Cutting down a small tree with an axe - Axecraft Basics Part 1

[Applause] hi it's richard from original outdoors in this new short tutorial series i'm going to be showing you some of the basics of axe craft starting off with this video which is how to cut down this tree using this axe but we've also got this video which is snedding how to remove the branches from the tree once you've felled it this video which is about how to crosscut the main trunk of the tree and how to cut it to a usable length and the length you want it to be and then this video about how to shape that piece of wood once you've extracted it from the tree so you can go and watch all of those after this video they're all online now but for now i'm just going to show you how to cut down this tree using this axe so first you're going to need a tree so i've got this one which is a western hemlock spruce so this is a non-native in the uk and it's self-seeded from one of the bigger spruces around here i not only have the permission of the landowner to cut this tree down i'm actually doing it under their instruction this is part of their management plan for this woodland they're gradually returning it to native broadleaf trees so this tree is going to come out fairly soon anyway so we're going to use it for the tutorial next you're going to need to closely examine your tree and see if it is leaning in a certain direction or if there are any other trees that it might get snagged upon when it falls [Music] beware of any trees that are leaning at a steep angle showing signs of cracks or rots and any that have dead branches over your working area because these might break off and drop on you whilst you're working with the axe [Music] once you've decided which way your tree is going to fall then you can identify a landing area this might be dictated by how close other trees are their position relative to the tree that you're going to cut down or lots of other factors try to look for a gap where you can safely drop your tree into and then work on it afterwards there is also the height of the tree to consider you need a space at least as long as a tree is tall a common mistake is misjudging how tall a tree actually is and then getting the top of the tree caught up in another tree once you've dropped it so we've established that this tree is fine to cut it's not going to get caught up up there anywhere it's got plenty of room to fall that way it's already leaning that way slightly so this is the side where i need to make my first cut you always make your first cut on the side that will be on the ground once the tree's fallen on the side that you want it to fall towards that first cut does two things it removes material that's supporting this side of the tree as i say the trees are leaning that way slightly anyway which means all of this side of the tree is being squeezed together like that so it's like little support columns and by taking a wedge out of here you're taking away some of the supporting material leaving only the stuff at the back which is in tension which is being stretched it also by removing that wedge that making that first cut you create a space for the tree to fold in on itself so you will leave a little bit of material in the middle here which will act like a hinge but the tree will then close in on that negative wedge shape so instead of just cutting horizontally like that which would mean that the tree would kick back up at the back or roll off to the side by putting a wedge in there it means it can close all the way to horizontal before it jumps and snaps off so that is where we're going to make our first cut and we want to make it about 12 inches 30 centimeters above the ground so about here that's partly because that's a nice comfortable working height for an adult swinging an axe it gives you plenty of room and it's it's a nice ergonomic place to cut into that tree but also it gives you the most material above that cut that you can use before it starts to spread out into a wider tree down here it means you're unlikely to hit the ground it means that physics is working in your favor because you have enough material below the cut to provide a stable base but enough material above to make sure there's enough weight to bring the tree down so there's lots of reasons for putting the cut there but around 12 inches 30 centimetres above the ground and the cut on the same side that the tree is going to be falling so next up you want to think about your body positioning and i know it sounds like i'm always going on about axe safety and being safe with this kind of thing but to be honest it's really easy to bugger this up and end up with a life-changing injury so you are going to hear me talking about safety again this kind of ax i tend to use one-handed quite a lot either here or closer to the head here and if i'm using it one-handed to cut and make that first undercut into the tree then what i'll do is position my body a little bit like this so that if i miss on that swing or it deflects off the tree it's likely to end up over here in clean air space not if i was standing here say in my leg we've got this whole other video about the safe places that an axe can end up that you're allowed to bury an axe and that video is here you can go and watch it after this one but for now let's have a look at another type of act so i'm going to be using for the rest of this tutorial a this small felling axe that you saw me have earlier so if you have got a two-handed axe like this then you can position your body slightly differently so you need a bit more room to swing an axe like this and you're not going to be holding it like that you're probably going to be bringing it down like that so you need to make sure that you've got enough working space around you that you've cleared away any branches that you can to make that working area as safe and easy to use as possible and you've established you know exactly where your cut wants to be what i tend to do is make a little mark just above and below where i want that cut to be so i've got something to aim for and then you position your body so that if you do miss it'll just swing off into clean air space like that so it's everything's safe and you do that every single time [Music] do [Music] so that's all worked out pretty much as i hoped it would i've got a wedge cut a an undercut a gob cut whatever you're gonna call it that goes about halfway into the tree uh it is at the right angle by that i mean put my ax head in there then the axe shaft is pointing in the direction i don't want the tree to fall this line which is this bit here at the back of the wedge needs to be 90 degrees to where i want the tree to fall also it needs to be completely level or thereabouts that's difficult to achieve sometimes particularly if you're fairly tall because you're cutting often at a downward angle like that you end up making a diagonal cut so you need to correct it on the last few cuts and just cut it to being a level wedge shape that's so that when the tree falls it doesn't roll off downhill on its own cut and act in an unpredictable way it falls nice and straight next i need to make my back cut which is going to be over on this side so the fibers on this side of the tree are in tension they're being stretched the fibers on this side were in compression they were being squeezed and this is what remains of the fibers that were being squeezed there and all these wood chips on the floor so that first set of cuts i made was at a steep downhill downward angle like that what i'm doing there is cutting through the bundles of fibers that make up this tree trees are just bundles