Stump Removal with Hand Tools Advice

[dheat]

My son and I have been removing small stumps (6-8" dia.) with a mattock and axe. Works pretty well once you get the hang of it.

A couple of things we've learned:

• Chop with your breathing, i.e., exhale (hard) on the down stroke, inhale on the up stroke.
• My son likes to snap at the waist on the down stroke. This action creates tremendous tool acceleration (think Judo throw), but I'm not sure how well your back will feel after a days work.
• Cut each root in two places: first, a foot or so from the stump, then as near the stump as possible. This creates space for digging deeper around the stump.
• Hit the stump with the axe butt or a sledge hammer from time to time to loosen up the soil around it.
• Split a larger or stubborn stump with an axe and remove it in several pieces.

Can you add anything to this list?

What about using a post puller to remove small trees and bushes--have you ever done it? If so, do you have any pointers?

While we're currently dealing with stumps, I'd prefer to have several feet of trunk intact and lever the stump out with a come along or hand winch. Any experience and advice with this method?

Thanks,

Doug

[dheat]

A note about the breathing method described above. When we first started, we would chop like mad men for several seconds then stop to suck air for several more seconds. When we use this breathing method, it's fewer chops per time period, but we can keep at it for a few minutes without stopping versus several seconds.

[7thswan]

No need to tell me about ruining chains or bars, we use old ones. Cut tree down,leave about 2'. I dig arroung base, exposing large roots. Dh cuts roots. Then hook arround stump with chain and yank with truck.

[dheat]

Then hook arround stump with chain and yank with truck.

I don't have one of them truck hand tools.

[gone-a-milkin]

I have dug some stumps. I like to have a digging bar as part of my tools. You can knock the dirt from between the roots easier and often you can wedge it under roots and jump on the end of the bar to pry up the stumps with some roots attatched.

I also lifted a huge stump out of the ground with a floorjack. I dug it out as much as I could and severed all the biggest roots but it was far to heavy for me to lift so I got DH's jack out of the shop...shh, dont tell on me...and I put it under one severed root 'shoulder' and jacked it up. Then I threw some dirt under that side and moved the jack to the other side. I repeated this process untill the stump was out of the ground and the hole underneath it was completely filled in.

After a year above-ground that stump was dry enough for me to roll it over to the burnpile.

What type of stumps are you removing? Mine were mostly Tree of Heaven. I used a Sawzall some too,which is not a handtool, I know. There were some stumps and roots against the stone foundation of my house and chopping was not an option there. About rattled my teeth loose working the sawzall...

Good luck! At least you have your son to help you.

[TurnerHill]

Best way to remove stumps with hand tools:

1. Take hand tools, place in barn.

2. Get a part-time job doing something else. Anything else.

3. Pay someone with a backhoe to remove stumps.

[dheat]

gone-a-milkin,

the digging bar is a good idea. I'll look into adding that to our tool inventory.

Also, interesting use of jack and dirt. That was using your noggin.

As far as tree type is concerned, it's difficult to say for certain as the work he (we) are currently doing is for someone else and I never saw the trees/bushes. As best I can tell they're mostly large ligustrum and rhododendron stumps. (I know neither are trees, but they are big and more often than not have more than one trunk per root system.) I think there may be a few cherry or bay laurels and one stump smelled like a camphor.

All this is good training because we just purchased 17 acres and plan to clear a small portion of it. It's about half planted pine (slash) and half swamp bay with cypress, pine, bay laurels, oaks and who-knows-what-else hiding back in there. The swamp bay is where we plan to clear a portion.

It is very good to be working with my son.

Thanks for the ideas.

[dheat]

Originally Posted by TurnerHill

Best way to remove stumps with hand tools...

I hear you, but there are benefits to doing it this way. As noted by gone-a-milkin, I get to work with my son. And we're our own bosses. Also, when we begin clearing our own land, we'll get to know it better doing the work ourselves.

