Remember, before chopping down a tree or before using the axe at all, to see that there is enough space above and around you to enable you to swing the axe clear ([Fig. 112]) without the danger of striking bushes or overhanging branches which may deflect the blade and cause accidents more or less serious.
Do not stand behind a tree as it falls ([Fig. 115]), for the boughs may strike those of a standing tree, causing the butt to shoot back or "kick," and many a woodsman has lost his life from the kick of a falling tree. Before chopping a tree down, select the place where it is to fall, a place where it will not be liable to lodge in another tree on its way down. Do not try to fell a tree against the wind.
Cut a notch on the side of the tree facing the direction you wish it to fall ([Fig. 113]) and cut it half-way through the trunk. Make the notch, or kerf, large enough to avoid pinching your axe in it. If you discover that the notch is going to be too small, cut a new notch, X ([Fig. 116]), some inches above your first one, then split off the piece X, Y between the two notches, and again make the notch X, Z, and split off the piece Z, W, Y ([Fig. 116]), until you make room for the axe to continue your chopping. When the first kerf is finished begin another one on the opposite side of the tree a little higher than the first one ([Fig. 114]). When the wood between the two notches becomes too small to support the weight of the tree, the top of the tree will begin to tremble and waver and give you plenty of time to step to one side before it falls.
[Fig. 112.] [Fig. 113.] [Fig. 114.] [Fig. 115.] [Fig. 116.] [Fig. 117.] [Fig. 118.]
How to "fall" a tree and how to take off the bark.
If the tree ([Fig. 117]) is inclined in the opposite direction from which you wish it to fall, it is sometimes possible ([Fig. 117]) to block up the kerf on the inclined side and then by driving the wedge over the block force the tree to fall in the direction desired; but if the tree inclines too far this cannot be done.
There was a chestnut-tree standing close to my log house and leaning toward the building. Under ordinary circumstances felling this tree would cause it to strike the house with all the weight of its trunk and branches. When I told Siley Rosencranz I wanted that tree cut down he sighted up the tree, took a chew of tobacco, and walked away. For several days he went through the same performance, until at last one day he brought out his trusty axe and made the chips fly. Soon the chestnut was lying prone on the ground pointing away from the house. What this old backwoodsman did was to wait until a strong wind had sprung up, blowing in the direction that he wanted the tree to fall, and his skilful chopping with the aid of the wind placed the tree exactly where he wished it.
[Fig. 118] shows how to make the cuts on a standing tree in order to remove the bark, which is done in the same manner as that described for removing the birch bark ([Fig. 38]).