WAn angle gauge is a tool used by foresters to determine which trees to measure when using a variable radius plot design in forest inventory. Using this tool a forester can quickly measure the trees that are in or out of the plot. An angle gauge is similar to a wedge prism though it must be held a fixed distance from the eye to work properly. Unlike the wedge prism, which is held over the plot center, the surveyor's eye is kept over plot-center when using an angle gauge.
WAn axe is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood, to harvest timber, as a weapon, and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol. The axe has many forms and specialised uses but generally consists of an axe head with a handle, or helve.
WBahco is a Swedish brand within the hand tool industry, which is now part of SNA Europe, part of Snap-on. Its roots go back to the industrial revolution in Sweden in the late eighteen hundreds, starting with innovations such as the pipe wrench and the modern adjustable wrench. Since then, the product range has expanded with a total assortment of products that today includes over 7000 hand tools.
WA billhook or bill hook is a versatile cutting tool used widely in agriculture and forestry for cutting woody material such as shrubs, small trees and branches and is distinct from the sickle. It was commonly used in Europe with an important variety of traditional local patterns. Elsewhere, it was also developed locally such as in the Indian subcontinent, or introduced regionally as in the Americas, South Africa and Oceania by European settlers.
WA cant hook or cant dog is a traditional logging tool consisting of a wooden lever handle with a movable metal hook called a dog at one end, used for handling and turning logs and cants, especially in sawmills. A peavey or peavey hook is similar, but has a spike in the working end of the handle, whereas a cant dog has a blunt end or possibly small teeth for friction.
WA diameter tape (D-tape) is a measuring tape used to estimate the diameter of a cylinder object, typically the stem of a tree or pipe. A diameter tape has either metric or imperial measurements reduced by the value of π. This means the tape measures the diameter of the object. It is assumed that the cylinder object is a perfect circle. The diameter tape provides an approximation of diameter; most commonly used in dendrometry.
WA dragsaw or Drag saw is a large reciprocating saw using a long steel crosscut saw to buck logs to length. Prior to the popularization of the chainsaw during World War II, the dragsaw was a popular means of taking the hard work out of cutting wood. They would only work for a log on the ground. Dragsaws are known as the first mechanical saws to be used in the timber industry operation. These tools were most useful in the logging business, because they were efficient and very resilient. Not to be confused with Steam donkey.
WThe Farm Forestry Toolbox is a collection of computer programs, referred to as 'Tools', intended to be used by farm forest owners and managers to aid decision making. The Toolbox includes a set of simple 'Hand Tools'; conversion of measurements and map co-ordinates; measuring the volume of stacked logs, slope, basal area; and a survey tool. A second set of more complex tools or 'Power Tools'; can be used to estimate site productivity, volume and value of wood grown for individual trees, at the coupe or stand level and forest estate level.
WA flapper is a wildland firefighting tool that resembles a broom or a leaf rake with wide, overlapping metal bristles in the form of a hand fan. It is also called a swatter or a beater. It is designed for extinguishing minor fires in rural areas such as heaths. A flapper is built with a long handle and a series of lamellae which allows firefighters to stand well back from the fire. The lamellae are constructed in either rubber or steel, though practically any other fire-resistant material could be used.
WA fire rake is a wildland fire fighting tool. A fire rake has a wooden or fiberglass handle with a rake head consisting of four to six sharp, serrated, triangular steel blades. It is used to rake a fire break with the sharp teeth, enabling it to reach fire in undergrowth in addition to loose surface debris. A McLeod, which is sometimes called a rake hoe, is a similar tool whose rake portion looks more like a steel rake but with sharp edges on the teeth. The teeth of the more traditional fire rake which resemble the teeth of a great white shark allow it to penetrate deeper into the undergrowth when necessary. The preference for one implement over the other is somewhat subjective.
WA hand compass is a compact magnetic compass capable of one-hand use and fitted with a sighting device to record a precise bearing or azimuth to a given target or to determine a location. Hand or sighting compasses include instruments with simple notch-and-post alignment ("gunsights"), prismatic sights, direct or lensatic sights, and mirror/vee (reflected-image) sights. With the additional precision offered by the sighting arrangement, and depending upon construction, sighting compasses provide increased accuracy when measuring precise bearings to an objective.
WHelko, is a German manufacturer of axes and forestry tools, located in the town of Wuppertal and founded in 1844. Today, it is one of the largest axe manufacturers in Europe, and exports products to more than 40 countries.
WA hoe is an ancient and versatile agricultural and horticultural hand tool used to shape soil, remove weeds, clear soil, and harvest root crops. Shaping the soil includes piling soil around the base of plants (hilling), digging narrow furrows (drills) and shallow trenches for planting seeds or bulbs. Weeding with a hoe includes agitating the surface of the soil or cutting foliage from roots, and clearing soil of old roots and crop residues. Hoes for digging and moving soil are used to harvest root crops such as potatoes.
WA hook is a hand tool used for securing and moving loads. It consists of a round wooden handle with a strong metal hook about 8" long projecting at a right angle from the center of the handle. The appliance is held in a closed fist with the hook projecting between two fingers.
