I agree with other commenters, your face cuts are too shallow. Secondly, this is a poor example of a barber chair because you had cleanly cut 80% of the back cut, and due to a very shallow face cut there was too much vertical compression on the hinge as you neared it so the tree split vertically. A true barber chair which has the potential to kill usually results from an extreme forward leaning tree or the middle of the tree is dead and hollow. As you cut into the back there is extreme vertical compression on the front and releasing tension on the back suddenly splits the tree and kicks the back (cut) wood backwards towards the fellers face. A barber chair is instantaneous, not a slow action which happened to you. Your tree split due to insufficient face cut on a falling tree with too much intact hinge. I recommend you not cut your face cut using the 80% wide estimate but make your face cut at least 1/3 deep into the tree. Even your plunge cut second tree had a shallow face cut as a humboldt should slide down the face notch and “launch” the falling tree forward away from the stump. Yours simply fell without sliding and rolled off to one side at the end…an indication of your face cut being too shallow. You left zero hinge on your second (plunged) tree so it simply fell in whatever direction weight and wind decided. You lucked out was all. I do agree with you that a plunge cut is the way to prevent/minimize barber chairing but plunging is an “advanced” technique. I recommend you better master basic techniques more. We all start from the beginning but felling trees is quite dangerous so it pays to start with the slower methods like a good face cut followed by a back cut, advance to stopping before she goes over and wedge it over, then move to advanced techniques like plunging. When a tree starts to go stop cutting and immediately move away in a 45 degree direction. Trees buck, slide, roll, and branches start flying so move off and then look up once she starts to go. Stay safe and blessed. Thank you for sharing.

I have watched this video and read the comments and i agree the reason for the barberchair is because of the shallow knotch. If you look closely, this tree was splayed at the base and that is where he knotched. That knotch may have worked if it would have been one foot higher on the tree. Thanks for putting this video out. Much for all of us to learn from.

Looks like an office guy running a chainsaw.

Thank you! Most people won’t show you their mistakes, but mistakes are often the most important lessons!

It barber-chaired because the notch is way too small. Should be 2 times that deep and to further help you can cut in an inch on either side of the face cut before you back cut.

I was dispatched to a fatal accident just yesterday. A man was falling a large pine when it barber chaired right into his chest killing him instantly. I kept thinking the whole way home that it didn't have to happen. It was close to other trees and got caught up in another trees branches about a 40 degree angle and just kicked back violently.

This is one of those "what not to do" from the start to finish.

Wow, first day on the job?

I'm literally 3 minutes into your video. And what I'm seeing is. Improper undercut for this tree. And your saw is spine cringing dull. Every tree is different. Hope you boys learn a bit more before the woods slap you one. Be safe, keep learning. And Geez Loose! Had to edit this comment. Your son standing there next to a tree falling/ barber chairing. Is a sure recipe for getting killed. Please don't do that.

Face cut is waaay too shallow. Should have used a humboldt face (1/3 at chest ht dia) to save wood instead of using a vastly improper cut. Spend more time getting falling experience and less shopping for logger trinkets

That notch he made is about the same as NONE at all.

What everyone should be commenting on is standing there watching the tree split. When the tree starts to go down run in the opposite direction. When a tree splits like that it can kill you

If you want to learn how to drop trees, watch Buck'n Billy's channel. Thanks for the video, there is some good info on here, and some mistakes which people can learn from, please be safe.

Lot of folk would not want to deal with the critical comments. By sharing this you may have saved someone (like me) from making the same mistakes. A man should learn from his mistakes, a wise man can learn from someone else's mistake and an honest man will let others learn from his mistakes. Thanks for posting.

Never trust a guy with a bunch of new equipment and looks unsure of himself. This was a good video of what not to do in both cases. Bad technique, shallow face cut and back cut below the hinge are two not only rookie mistakes but dangerous. Maybe instead of making KZfaq videos you should watch a few first.

Second tree really shows the canopy these beech trees create. Awesome trees. Cut em while you can! The beech leaf disease is wiping them out. If you dont harvest them, they'll go to waste.

You left a triangle shaped piece of holding wood in the that first tree. The bar wasn't parallel with your notch. Triangles don't make a very good hinge.

