After felling a tree, living or dead, regardless of what the end use is, there are typically two main processing jobs you will need to complete. First, you will need to remove the tree’s limbs, that is, its branches. This is known as limbing or snedding. Second, you will need to cut the tree into sections, a task described as sectioning.

In a previous article I looked in detail at felling trees using axe and saw. Limbing and sectioning trees comes after felling. So, in the present article I want to continue on from the previous article, looking at how you can use your axe to process the tree once it is on the ground.

Limbing and sectioning trees with an axe involve a range of axe techniques traditionally used by the woodsman, the frontiersman and for woodcraft and camping. They are very useful to have in your repertoire and in this article I look into the requisite axe techniques – and safety – in some detail…

Safety First

In Axe Safety In Camp: Care, Attention And Good Habits I took a methodical look at fundamental axe safety for day-to-day usage around camp.

In the axe safety article I related a series of questions to ask and here, in the context of limbing and sectioning, they are worth repeating as they apply 100% to these jobs too.

“Where does it go next?” is a question you should always ask when using a cutting tool.

What happens if I slip? What happens if it glances off? What happens if it cuts straight through what I’m working on? What happens if I miss? What happens if it bounces off? In each of these cases, where does it go next?

You never want the answer to the question of where it goes next to be part of your body. Especially when it comes to using an axe.

In the context of a felled tree, however, the axe is not the only risk. The tree itself can also pose a threat to your safety. Branches of the tree can be bent, under tension that will release when you start cutting them. Equally, smaller trees may be bent out of position by the felled tree, potentially releasing to their upright position when you start dismantling the felled tree. Before you start work on the felled tree, take some time to be fully aware of what, if anything, has been spring-loaded by felling the tree.

If the felled tree is supported at one or more points along its length, rather than in complete contact with the ground, then, as you cut it, changing the balance of the trunk, some of the tree could rise up or part of the trunk could drop to the ground, or both at the same time. Basically, as you cut the trunk you may end up with one or two see-saws which want to move. Be aware of how the tree is resting before you start work. If you are working on sloping ground, pay particular attention to whether any section of trunk that may drop to the ground when detached is likely to roll towards you or your companions.

In a nutshell, think about what the separated bits of the tree you are about to create will do – under the forces of gravity and spring-loading – when you free them from the rest of the tree. There are some other technique-specific safety points in the relevant sections below too.

Limbing A Tree – Bottom Up or Top Down?

When limbing or snedding a tree, start from one end of the tree and work towards the other. This is partly about being methodical but also partly about being efficient. It’s generally easier to cut off branches, large or small, if you attack them from the direction of the less acute angle between them and the trunk. For example, many needled trees have downward sloping branches, whereas many broadleaved trees have upward reaching branches. Attack the branches from the direction they are growing away from. Even if you are removing what are little more than twigs, you’ll find it much easier working this way.

Limbing Techniques

When limbing it is generally a good idea to work with the axe on the other side of the trunk to where you are standing as much as possible. This helps with safety as it significantly reduces the chance of a glancing blow deflecting towards you. Other times you may have to work on top of the trunk to cut off more vertically-oriented branches. It can help to bend your knees to set yourself at a suitable height for gaining a more horizontal chopping action.

You should position yourself so that the branches you are striking with the axe are either directly in front of you or even further through your swing. Put another way, you do not want the branches you are cutting to be between you and where the axe starts moving. In the latter case, the follow-through after the axe cuts the branch is towards you and path of the axe head is less predictable, and possibly less controllable, than before the axe collided with the wood. The follow-through after the axe strikes the branch, therefore, should be beyond you.

Safe follow-throughs can be achieved in a number of ways. You can stand so that you swing the axe horizontally past you in a forehand motion, with the strike in front of you or slightly past you, and the follow through of the axe being past you. Or you can turn so you are cutting backwards, with the strike to your side and follow-through behind. The latter is much more easily effected with the axe in one hand. This is easy enough with half-length or three-quarter length axes with typical head weights of 0.70-0.90 kg (1.5-2.0 lb).

Using a full-size felling axe one-handed for snedding is unwieldy both because of the head weight as well as the handle length. Indeed, the handle length alone can make a full-size axe awkward to use for limbing. Having a half-length or three-quarter length axe purely for limbing makes sense if you are working in an area of woodland and undertaking plenty of felling with a full-size axe. If you can only take one axe, the three-quarter length axe is a very good compromise if you are mainly felling, limbing and sectioning and hence is my choice of axe for winter camping in the northern forest.

