An 85 foot larch tree was selected to be felled to buck into lengths to make the side and intermediate (door) posts for cruck frame no 1.
A good straight tree with a breast height girth (BHG) of 40" was selected for felling.
The tree was felled by Andrew Jarvis using a Husquvarna chain saw fitted with an 18" bar -
- using a 2 x plunge cut technique.
Ideally a chainsaw bar longer than the diameter of the tree is needed to easily effect this technique.
The tree should be cleaned of side branches and dead knot pegs working in a direction towards the top of the tree taking care to clean downwards on the far side of the trunk and upwards only on leg side of the trunk to avoid the potential for leg / foot injury.
The trunk is first severed where a diameter of 8" can be obtained. Anything smaller than this diameter will go for fenceposts and / or firewood as the sapwood content of the log will be too high for structural timbers.
The felling has resulted in the production of a nice straight 30 ft log that could be used for wall plates or sills with the balance used for sidewall posts and or tie beams.
The larch needles are still falling and the first attempt at bark removal from a selected 8 ft length of sidewall post timber has revealed that by the end of November the sap is down and the bark has tightened in preparation for winter and so time permitting it would do no harm to raise this log off the ground and then wait until next springtime / summer before attempting to debark and hew this log.
Ken Hume
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Author
Cruck wall & door posts - larch tree felling
