Ike drops tree w/ Vintage Gear Drive saw.

Using a 1974, 34 year old, Homelite chainsaw (Gear drive Super Wiz 80) with a 36 inch bar, my brother in law Ike Adreon (71 years old) shows how to use it.

*Update,
Ike is not doing well these days with his health, so I was glad to get him to do one more tree for this video.

*Comments from Ike:
1. I cut trees primarily in confined areas and learned a few safety tricks along the way. I worked for hire for 12 years, had a 55' Reach All basket truck, Vermeer stump grinder, "Payloader with clam arms, tilt bed truck with winch and several chain saws.
I also cut thousands of bigger Elms and did city contract work.
2. I did this video to be instructional. Many of you do not realize why I did the things I did to fell this tree.

Mainly....The FACE CUT.

The tree was a relatively even weight tree and had to be able to fall in a minimum area and not cause damage to buildings, fences and/or the garden.

I used the old gear drive saw with a 1/2 inch chain, "not for speed", but for dependability and reliability that the tree would fall exactly where I wanted it.

So I cut the Notch extra large and 2/3 of the way in.
(tall/ deep) so that I could better guide the tree when coming in the backside and tickle the cut so that I could vary it within a few inches were it would fall.

3. Let's talk about the cable.
The cable was attached to the truck at a height to give more leverage IN CASE I had to pull.

It was never intended to be used to pull the tree over.

It was place there so when I made my final cut, I could put a slight amount of tension, and make sure the tree would fall in that direction.

The drop (back) cut was angled to meet the notch. The cable was tightened, then (went it went slack), I knew it would fall in that general direction.

The reason was so I could have more control to let the tree come down slower and could fine tune the drop.

Cutting the far or close side was the determining factor of where I could precisely drop it.

This allowed me to govern where the tree would fall with slight cutting adjustments.

We weren't doing this for speed, we were doing it for safety.

Hope this clears up any controversy on why I did what I did. Someone always disagrees anyway and that is America.

Thanks for watching.
~Ike

It was more work than I thought as a layman, considering the weight of the chainsaw being somewhere around 30 Lbs. too!

The sawing of the fallen tree, plus loading it all up, and hauling it away also was a tremendous amount of work for us, considering Ike is almost 71!

I now have a deeper appreciation for folks that do this kind of work for a living.

~Dave

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Saw
• chainsaw
• trees
• tree
• logging
• logs
• reflex
• helix
• stormlauncher
• rc
• Dave
• Herbert
• Ike
• Adreon

[8superrocky1]

nice one ike! bet you have forgot more about tree felling than most of us! all the best .

[NightFlyyer]

Ike said to thank you for your comments.  He appreciates that, more than you know.

[paraglidermx]

Dude you killed yourself with that notch,only need 1/3 penetration,I bet the top angle cut on the notch took ten min.Sweatin your ball off I bet!

[NightFlyyer]

Not at all. Gear drive saw never bogs, but is slow and methodical. See the description box for Ike's reasoning behind the notch.

[keefer2111]

Some of us never grow old or grow up!

To much work!

[NightFlyyer]

Yeah, well we didnt do it for fun, as the tree was dead and I think it would have been way more work to have to rebuild my garden shed and also cut up and remove the tree. This was necessity. And I agree with you, if you play with toys all your life, you wont grow up, or get old. LOL

[4inches4u]

RIP Ike

[at8tc]

if i were ike i would have made the youngins buck and stack that old oak!!!

[sonichedgie]

@4inches4u : Ike died ?? is it truth ?

[iowanative]

OK.....it took me 4 years to watch this, but I found it fascinating! I remember Ike when I was a kid. He scared the crap out of me. I think he knew my Uncle Bud Fransen....(who by the way passed away about a month and a half ago)

Always enjoy your videos Dave!! Beth

[1overthehillsfaraway]

belt and suspenders, yah he must have cut a few trees before this one!

[isaacward2]

hatein on the hatein. the man is 71 he has forgotten more than i know about cutting trees and i do my fair share love to see the old guy still at it. i wouldn't fell a tree the same way either but he got it done and it fell where he planned. that's what counts. Go Ike :-D

[TommyLog33]

NICE JOB!!! I GREW UP USING THESE SAWS, I CAN'T HEAR MUCH, BUT I KNOW THEY CAME IN 80,72, AND I THINK 66?? THAT'S WHEN YOU COULD KNOCK ON SOMEONE'S DOOR, AND CALL EM' OUT IN THE STREET, AND FIGHT, GET IT OVER WITH, AND EITHER BECOME FRIENDS, OR JUST LEAVE IT LAY...NO LAW INVOLVED, I AM THANKFUL FOR GROWING UP IN THAT ERA!! NICE TO SEE A 71 YEAR OLD STILL SAWING!!! I AM TOO, BUT NOT YET 71, GREAT VIDEO!!

[ike2729]

ikes the man

[yourneck2]

Ike's got a bad habit of pushing that monster saw with his hip, thats so dangerous if that saw kicks he wont have much of a hip to push with.

[treeclimberdave]

@truckieone a deep face is often a good idea when pulling or if its a headleaner. anytime there is a lot of pressure on the face side

[EZsWoodshed]

I like Ike

[jdb4759]

I have an old McCullough Tember Bear (that still runs) w/20 inch bar and a 100ft cable. But I used a 2 ton come-along instead of truck. Better safe than sorry if your dropping a trees around houses, shed, etc. Even in the woods, it sucks to have a tree lean back on you and pinch the bar. Sometimes they don't always go according to plan. At 51 now and I hope I can still pick up a chainsaw at 71 and still chase trains at 75. Ike is AWSOME :)