Thank you for showing the stump as that always tells the story. I see three things that can contribute to the likely hood of a tree to BC and why that tree did. Notch,Hinge, and saw cutting speed. With notch depth , the shallower the depth the slower the tree starts to come over because the farther the hinge is away from the center of gravity of the tree. That is just physics. The back side of the hinge on high side of tree is not parallel with front side and wider than low side. The fine dust tells me that the teeth are not sharp or the rakers are too high. During the back cut the faster a saw cuts the less likely a tree will BC. That doesn't mean that the sawyer needs to hurry, take your time and think and think some more because what is in front of you can kill or severely injure. I see most comments harp on the notch, there are many schools of thought on how deep a notch should be and when to cut shallow or deep notch which I am not going to go there. The fact is, do something different you will get a different result. Now I'm not trying to tell you what or how to cut a tree, I'm just reading the stump with my experience falling trees, I do know when falling the sawyer wants as many stars to come into alignment as possible because the stakes are too high if they don't and there isn't any do-overs! Another safety tip, Look Up ! Then Look Up some more and listen, the tree will talk to you, sound at times can be quicker than sight. I wish you all the best! And Be Safe!!!

Hate to Monday morning but first off the chain is so dull this is painful. Make your gunning cut 1/3 of the tree to 1/2 unless heavy lean. And get off the ground be able to escape your stump you are not gaining much bord feet with 6 inches.

The undercut is way to small and in your case to low, the tree flares at the base so you have to cut some of the flares and after that put you undercut in. The notch in the back cut is more for heavy leaning trees. We have mostly beech and some oak where I'm from and people die from barber chairs if you're not careful. Always look up and if it starts to barberchair run. Better safe than sorry

Never take advice from a guy with a new skull bucket!

People with saws that don't know what there doin,kills many.The guy doesn't even have a sharp saw first problem,good luck to y'all...

The barber chair occurred because he did not make his felling notch deep enough, which should have been approximately 1/3 of the diameter of the tree, or at a steep enough angle, and he also made his back cut too slow.

For the sake of saving 6", if it was me, I'd have worked standing up and had cut a seriously wide wedge to begin with. The more lumber you want, the more risky you work is, is how I see it. I only cut firewood so this matters very little to me.

Logger here. Here’s how I would approach this species/tree. 1. Face cut is fine. Doesn’t matter how shallow it is provided it gives you enough wood and leverage for your hinge. 2. Cut the ears (bell sides) off. 3. First cut is a bore cut immediately behind the face establishing the hinge dimensional characteristics. 4. Work around the tree starting from lean setting wedges to control tension as you work. A SMALL bore through the face to back is ok depending on what you are trying to get the hinge to do for you. Chasing hardwoods from the back is asking for trouble.

It's a tough deal putting yourself out there, this was a great informative video as to some of the dangers of felling. Perhaps it has kept some from trying it themselves and calling a professional.

I have never seen someone take so long to cut a notch. Yeah, when you're cutting a tree with a hard lean, you want to make the front cut as deep into the trunk as possible so when you make the back cut, the the tree snaps off the trunk and then falls. Also he's taking far too much time to make the back cut. And when that tree started to split, he should have been running for the next county, not standing there watching it.

Please learn how to sharpen a chain...when a tree begins to barber chair, drop the saw and run like hell. Don't stand around and watch.

You didn't put a notch in it. It's not the tree, it's the guy on the saw. This is not correct. You had the gear, not the knowledge. Glad it all worked out.

The issue was that notch not deep enough and to wide that guarantees a barber chair cutting like that 1/3 in 30 to 70 degrees depending keep up the practice and you will improve I’d recommend that you not post online until your seasoned

You learn from your mistakes, fortunately this ended ok BUT being a retired arborist I’ve UNFORTUNATELY heard a couple HORROR stories where a good man lost his life😔this job is NO JOKE, PLEASE be CAREFUL 🙏👍✌️

And always or most of the time have a escaping route 45 degree angle away from the three When I see it to BC I was saying to myself move away 45 degrees fast. The comments before me are very learning from Thank you for taking the time to to explain

Glad ya'll are safe I'm no pro just a electrician that heats with wood and help family and farmers with tree work ... thank you for sharing and catching hell from all of us I'm glad your boy was OK and you as well ya'll stay safe frosty and free

Several other commenters have pointed out that the wedge cut was too shallow and too low. With a tree that stands this erect with no noticeable or significant lean you want at least a cut that is 1/3 the diameter of tree. You can get by with slightly more if there is no wind or excessive unbalance of the upper limbs. The cut should be made about 2-2.5 feet above the ground, leaving the truck for a cut by iteself. A shallow cut as shown is basically no cut. Even a tree with no heavy lean will break out as did this one.

