[Ads-l] logging term "barber chair" (UNCLASSIFIED)

[MULLINS, WILLIAM D (Bill) CIV USARMY CCDC AVMC (USA)]

CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED

A friend on Facebook who knows I antedate things recently asked me about the logging term "barber chair".

OED has 1950 for the noun, and 1966 for the verb.

barber chair n.;  Forestry.
A chair-shaped stump left after a tree is felled, usually because of failure to undercut the trunk far enough; an incident during felling in which such a stump is formed.

verb
transitive. To fell (a tree) such that it splits up the trunk, leaving a chair-shaped stump.
Also intransitive of a tree: to split during felling leaving a chair-shaped stump.

This is antedatable:

noun:

Escambia MI _Escambia Daily Press_ 14 Feb 1946 p 2 col 2
"Another familiar woods term is the 'barber chair'.  Hardwood timber, when improperly notched before sawing, pulls long slivers from the falling tree.  These slivers project upward from the stump, giving it the appearance of a chair."

verb:

Klamath Falls OR _Evening Herald_ 14 May 1941 p. 2 col 7
"Krick claimed that two days before the discharge they had 'barber-chaired' a fir tree due to a high wind at the time but the scaler had not complained."



CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED

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