of fibers running vertically and by cutting at a steep downward angle i was able to slice through as many of those fibers as i could with each swing and then come along a few swings later and cut through the bottom of the chips so that way i can remove a lot of material very very quickly and in much fewer swings than it would take if it was just going into a little narrow notch like that you actually want to make quite a big notch quite a big cut like that so that's pretty much what i'm aiming for every time so next i need to make the back cut i need to again work out how high it's going to be so this notch here and this notch here correspond to the top and the bottom of the undercut from this side i don't do this on every cut i just i've done it for the purposes of the video i want my back cut middle of it to be about here just below halfway between the two i don't want to cut all the way through the tree i'm only going to go about 30 of the way into the tree that's going to leave a piece of wood in between this cut and that cut that's going to act as my hinge that's going to be the point the tree rotates around when it falls and so it doesn't push back towards me or kick up and it should all stay attached with this bit attached to the stump down here and should be pretty safe i could do that cut with a small folding barcode saw like this or any other sort of suitable green wood saw and just cut like that careful to keep my angle so that it's 90 degrees to where i want the tree to fall but cut through the back of the tree like that and then maybe put a little bit of pressure up here to make it fall and it would fall nice and safely like that that's not what i'm going to do for this tutorial because it's all about axes but to do it with an axe is effectively the same thing as you did on this side but at a slightly smaller scale and slightly higher up [Music] [Music] so that went pretty much as planned this is what i wanted here this is the back cut and this is the remains of the undercut under here this raggedy bit here is where the wood tore after it fell over so this is the hinge that i was talking about earlier this is the remains of the material that was keeping the tree attached to the stump as it fell so it gave it something to rotate around rather than just falling off the stump and hitting the ground unexpectedly and this hinge is roughly parallel i think it's slightly narrower at this end than it is at this end but that's that's okay and if for cutting with an axe it's fine if it was a with a cut with a chainsaw i'd want that to be pretty much bang on parallel but with an axe that's okay if this had been more of a triangular shape and had been really wide here and then very narrow at this end then it means that i would have cut too far into the tree with the axe either on the undercut or on the back cut and i hadn't got my cuts lined up but as it is that's about fine so that's what you're looking for and it's actually still just about attached i could probably move off this stump there are a few fibers here where it's still attached but a good poke and this would fall off so that's it tree on the ground i've not lost any blood i've not hurt anybody i've not hurt myself not damaged anything it's fallen in the direction i wanted it to do and i've done everything about as well as i could possibly do with an axe so that's the mission accomplished for me e my next step which is going to be in the next video is removing the branches from the tree and then cross cutting it and then doing some more things with this bit of wood i mentioned earlier on in the video that i wanted to talk about the legal side of things and some other considerations so this is where it's on you in most cases you can't just wander onto private land or publicly owned land and start felling trees because you want to or because you want to practice with your ex or because you want to do it for the gram or for youtube or something else you need in most cases to get the permission for the landowner or to do your research and to make sure that you can cut trees down in that area if it's part of a national park or something like that overseas i'm not going to say i'm not going to talk about the law just for the uk because i think we've got an international audience watching this so you need to do the research for your country or the country you're going to uh if you have any questions put them in the comments below i'll do my best to answer them for uh for the uk and for anywhere else to know about and if you see a question unanswered then you can answer it you also want to consider things like ecological and environmental considerations things like nesting birds so we've got a bird's nest there just 50 meters away in a different tree which we've stayed well away from and we know where the nests are in the trees around here and we know to stay away from them and leave the birds in peace and you need to do those checks before you start felling trees you need to make sure that there aren't any birds nesting in there consider the time of year when the birds are going to be nesting and the fledglings are still in the nest and you don't want to disturb them there's other things you consider like bats bats roosting cracks in trees so you want to be aware of that and there's a whole heap of ethical considerations there as well one of which is does the tree actually need to come down this tree is only 25 30 years old so it's younger than i am but some of the trees around here were even the new ish conifers they're a hundred years old nearly and the oaks three four hundred years old some of them is a much older oak in the valley a short walk from here these trees have seen a hell of a lot and a lot of people have interacted with them and walked past them and sat under them over the years it doesn't seem right to kill something that has been on this earth for hundreds of years just because you fancy cutting a tree down so don't just start swinging axes around needlessly if there's another way of achieving what you want to do there are ethical ways of felling trees and managing woodland and what we're doing here today is one of them so you've got all those things to consider but you've got to consider your impact on things you've got to consider the implications for you legally and also in terms of safety and everything else thank you for watching if you like what we do then like the video subscribe to the channel and see our other content we've got reviews and tutorials and a few other things we've got more on the website on originaloutdoors.co.uk we run training courses primarily we train individuals and organizations and military and emergency services and sar teams and lots of other people and you can find more of that content on here but if you just want to watch the rest of the videos then that's absolutely fine too whatever you do next thank you for watching this video thank you for watching this far into this video and hopefully i'll see you again next time bye [Music]

Channel: Original Outdoors

Views: 66,560

Keywords: bushcraft, survival, wilderness skills, axe, axecraft, richard prideaux, original outdoors, outdoor professional, wales, uk, felling trees, sharp axe, chopping wood, self reliance, homesteading, tree felling, how to fell a tree, how to fell a tree in the direction you want, how to fell a tree with an axe, how to fell a tree in the direction you want with an axe, how to fell a tree in a direction, tree felling techniques, bushcraft survival, bushcraft axe, survival skills

Id: yLlSE8w0N5k

Length: 17min 4sec (1024 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 11 2020