Great video, I'm glad you didn't get hurt. There is a lot to learn in your line of work. Good luck, and happy felling

Notch sucked bcareful, 30% notch 45°. Higher up from rootshoots, you can clean stump up later

Sidenote.. once the tree starts to go, hit the exit. If you see the tree start to barber chair, hit the exit 10 times faster. Don't stay and chase the cut or take pictures

When my dad and brother would saw down alders, the notches they'd make were much deeper than what I'm seeing here. These notches made me pretty nervous.

thanks for sharing this. A good reminder that tree felling can be unpredictable (we can read them wrong). When I watched, I thought the notch was not deep enough and may have prevented the barber chair. Never shortcut on basics - make a decent notch even if believe all is good. Like the narrator said a plunge would have held it.

The fact that you didnt recognize your mistake, means you didnt learn from it, which is more dangerous than the barberchair…you thankfully posted your mistake and it was correctly pointed out that your notch shoukd be 1/3 of the diameter of the tree…that was probably 1/8th

This was hard to watch. I would fire that guy. Took forever to do it totally wrong. Almost got his dull ass saw stuck and didn't even get out of the danger zone when the tree started to barber. F. Notice his brand new everything.

Thank you for sharing.

The under cut is way to small For that size tree Needs to be 25percent of the size of the tree Get a new saw chain before cutting the tree

Thanks for showing the failure! I have a leaner to cut in the next few days, all this information is very usefull

If you're not certain always use the "safe corner" method and plan the escape route, drop saw and teleport away from the tree if it goes south.

From other videos on here and from my time as a topper...use the rule of 1/3rds. Wedge cut in 1/3 to leave a good hinge. Then the fall cut and wedges to keep from sticking the saw...

I made a video on astrophysics. I hadn’t even heard about astrophysics until last week and that’s when I looked it up on Wikipedia and read half the article, now I’m ready to to make a video to teach people what I know about it.

i never cut such shallow notches, are they as shallow as they look and why?

Not an expert by any means but been cutting about 40 years Anything with size that was of fairly straight grain oak beech we had a small 1/4 chain and wrapped it about a foot or so above the cut it saved out a$$ a few times

I thought the "typical" way cut the initial notch is opposite to what we see here. In other words, the level cut (parallel to the ground, perpendicular to direction of fall) on the top, and the angle come up from the bottom to meet the level cut. I am not a feller (a fella yes, and don't play a feller on YT), but I have seen others (Buckin' Billy Ray Smith).

How many goes do you need for a directional cut, all the gear and no Idea 😮

Um profissional cometer uma barberice dessas!!

Problem will be solved if you make your notch (as you call it) the undercut should be deeper, like halfway through the tree. In the direction you want it to fall.

When that tree split, shouldn't the guy with the saw move further away?

How can this guy say he's done everything correctly

The wedge cut would be too small for a tree 1/4 the size....

What they said his wedge must get deeper especially beech and cut off the wind spurs so his bar can make a single cut I hate cutting beech even with my harvester stuff it splits terrible and he need to lean up that 395 thing was driving me crazy four stroking

New and shiny everything, makes me think someone is a little green 🤔

As others have already commented your face cut is way to shallow, looks like you just squared off the base of the trunk and allowed the weight of the branches to pull the tree over.

Aren't you supposed to do the natch 1/3 of the size of the trunk? they seemed too small.happy nobody was injured and thanks for sharing this video

Was a nice beach log now just firewood. Sharpen that chain

Forest homestead, check out the book “professional timber falling, A procedural approach” by D. Douglas Dent. This is mandatory reading for many forestry programs for the US forest service., safety programs for the likes of Weyerhaeuser, crowne Zellerbauch etc. a wealth of knowledge

I cut a deep Notch unless the tree shows me that’s a bad idea. Deep notch is a safe notch…unless the tree is punky or cracked.

