Took me 3 hours to figure out why my pruning cuts were splitting

Last month I was working on a big old oak in a client's yard near Portland. I kept making my final pruning cuts and the bark would split a good inch down the trunk on the back side. I thought my saw was dull so I sharpened it, still happened. Switched to a different saw, same problem. I spent a good 3 hours messing with technique and getting frustrated before I realized my undercut was too shallow. I was only cutting about a quarter of the way through the branch instead of a third. Once I made that undercut deeper and more angled, the cuts came out clean every time. Has anyone else run into this where the fix was something so simple you felt silly after?

2 comments

2 Comments

thomas8627d agoMost Upvoted

Oh man, I had a similar headache with a maple last spring. Took me forever to realize my problem was the opposite of yours - my rope was cinching the branch from the other side while I was cutting. I was so focused on the cut itself I never looked behind the branch to see the rope digging in and splitting the bark as soon as the weight shifted. Felt like a total idiot when I finally spotted it. Sometimes the simplest things will trip you up for hours when you're in the middle of a job.

troykim7d ago

Three hours of my life gone because I forgot ropes have this nasty habit of doing exactly what you don't want them to do. I had a big oak branch that was supposed to drop clean, but the line wrapped around a nub and pulled the whole thing sideways into a fence post. Splintered bark everywhere and a dent in my truck bed from where the rope snapped back and whipped the tailgate. You're right though, you get tunnel vision on the cut and forget the million other things that can go wrong around it.