Collaboration
ART
BEAUTY & WELLNESS
CRAFT
CULTURE & HISTORY
ENTERTAINMENT
ENVIRONMENT
FOOD & DRINKS
REVERSE ENGINEERING
SCIENCES
SPORTS
TECHNOLOGY
WEARABLES
Felling Timber Trees and Cutting Them into Logs (Evelyn's Sylva, 1706)
John Evelyn's woodman's rules for felling: survey and mark the trees after Christmas, fell in dry, calm weather (firs when they begin to bud, so the bark strips), take off the big limbs first so they do not split the trunk, cut the stool low, strip the bark, and saw the clean bole into lengths ready for squaring.
Intermediate
A winter season (survey to stacked logs)
Instructions
1
1
Measuring by the girth
Measuring by the girth
Loading Jupyter Notebook...
2
2
Read Sylva
Read Sylva
"Being now entering with your workmen, one of the first, and most principal things, is, the skilful disbranching of the boal of all such arms and limbs as may endanger it in the fall."
3
3
Survey and mark
Survey and mark
Right after Christmas walk the wood, list each kind of tree and what it is good for, mixing good and poor so the best timber is not all taken. Measure the trees by a string round the girth and mark those to fell.
Tools needed:
Cord4
4
Choose the time
Choose the time
Fell from about Candlemas (early February) into spring; some cut in October for ploughs, carts and naves. Fell firs and pines when they first begin to bud: the bark then strips best. Work when it has been dry and calm a good while, with a low wind, never in frost, rain or dew, and not in the morning. (He also reports the old rule of felling in the waning moon.)
5
5
Take off the limbs
Take off the limbs
First cut away any great arms that could split or damage the trunk as it falls: chop a nick under each one close to the trunk, then cut down from above to meet it so it comes off clean. For wet trees some bore across the trunk, or cut a kerf round it almost to the heart, four or five days before felling to let the sap drain.
Tools needed:
Axe
Billhook
Brace and Bit6
6
Fell low
Fell low
Fell the tree leaving the stump as close to the ground as you can, above all if you want it to sprout again: a foot of timber near the root is worth three further up.
Tools needed:
Axe
Pit Saw
Wooden Felling Wedge7
7
Strip and cut to length
Strip and cut to length
Strip the bark, set the trunk where it dries best, clear the remaining branches, and saw it into lengths for squaring. In a winter fell for fuel, kid (bundle) the brushwood and stand it on end so it does not rot.
Materials for this step:
Jute Twine1 pieceTools needed:
DrawknifePit SawAxe8
8
Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting
Felling troubleshooting.
Flow
Loading...
9
9
History and honest limits
History and honest limits
From John Evelyn, **Sylva** (1706 text, London reprint 1908), Book III, Chap. III, §§26-33 (checked on the archive.org scan sylvaordiscourse02evelrich, pp. 68-74). The moon rules are reported, not proven; metric figures are ours.
Materials
1- 1 piecePlaceholder
This blueprint makes
Related Blueprints
These blueprints share knowledge with this one — techniques, materials, or principles that connect them in the learning graph.
CC0 Public Domain
This blueprint is released under CC0. You are free to copy, modify, distribute, and use this work for any purpose, without asking permission.
Support the Maker by purchasing products through their Blueprint where they earn a Maker Commission set by Vendors, or create a new iteration of this Blueprint and include it as a connection in your own Blueprint to share revenue.