I agree, face cut was a way too shallow.

I dropped a lot of trees in my sawing days but I never heard of a plunge cut until I started watching KZfaq. I had heard of a barber chair but didn't know what it was. P.S. that isn't much of a notch in this video. Is that a beech tree?

Open Face Bore cut will deplete the barber chair factor 99% of the time and allows a lot longer falling delay for a faster and safer escape for the faller.

Cool. But it's better if you cut a bigger cut, because the tree doesn't get damaged when it falls. Otherwise, nice video! best of luck!

A wedge is made of plastic and is used to keep the chain bar from being pinched and to push the tree over

1/3 in the tree 70 degree face when felling a tree with a conventional notch.

interesting to say the least

Very dangerous video if anyone tries to copy this. You need help notching a large tree.

Yep, face cut way too shallow. Should be 1/3 of the trees diameter at least. Can be more if tree isn't leaning.

The "notches" should have been twice as deep, then there would be no problems. ( 42 years experience in Australia)

Notch should of been deeper, a larger saw will save you from having to double cut your back cut. Obviously bore cutting can alleviate some issues when there is pressure on the wood.

Plus he cut the wedge in the flared out part of the trunk. If you want it that low the tapered part could have been shaved off first then start the wedge. I would give yourselves more training before continuing to fall trees.

If I took that long cutting down a tree, my Boss would have fired me ! The problem w/ all of that protection is you depend on it instead of learning to be careful.. I was a tree cimber for 30 years and I still do at 70.

God bless

With Mistakes come experience, with experience comes confidence and speed. You we're very lucky that day no one was hurt. Live another day to cut another tree. With that being said Good job young man

Is it just me or is the saw chain dull or what?

did the second tree not have a notch? Also why was the first cut so low?

He just stood there watching it split.. mist guys you see with a barber chair run like hell and ask questions later.. holy shoot dude. Get the hell away

If you put a heavy strap or chain above the cut, would that prevent a barber chair?

I am far from expert in tree felling. But even to me it seems that as it comes down you are still in the killing zone. Especially the barber chair. Given the unpredictable nature i would think you should get going in any direction other than where you are.

From what I observe on the video , that person attempting to cut the tree , should cut the saw off and put it away before he meets his maker,

it looks like your chain needs sharpened, i see powder flying, not chips

Definitely the notch wasn't deep enough, and the tree should have been bore cut

When you SEE it obviously starting to barber chair, WHY back away SO SLOWLY???🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️

If the notch was higher, would this have happened?

Recommend to not show these videos if you're not an experienced and certified faller. Too many other items in this video where you're showing a hazardous technique that people will copy. For example, a faller will not stand in front of the tree when falling it on the last cut; your son was in the line of fire. Please remove this video so no one thinks the mistakes you've identified are accurate. Hire a certified faller, please.

Caraca mas quanta enrolo p derrubar uma pequena arvore.Já teria derrubado umas três árvores.

Lean tree, notch 1/3 of a tree diameter, do bore and then back cut.

Pretty tough the barber chair a beech tree. More likely I could see maybe hickory or white oak red oak ash

All gear, no skill.

You need buckin Billy Rae to teach you how to cut down a ttree

Looks like a dull chain spitting sawdust.

Notch should be 80% of tree diameter (Jepson, p.59), hinge thickness should be 10% (Jepson, p.64), bore cut the back-cut on soft woods (Guilty of Treeson), notch cut softwoods higher off the ground to avoid the base of the tree where the wood more tends to split and not stretch and pull and thusly more likely to "Barber Chair" (Husqvarna USA), and when using a "Common Notch", the back cut should be 1-2" higher than the notch (Jepson 63).

Yeah that wedge wasn’t nearly deep enough.

1/3 face cut, 2/3 back cut. He might as well not even put a face in it. That did absolutely nothing

“Puhticular” is not a word.

I had to research and see what a Barber Chair cut is, because one of my neighbors just got killed from something that went wrong doing this. BE CAREFUL Ya'll !