A hazard unsafe 80 foot willow oak we took down in a back yard.  We used a crane to take out the limbs.  This is the trunk takedown.








Before I was 16 we would have used a 4 tooth Henry Disston 2 man crosscut saw.  When I was 16 we got our first chainsaw .  Daddy gave it to me to run as I was the oldest.  Crosscuts are slower and you need more arm power but you don't need ear protection except from Daddy yelling "quit riding that saw".  By the way I still have both of those Henry Disston saws.  They were my Grandpaws originally.

that's a lumber log!
is that you cutting the tree in the pic?

I don't think I got the guts for that!

Skylab

No Skylab, I'm the one behind the camera.  I'm a consulting arborist.  I'm the one that determined that the tree was unsafe to the property owner. I work on the ground as my health and age won't let me go up any more.   The chainsaw operator is Wade Coshatt owner of Tree Tech.

A bit of gasoline does make life easier i suppose. Now the real question, did you split that sucker up into quartered firewood?

No Rusty she went to the sawmill and made a lot of lumber.

I have run chainsaws for 40+ years, but never tangled with a tree that big.   Chain saw or hand saw that would be a challenge.  Have a couple of Disston 2-man saws too.

JohnK I've cut bigger.  You want to talk about fun, I was roped into cutting a dead hollow white oak that had a 69 inch diameter 4 1/2 feet above the ground.  It was solid above the branches but so hollow where I was cutting that there was only 1 or less inch doughty wood.  I could cut as fast as I could run and run is what I did.
I've used other saws, Tuttles, one man crosscuts with and with drags, but nothing beats a 4 Tooth Henry Disston.  Before my boys were big enough to pull a crosscut, I rigged a rubber band made from a tractor tube to pull one end while I pulled the other.  That combined with a buck saw provided us with wood all winter

There were already plenty of old loggers here to take down the really big punkins when I needed. So I never did either. I think maybe 4 or so feet at chest height was the biggest I ever personally felled.  And these were perfectly sound snags, barely dead. And probably already leaning downhill!!
Laying the giants down soft and true in a bad situation is a real art.
A hollow rotten oak with all those wildly waving branches ??  Hole Mackerel suicide attempt Stony!! heeheheehe

I gave my best one man crosscut away. I did use it quite a bit before it was gone.
It was a top Disston, of course. (none better) A 2 man saw, cut down for the logging competitions that were once so popular here.  It had a really well made -heavy- canvas sheath, with leather cuff and tip. And it had the good handle.
  All your lesser quality crosscuts, one and two man both, had basically a simple socket riveted on, with a broom handle shoved in it. Your best handle hardware was never sold with the saw as far as I know. You had to get it separate. Fully adjustable, it would solidly lock in at any angle, with a sturdy attached guard for your knuckles in the bargain.   

A guy I knew had been a vet, and kind of brain damaged in Vietnam.  Then a terrible drunk for years. Crazy Richard was the name everyone knew him by.
  But for a couple years he "came back". A really nice girl married him and he set about raising kids and exotic birds.  He got a nice little place and made it a lot better, quit drinking, put on some weight, and just generally came alive. 
He was interested in old saws and after he had got 4 or 6 ordinary ones (old saws were a dime a dozen at one point), cleaned and hung them up and started a collection,  I gave him mine.

Sadly it didn't take. Within another couple of years he had started drinking again and lost the girl and the last time I saw him he was back in the gutter, toothless and alone. 
But I don't begrudge him the saw, even now.
I have missed it many times, but I felt he deserved a chance at life and wanted to try and help.
He'd have made a good friend if he could have made it.
  yours Scott

ScottG the best man I ever knew for dropping a tree was Mr. Sug Gipson.  When I knew him he was in his late 70's.  You could drive a stake where you wanted the tree dropped and it didn't matter is the tree was leaning wrong etc, he could hit the stake every time.  He was still cutting and delivering firewood into his late 80's.  He would cut and load his 3/4 ton GMC with poles, go home for dinner and cut up the poles, split the wood with a maul and reload the truck with split wood, to deliver the next day, before supper.  He was my hero.

I wore out several Superman suits when I was young and now I Know better.

Yeah a lot of the guys I ran with in 'Nam did that.  I found the right girl when I came home and Kathy hung on to me and would not let go through the rough parts.  Now 43 years later I'm sort of sane, at least by my definition.  Everything I am I credit to Kathy.

We now have a three way saw that is sharper than any saw I've every had.  You had better keep your finger out of the way or you don't have a finger anymore.