 What's up guys Joe Holland here I am gonna show you guys how I took this tree down this giant dead Hemlock tree that was still standing, but we're gonna take it down today with an axe No chainsaw just an axe brand new handle I built yesterday out of an ash tree that we took down last year and You're gonna see how to take it down. I'll show you some safety tips I'll show you how out of shape I am and I'll show you how much fun it is to use an axe to drop something this size We've got a little bit of wind. I'm gonna try to The trees got a lean it wants to go there, which would take out that Beech tree, but I'm gonna try to put it over there Wind is not really your friend, but I'm gonna try to get it over here because I can get a machine up to here to get the logs out So it'll take a little bit of not chin and Maybe a little bit of pushing and hopefully we can get her down where we want a Couple safety tips guys is when you're limping a tree I like to limb on the other side of the tree So I'll stand on the left side if I'm limping on the right side and then I'll just stand on the right side If I'm gonna limb on the left side or even on top I won't stand on the same one and the reason I do that is because limbs do a lot of funny things you'll some some of them it'll go right through some take a couple hits some it takes a lot of hits and You'll get some deflection sometimes or if you miss and this is never a good angle for an axe because if you miss or it gets through Then it's usually gonna come back somewhere into your shin or knee or ankle area. So that's why if I'm limping I don't mind the best the best way to do it is to reach across That way if it comes through you still have a log in between you and your leg the whole way So, you know that limb right there even though it might be easier stand on that side and whack away I'm gonna stand on this side and I'm gonna reach across and hit that limb to knock it off and the top one and the only other Way to do that is to get ahead of the limb. So that way you're you're working behind you So my feet are right here this limbs here, and then I could take this limb and be a lot safer If I take that limb that way so that way if I get through I'm not gonna hit my leg or my shin or any Parts on my body. So that's one thing to consider some guys do it a different way But that's always been the safest way for me. The other thing you always want to do is when you're chopping Other than the underhand chop is you always want to keep your axe parallel. You never want to break that parallel. So Right there is about as where I want that axe I never want that angle to be up here like that because if it once again if it goes through It's coming right back into your leg Through there you have it. There we go We got two nice 16 foot logs gonna get those over to the mill and make some planks out of them All right guys, thanks for tuning in. That was a lot of fun for me Got a blister on my finger because I have not done this for a while as you could tell and I'm not quite as tough as I used to be I used to have pretty thick skin, but apparently not as tough That's a little bit embarrassing Time to toughen back up and there's enough trees out here that need to get taken down That I definitely will be tougher by the end of this But yeah, overall the Connecticut pattern axe this old Kelly registered on a 28 inch ash handle Cut like an absolute champion took the tree down perfectly performed perfectly I couldn't ask for anything more out of this axe the main wedge did a great job as well That one's on a birch handle that one is getting gifted tomorrow to one of my very best friends in the world And also the double bit I didn't get a chance to use that quite as much because The handle is a little too long for bucking or underhand chopping. I don't see a lot of guys Chopping or bucking with a double bit. Anyway, that might be one of the reasons why we got a 36 inch Hickory handle on this thing and you know, this is probably a better tree to fell with You know drop the tree and it's got some pretty pretty hard bevels on it. Maybe 24 degree I didn't really measure them, but it's going to be good for splitting. It's going to be good for felon trees But for bucking and stuff the handles a little bit too long for that so So we didn't get chance to use the double bit that much But the two shorter ones in that 28 inch range are perfect I would have no problem stepping down to a 25 26 inch handle either for that type of stuff for felon I like that 28 28 is a pretty good size handle for me. I'm six foot tall So if you guys are wondering that I like the curves on the handle I like the grain on the handle. It wasn't perfect on that ash But it actually felt a little bit nicer because it had a little bit of sponge to it a little bit of play And we'll see how it holds up. It held up pretty darn good today Thanks for tuning in hit that subscribe and like button before you go and you'll see more of this stuff in the future