I finally trust the notch method after a 60 foot oak in Nashville

For years I thought the whole open face notch thing was just textbook nonsense. My old timer mentor always said use a conventional notch, keep it simple, and I stuck with that until last spring. We had this big leaner over a pool fence in Nashville and I had to take it down blind. I set my notch with that 70 degree angle and the tree spun exactly where I wanted, no barber chair, no drama. It was like the math finally clicked in my head while the chips were flying. Now I'm second guessing every notch I cut that doesn't have that wide open face. Has anyone else had that moment where a textbook cut outshines what you learned on the job?

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sarahsullivan20d ago

Did you check the hinge wood after that spin to see if it was holding any tension from the lean, or did the face angle do all the work? Because I’ve seen guys swear by the open face until a tree with side weight turns the hinge into a hinge that twists instead of bends, and then they blame their saw. The notch matters, sure, but your ground angles and the hinge thickness talk more than the face shape on a leaner like that.