts of shadows cast, when something is in the way of you shining a light on something.

its no that i cant SEE the house 100 meters away/ Theres tree branches in the way... and while i can SEE just fine in the day around it thru the scope? havig the TREE branches CLOSE to me, and the field of view FAR away?

the SHADOW of the close tree limb? I casting a LARGE shadow farther away... which is the umbra and penumbra buggering me up, lol.

not... any... more!

[Gren]

The chainsaw idea is GENIUS ! I've tried a wire saw but they don't cut well and seem to fatigue quickly - usually 1/2 way through a cut, Grrr

Chainsaw blades only cut in one direction, is that an issue ? So I guess that means one arm is doing all the work, so you can turn the blade over to rest one arm if needed.

Compact, durable and silent; what's not to like

UPDATE
Just mentioned it and apparently my father has had a similar tool for 20yrs. It's a light-weight chainsaw blade with handles. I wish I'd discovered it earlier as I've had plenty of opportunities to use one.