Timber Savage 5.5 Inch Felling Wedge Chain Saw Logging Supplies Set of 4

Works really well hard material

Until I accidentally dropped a tree on a fence at the farm, I used to judge a tree’s center of gravity by eye. After that, I'd sight with a plumb line. I might use a rope or cable, but I wasn’t familiar with felling wedges. I wanted to remove a Bradford Pear that was 42’ tall and 19” in diameter at breast height. It was 22’ from the house, 10’ from a stop sign, 10’ from one street, 20’ from another street, 20’ from one Dogwood, and 30’ from another. I’d never felled a tree with so little room for error. To make it fit the available space, I removed some limbs with a 21’ pole saw. Now I just had to park it precisely and without a hitch. I read up on wedges. Lumberjacks typically make the back cut slightly higher than the vertex of the notch, but one extension service said it's better to make them at the same level. That may reduce the risk of a disastrous error. In the past, I’d sawed slapdash hinges. This time, I tied a string around the trunk as a guide. I started my notch with a horizontal cut. That way, I could check my aim by inserting a framing square. A hinge should be 80% as wide as the diameter, so I stopped when it was 16” wide. The cut was 4” deep at the center, so I cut the bark 4” above it. Then I rotated the saw around the trunk to extend the groove down to each end of the cut. That gave me a guide to saw a 45-degree notch without having any cut go too far. The notch would keep the hinge from breaking until the tree had fallen 45 degrees. I had my 10-pound hammer because a big hammer will drive wedges more efficiently and cause less damage. To start the first wedge, I tried a 1-pound claw hammer out of curiosity. The third blow bruised the wedge. After that, I stayed with the big hammer. There was no more damage. A hinge should be equally thick from side to side. My saw bar is only 16”, so, as the back cut neared the notch, I’d insert the framing square to see if both ends were equally close. When it was about 1” thick, there was an unexpected shower. The gusts weren’t more than 10 mph, but, lacking experience with felling wedges, I was fearful. After that, it took very little sawing before tapping the wedges started the tree falling. It landed exactly where I’d aimed. I measured on the stump, did the math, and discovered I’d been a Nervous Nellie. The hinge had been 16” long and 3/4” thick, or 12 square inches. Very roughly, the tensile strength of wood is 6 tons per square inch. The greatest pressure on the wedges had been about 1 foot from the hinge. The hinge may have been strong enough to resist 72 foot-tons. It would be hard to get that much pull even with a bulldozer and cable. The weakest part of the system may have been at the wedges. Distributing the load over 4 wedges instead of 2 may have doubled the strength. I wish I’d known long ago how to use wedges. I’ll save my rope for trunks with signs of rot and trunks too small to drive wedges behind a saw.

The size is manageable, but I should have found some that were a bit longer. One of them broke when I was trying to remove it from a wedge I'd cut, otherwise, these stood up to the abuse of felling trees very well.

These are plastic felling wedges what can I say about them? There is not much that can go wrong. The plastic is hard, and should be durable. I took down a tree a few weeks ago that I had a very small area that I wanted it to fall through, so I wedged it to encourage it to fall the right way. These worked very well. The small spikes on the flat of the wedge keep them from backing out on their own. You can see in the photos that the back of a few of them have been marked by my sledge. I am not sure how long these would last in a professional environment. I assume that the back end would eventually flare out with repeated pounding, but for the homeowner these will last a long time. One of the other photos shows why you should always use a plastic wedge vs. a metal one for felling. I nicked the corner of the wedge with my chainsaw and took the tip of the wedge off. This is acceptable and worked exactly like it should have. Metal wedges and chainsaws don't go well together. Keep in mind that they are only 5.5 inches, so don't be surprised by their size.

These wedges are great for felling trees around 22" diameter and smaller. They are small and you can easily fit 3 of them in your pocket. They are plastic so if you accidentally hit them with your saw it wont wreck your chain like a metal wedge would. Larger wedges are good for huge trees if you are a professional logger, but these small ones are great for 99% of what most home/ farm/ranch owners would be cutting down. They stay in place and make directional tree felling safer. You can see in my video where a larger Husqvarna wedge came out and fell on the ground as the tree was coming down, the other two that stayed in place are these timber savage 5.5" wedges. This was a 35 year old loblolly pine around 90 feet tall.

Do what they are designed to do

I may have been duped, and you may be as well if you, like me bought these wedges because they were "made in the U.S.A.". Sales pitch on Amazon says they're "made in U.S.A.", is even stamped so on online product, what I recieved is not stamped with any country of origin, nor is it listed on the minimal packaging (plastic bag with stick on label). If it matters to you, I would check before ordering.

Perfect length - just what I had ordered. I have the 8" ones from this manufacturer and they have served well, but I tend to use the 5.5 inch ones more frequently for felling medium trees (14 - 16" diameter). The 4 pack is a bargain.