Thread: Freehanding a log in half (plus a lil accident)

Wearing safety boots - tick

You were lucky that you didn't break a leg or ankle. I guess you now know that you should never complete your cut from the side of the log.

What are you intending to do with two halves?

Ha ha..I'm glad you weren't hurt. Lesson learnt.
Lucky the neighbour was in yelling distance, you would have had to gnaw your own leg off.

Well done,
*would not have happened if you were using a STIHL*Just kiddin
Good to see you lived to post the vid *nice work

I'm sorry but the wife and I had a *little* belly laugh. Glad it turned out ok though.

Well, you weren't (permanently) hurt, and lots of people watching the video just may have taken away something lodged in the back of their noggin that will surface in the future to prevent them hurting themselves. Good onya for posting this

A suitably edited version might win you some $$$ from "Funniest Home Videos" on TV !!

Bloody lucky you had enough nouse to stay on the top side of the log!

Sorry,best thing I can say.

you are very lucky it didnt roll further over and that you were able to yell to a neighbour lucky you werent doing this in the scrub

KevM:
Originally the tree was destined to be firewood but the logs were almost impossible to break even with a hydraulic splitter. Now the halves have been halved again so I can quartersaw it up into 2" slabs that I can resaw thinner on the bandsaw later without losing too much.

This is a piece QS'd from the stump, run through a thicknesser and wet a little to show you what I'm going for (minus the borer holes):





I'm glad the funny side of it (post-survival) is being seen I acknowledge that it was the wrong way to do it and that there was huge potential to crush a leg/knee with blood loss and major damage but, like has been said...lesson learned and hopefully someone doing the same kind of thing will think of this and make the proper safety precautions that I didn't.

At least we got to test out the 200m neighbour safety alarm system. It was a relief to see him and his wife come bolting out of the house and screech off in the ute to come to my rescue. They knew I was there sawing and had stopped to grab a towel incase I'd cut myself.

A friend suggested that I could have cut through the log to make it light enough to move, but what wasn't shown in the video was me saying that I only had a little bit of fuel left. Plus the chain was a bit worn. So if there was going to be any escape cutting going on, it was going to be a leg. And given the luck I'd been having that day it probably would have been the wrong one

Nice lookin timber, lucky boy all round When i have to noodle logs to make them fit on the woodmizer i always stand on top of the log and start from one end and head to the other and jump off the end to finish the cut. That way if the log chooses to let go by itself you can bail out either way, not that its happened yet, touch lots and lots of wood. Bet the neighbour is happy with his new pub story

As I say to my 10 yr old when he has a "whoopsie".

What did we learn from this experience?

Seriously though, it does just show a good reason to always wear steelcaps, (sorry Weisyboy). I know that safety gear has saved me on many an occasion, (not too proud to admit it either).
Bet you'll never make the same mistake again, that's why it's called learning.
We should do it every day.

Nice log and a damn good freehand cut.

Appreciate the video - a useful lesson for everyone

Thanks for the vid and the courage to show it on this forum.

The first thing I would have done is rammed the saw under that log.

Seriously the rolling log is one of the biggest risk in CS milling and it doesn't even have to be that big a log to cause problems.

That's what I was thinking BobL - jamming the saw under it and trying to rock it up while continuing to jam the saw in. Probably too hard I wasn't there.

Thanks for the entertainment, ever thought of making a feature length ? you are brave for showing it though, good on ya for that.
Can't say I'd throw a saw under a log but I would cetainly use a chock of some sort, guess you will too now.
Good effort with the saw.