For a general purpose all-round versatility and packability, the half-length axe is a suitable compromise for all the tasks necessary from felling to small firewood splitting and carving, but you lose significant amount of weight and leverage for felling, even over the three-quarter length axe. See the middle section of this article for more information on the differences in weights and sizes of these axes.

With a good quality axe, well-maintained and sharp, you can cut through branches of significant size with one cut. You do need to be committed, though, and positioning of your body for safety is paramount. For thicker branches, which cannot be chopped with one cut, start with a couple of cuts to created a V-notch then cut through from the back of the V.

Tree Sectioning Considerations

Unless the tree is quite small, once you have removed its branches, you’ll need to section it into smaller pieces in order to move it. When I am winter camping in the boreal forest, I tend to cut the dead wood I have felled into section lengths as long as I can physically carry on my shoulder.

It’s an obvious point but do think about the end use of the wood before you go hacking it into short sections. Not only do you need to think about the required lengths for the end use but also where knots, kinks and other imperfections are located. For some uses, even splitting for firewood, knots can be problematic.

In the present article I am going to discuss sectioning with an axe but it should be mentioned that in a number of respects sectioning with an axe is less efficient than using a suitable saw.

Axes are good chopping and splitting tools. They work particularly well along or at a slight angle to the grain. They cut much less well across the grain. Saws on the other hand cut well across the grain.

Further, to cut through a log with an axe, you have to waste more wood than with a saw. That said, saws can easily get stuck in logs if they become pinched in the cut. Equally, saw blades of shallow depth will tend to wander as soon as they go even a little bit off line. This can cause the saw to jam too.

If you don’t have a saw with you, or if you don’t have a saw big enough to tackle the diameter of wood, then the axe is your only choice.

It’s certainly possible to fell a tree with axe and saw but for the trunk of the tree to be too thick to section with the very same saw. This is because the felling job does not require you to saw through the whole trunk, only part of trunk that remains at the back of the tree after you have made front cut with the axe.

As you can see, there are a number of reasons why sectioning with an axe is a skill you should have in your repertoire.

Cutting Through A Tree Trunk With An Axe – Open Wide & Produce Chunks

To cut through a trunk with an axe, you need to make the cut much wider than the cut made by a saw. To this extent, you will waste more wood than if sectioning with a saw. The rule of thumb for sectioning with an axe is to open up a cut as wide as the diameter of the trunk. This allows you to remove wood quickly from the trunk and then when around half way through, you can switch sides and bring the cut into the middle from the other side of the trunk.

A common mistake is to try to cut into a narrow V. Cutting into the apex of any V-cut with an axe is inefficient. Instead, you should aim to remove chunks of wood by methodically and progressively working an area with the axe, altering the angle somewhat in order to encourage the wood to fire out of the cut. Please excuse the play on words but remember to open wide and produce chunks.

Ambidextrous Axe Usage – A Little-Known Super Power

Most right-handed people are happy to use an axe left-handed and they don’t even realise it.

Equally, left-handed people are happy to use an axe left handed and don’t realise they are doing so.

When swinging an axe most people tend to lift the head with their dominant hand and hold their non-dominant hand at the end of the handle to guide the axe. It’s relatively easy to learn to use it the other way around too as all you are doing is learning to guide with your dominant hand. To understand this, it’s first easier to deconstruct the action and think about chopping using only one hand to hold the axe.

Learning to use the axe ambidextrously allows you to attack at all the angles you need to create a symmetrical cut and to remove material quickly by changing the angle of attack from left to right and right to left. When using a larger axe it’s even more important.

If you can learn to use the axe ambidextrously, not only is your technique more efficient, it’s also better for your back in the long run. Not many people bother to learn this or even know about it but it is well worth the effort.

Safety and efficiency are the watchwords of axe use. If you diligently apply the above techniques and safety considerations, they will serve you well in undertaking some of the larger-scale tasks you might undertake in the woods with an axe.

To learn more, check out the articles linked below…

Related Axe Articles and Videos On Paul Kirtley’s Blog:

Axe Safety In Camp: Care, Attention And Good Habits

Tree Felling With Axe And Saw

Tree Felling For Winter Firewood: Axe and Saw

How To Care For Your Axe: 3 Easy Steps

My Wilderness Axe Skills And Campcraft Book

Find out more at wildernessaxeskills.com