Your tree is down safely, congratulations.

Let's look at what happened to our cut.

The space between your front hinge cut and that of your back cut is called the stump shot. You can see where the body pulls away from the stump through the forces of leverage, gravity, and inertia.

If you have to cut all the way through.........you're doing it wrong.

Basically when you are falling a tree, you are weakening its structure, and then letting nature do the work.



Now remember I said you can either make your secondary wedge cut on the face (front) either above or below your initial cut? This is why cutting above is a bit safer. So you have your face cut all done and are preparing to start your back cut. On your back cut, start to cut about an inch or two above the height of your initial face cut line.

In doing so, you create a block that prevents the tree from slipping off the stump backwards into you. Sometimes they do that, but cutting your back cut an inch or two higher than the front impedes such, and causes the tree to "jump" off the stump, directing all that energy towards the intended direction of fall. I've seen trees jump 20 ft before the butt hit the ground. Without such technique, the falling tree could slide back dozens of feet towards you and your safety zone.

This picture shows the stump, looking it at the front towards the back. Notice how the back cut is a couple inches higher than the front. This technique could save your life from a rogue tree.