Watched a guy fell a leaning pine next to a shed in Boise, and his wedge trick is now my go-to

Grant Allen · 2026-10-03T17:15:04.826401+00:00

Honestly I was on a small job in Boise about 6 months ago, just a cleanup prune on some aspens, when the neighbor asked me to look at a leaner. This pine was tipped maybe 15 degrees toward his shed, tight spot, no room to drop it whole. I figured he wanted me to rig it down slow. Nope. An old climber named Dale showed up, cut a shallow notch on the lean side, then bore cut the back and left a hinge thick as my thumb. He pounded two plastic wedges in behind the hinge and tapped them even, one on each side, not just the fat side. The tree sat there for maybe 20 seconds while he tapped, then it rolled and dropped clean into the only open gap, not even a scratch on the shed roof. Ngl, I had been setting my hinge thin on leaners for years and getting away with it. He said the trick is keeping the hinge strong and letting the wedges do the steering, not cutting the hinge down. Anyone else run into a guy who stacks wedges like that, and do you go thick or thin hinge on a heavy lean?

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Watched a guy fell a leaning pine next to a shed in Boise, and his wedge trick is now my go-to | Arborists - SMM Buzz