Thanks for the laugh.

[BRYAN]

An elderly friend, since passed on, described how he used to pull stumps in the 20's on a Mississippi delta farm. They would cut a large tree with a large branch at 90 degree angle. He would then cut it to form a T with the trunk (18-24" diameter) at the top, leaving the limb about 8-10' long. He would then place this beside the stump with the limb portion laying over the stump chaining the stump securely to the base of the limb so that when you rotated the T the trunk portion would be against the base of the stump with the limb portion near vertical. a chain was attached to the end of the limb an pulled by a pair of mules so that as the lever rotated the stump would be pulled up and over. With a stuborn stump some chopping and levering still took place, but the compound leverage and upward pull on the stump helped a lot. I always thought that I would make one from pipe, a 18" piece and drill stem if I found myself in need and pull it with a tractor. I wouldn't say its "the way", but it is "a way" to use a little physics to your advantage.

[geo in mi]

Do you have a day job as a dentist?

[Shrek]

I use wood ash , grass thatch and 6 to 12 months to removed stumps.

Cover stump with 3 to 4 inches of hardwood ashes, then cover the wood ashes with 6 to 12 inches of wet grass clipping thatch to start the lye reaction on the stump and heat composting of the thatch. After the lye has leached into the stump and the thatch has gone through initial heating, the woodlice, beetles , termites , springtails, rollypolies, carpenter ants, etc. will begin building Stump City. In the spring the used to was stump can be turned with a hoe into mulch without a lot of effort and sweat.

[ldc]

The colonial New England method to remove stumps is closer to Shrek's method above. Cut away as much as possible in the spring of the year. Put a bushel of dirt or compost or manure on remaining stump. Plant pumpkin seeds in stump/soil. Harvest later. Less stump will be there after one season of pumpkins/winter squash, due to their aggressive roots. ldc

[NorthernWoods]

Stand pipe or 4x4wood vertical beside stump. Run chain from stump over 4x4 and to back of truck.

Someone drives and someone holds chain and assembly from falling over. I was always the holder. Dangerous but effective. Don't get a finger caught.

[Shrek]

Originally Posted by NorthernWoods

Stand pipe or 4x4wood vertical beside stump. Run chain from stump over 4x4 and to back of truck.

Someone drives and someone holds chain and assembly from falling over. I was always the holder. Dangerous but effective. Don't get a finger caught.

Definately keep fingers clear or you will be instead of

Sorry I just couldn't resist

[wyld thang]

I had a neighbor, he was a WW2 era old little guy from Yugoslavia he would dig up stumps for exercise and to keep him busy in his old age. These were doug fir stumps, not too big, at least 12-18" diameter. He'd dig, pick, pry, hack with a pick, axe, bar. Usually it took him about a week.

I'm glad I got to know him(he built our house). He got Alzheimers and he would go out and dig those stumps (his BIL would make the trees into firewood). I'd stop and talk to him, and the thing he most wanted to say which took him awhile to remember, after he talked about the tree, the sky, the birds, the ground, was his name, "I am Michael Tunder".

When his fam put him in a nursing home he busted the place up. No stumps.(Go Mr Thunder!!!)

[dheat]

geo in mi,

no, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

[PhilJohnson]

I cleared out a bunch of stumps from my old place by hand at first. Then I tried the pickup. It was 2wd so it didn't work so well and I got a bent bumper to prove it. Then I borrowed the neighbor's tractor. Sure worked better than the other two methods. But I guess if you like pulling stumps by hand it's cheaper than a gym membership

[gone-a-milkin]

Originally Posted by PhilJohnson

I cleared out a bunch of stumps from my old place by hand at first. Then I tried the pickup. It was 2wd so it didn't work so well and I got a bent bumper to prove it.

I tried this method too. That was how I found out where the line to my septic was buried...

Sometimes you have to do things the oldfashioned way. Machines can make life easier, or more difficult. Depends on the situation.