Showerthought: my face cut on that maple in Boise was 3 inches off and I only caught it because of a chalk line
Last week I was dropping a leaning silver maple over a garage out in Boise and my notch kept coming out crooked no matter how careful I was with the saw. After the third try I was ready to blame the bar, but the real problem was me eyeballing the top cut while standing uphill on a root flare. I picked up a piece of chalk, snapped a straight line across the face at about 70 percent of the hinge width, and cut to that instead of guessing. The face closed clean and the tree went exactly where I pointed it, no wedges needed on the back cut. What got me was that I have carried chalk for years and never once used it for a felling face. It was a dumb little fix that cost me 20 seconds. How many of you snap a line on your faces, or do you just trust your eye?