WAn inclinometer or clinometer is an instrument used for measuring angles of slope, elevation, or depression of an object with respect to gravity's direction. It is also known as a tilt indicator, tilt sensor, tilt meter, slope alert, slope gauge, gradient meter, gradiometer, level gauge, level meter, declinometer, and pitch & roll indicator. Clinometers measure both inclines and declines using three different units of measure: degrees, percentage points, and topo. Astrolabe is example of an inclinometer that was used for celestial navigation and location of astronomical objects from ancient times to the Renaissance.
WAn increment borer is a specialized tool used to extract a section of wood tissue from a living tree with relatively minor injury to the plant itself. The tool consists of a handle, an auger bit and a small, half circular metal tray that fits into the auger bit; the last is usually manufactured from carbide steel. It is most often used by foresters, researchers and scientists to determine the age of a tree. This science is also called dendrochronology. The operation enables the user to count the rings in the core sample, to reveal the age of the tree being examined and its growth rate. After use the tool breaks down: auger bit and extractor fit within the handle, making it highly compact and easy to carry.
WLabrys is, according to Plutarch, the Lydian word for the double-bitted axe.. The Ancient Greek plural of labrys is labryes.
WA laser rangefinder, also known as a laser telemeter, is a rangefinder that uses a laser beam to determine the distance to an object. The most common form of laser rangefinder operates on the time of flight principle by sending a laser pulse in a narrow beam towards the object and measuring the time taken by the pulse to be reflected off the target and returned to the sender. Due to the high speed of light, this technique is not appropriate for high precision sub-millimeter measurements, where triangulation and other techniques are often used.
WA mattock is a hand tool used for digging, prying, and chopping. Similar to the pickaxe, it has a long handle and a stout head which combines either a vertical axe blade with a horizontal adze, or a pick and an adze. A cutter mattock is similar to a Pulaski. It is also commonly known in North America as a "grub axe".
WA McLeod tool is a two-sided blade — one a rake with coarse tines, one a flat sharpened hoe — on a long, wooden handle. It is a standard tool during wildfire suppression and trail restoration. The combination tool was created in 1905 by Malcolm McLeod, a United States Forest Service ranger at the Sierra National Forest.
WA cant hook or cant dog is a traditional logging tool consisting of a wooden lever handle with a movable metal hook called a dog at one end, used for handling and turning logs and cants, especially in sawmills. A peavey or peavey hook is similar, but has a spike in the working end of the handle, whereas a cant dog has a blunt end or possibly small teeth for friction.
WA pickaroon is a wood-handled, metal-topped log handling tool. It is distinguished from a pike pole by having a shorter handle, no metal point, and an opposite curve to its hook ; and from both a cant hook and peavey by having a fixed hook facing its handle rather than a pivoting one facing away.
WPike poles are long metal-topped wood, aluminum, or fiberglass poles used for reaching, holding, or pulling. They are variously used in construction, logging, rescue and recovery, power line maintenance, and firefighting.
WPottiputki is a planting tool that was created by Tapio Saarenketo in the early 1970s, used for manual planting of containerized seedlings. The planters can work in an ergonomically correct position while maintaining high productivity, making the task both fast and comfortable. It is more effective, but more expensive than the traditional mattock.
WThe Pulaski is a special hand tool used in fighting wildfires which combines an axe and an adze in one head. Similar to a cutter mattock, it has a rigid handle of wood, plastic, or fiberglass. The Pulaski is used for constructing firebreaks, able to both dig soil and chop wood. It is also well adapted for trail construction, and can be used for gardening and other outdoor work for general excavation and digging holes in root-bound or hard soil. The axe blade of the Pulaski is the primary cutting edge, while the adze blade is secondary; this is the opposite of the cutter mattock, in which the adze blade is the larger of the two.
WThe relascope, invented by Walter Bitterlich, is a multi-use instrument for forest inventory. It is primarily used to find the height of a tree, the basal area of a tree, and the diameter of a tree anywhere along the bole. This instrument is used mostly for applications involving variable radius sample plots in a forest survey.
Wroot trainer is a trademarked container so to avoid this seeming promotional, the title should be changed to "air root pruning containers" because this is not the original air root pruning container which is the root maker which aids the cultivation of young plants and trees in nurseries. Many pot designs train the roots. One example is a truncated plastic cone in which a seedling is planted. There is a drainage hole at the bottom and the main tap root tends to grow towards this.
WA tree caliper is a special caliper to measure the diameter at breast height of a tree. When used in landscaping, the term "caliper" can refer to the diameter of a tree's trunk at breast height itself. The measurement is generally made at 4.5 feet (1.4 m) to 5 feet (1.5 m) above the soil.
WA tree planting bar or dibble bar is a tool used by foresters to plant trees, especially in large-scale afforestation or reforestation. It is very ergonomic, as it greatly speeds up the planting and prevents back pain.
WA tree shelter, or tree guard, is a type of plastic shelter used to nurture trees in the early stages of their growth. Tree shelters are also sometimes known as Tuley tubes or tree tubes.
WA whoopie sling is an easily adjustable rope sling designed for tree pruning or tree removal. The whoopie sling works by wrapping the sling around the trunk of a tree or a heavy load bearing limb and pulling the end of the rope within the sling through a spliced choker. By adjusting the size of the eye in the rope through the choker the user is able to adjust the length of the sling constricting around the tree without needing knots. It is also becoming more common for suspending hammocks during hiking, camping, or sailing.