How to shear a Christmas tree. Part 1: The basics

Hello is rob flanagan with flanagan Homestead and east fork christmas tree Farms We’re going to do a real brief video on How to shear a christmas tree With a knife today there will be more Videos fault to follow but i only have So much time today to record And uh i but i wanted to get this out Early in the season as we come to Christmas tree Shearing season this is early july which Is About the right time of year to start Shearing christmas trees here in the Pacific northwest Because the new growth is pretty much Done growing but it hasn’t Hardened yet to be woody so you can Swing a blade through it So we’re doing a couple grands today and A noble showing you how to shear them Just the real basics and as the season Goes on hopefully next week here I’ll get more detailed video on Especially tying the tops and how Maybe to do different things with Different shaped trees okay A couple things that you need to Remember on sharing christmas trees Number one Is you have to be consistent a lot of People see a tree That’s wider on this side or like the

People that i hire and they’ll want to Shear at this line And then there’s not as many branches on The other side and they try to shear That in tight If the tree is not balanced you need to Go with the tighter side or leave it so It grows out But you need to leave the same degree Angle on both sides You’ve got to be consistent you can’t go One side or the other The other thing is you need the Consistency from top to bottom of the Tree Keep the air in there and again one of The natural problem tendencies is to Create Shoulders people don’t want to cut the Top so the top of the tree is here And they want to cut out wide because They think they’re leaving nothing so They cut out wide And then they cut an angle down so they Leave what i call is a shoulder You don’t want shoulders on your tree You want straight edges i know it looks Like you’re only leaving a few inches on The top and you are Only leaving a few inches as long as you Have a bud on the end of that Top world branch then it’s going to grow Out and fill out Okay you got to leave at least one bud

But don’t angle out to leave branches And then cut down and cut a shoulder we Want straight lines On our christmas tree all right first Thing when i’m shearing christmas trees We use a 18 inch blade With an 18-inch handle some come with a Shorter handle i like the longer handle Because sometimes when you’re trying to Do taller trees It uh just gives you more power or more Length to get it also It gives you more speed and more power When you do it keep the blade sharp you Want It to cut through cleanly and smoothly This is not necessarily the best way to Sharpen a tool but we have a little Knife sharpener but it is definitely the Easiest And to keep going so every time we go up And down the rows we make sure that the Crew comes back Sharpens the blade a couple times Because you need to go through the Uh the branches smoothly So what you want to do is start at the Top we need to have a single leader i Have Another one that’s trying to grow up as Leader i’m going to get rid of that and You want to Figure out how tall you want your leader This tree is getting pretty tall we

Don’t want to keep running Plus we want this section to fill it in So i’m going to shorten this leader To about 8 inches this tree has plenty Of buds To create a new leader so i wasn’t too Particular where we went so At that point we’re going to try to get A 40 degree angle approximately a 40 Degree angle The nice thing about a u-cut christmas Tree farm is They don’t have to all be the exact same Some people like skinnier trees some Like a little bit wider So you kind of go with the nature of the Tree but stay within That normal range so i’m going to create An angle with my blade Visualize it and i’m going to swing Through you need to swing Quickly so that the knife doesn’t get Caught up if i’m swinging through the Tree Slowly and it catches on branches it’s Going to tend to pull my blade Back in and that’s really going to Create a bad angle on the tree So when i decide to swing it i’m going To line up what i want i’m going to Swing And i’m going to swing quickly and i’m Not going to let the branches Catch it and pull it back in i need to

Be aggressive on my swing Huh Miss the top here Keep the same angle There you have a tree okay we’re gonna Do another grand Fur here’s a couple things that you need To look for the tops and i’m gonna do a Whole nother video on tops Later because you could talk hours on Just how to do tops properly especially On the noble first But i have two tops here i need to Choose which one i want To keep uh this one is straighter so i’m Going to keep that top These other branches that are trying to Grow straight up i’m going to find an Outward facing bud And cut just above those so they’ll grow Out I have another leader that’s trying to Grow up from here And anything that’s trying to grow up That’s not on the top of the tree needs To come out so i’m going to take this Out and then now i’ve got the height of My top That i’m going to shear to i’ve taken Out the other leaders any other damaged Parts of the tree that you see there Take it out and then start swinging Okay this tree is a little bit wider Than the other one i need to bring it in

A little bit but This is a tree that will be sold a Little wider [Music] There you have it okay we’ve moved over To the noble furs Uh this is a pretty decent looking tree That’s left uh looking at it I need to really shorten this because It’s already getting to the height or Past the height of many homes Well what this area is not filled in Very well right here So and i’ve got over a foot leader so Once the tree gets past eight feet tall I really want to shorten the leaders and Not give it eight inches ten inches or a Foot Like i might on a younger tree so i’m Going to pull this over Find a nice bud that will be a good new Leader So i’ve only got about six inches there Usually the top world I’ll take the blade out and i’ll start Swinging I’ve got a little bit wider over here Than over here i need to keep it Consistent Okay another common problem we have Sometimes you have An oval that has a little bit of air Between branches which is actually nice I like that some people like it

Completely full Like you see on top here some people Like a little bit more air Since this tree is ready to be harvested At least Wise we need to be consistent top to Bottom we can’t have Little air patches which again are Favorable And then a really thick tight top so at This point time i’m going to reach in And try to figure out which branches i Can take out To create a little bit of that air And keep it consistent again you don’t Have all day To spend on a tree but you can reach in Move a branch and see what’s on it And then if you can afford to lose that Part take that out And we’re actually i need one more over Here thinner one I’ll just take the smaller amount out And now if you look at this tree From the angle you did before it’s a Little bit more consistent In its thickness or fullness One of the mistakes that we made early On is we started shearing trees And got the exact shape and the right Amount of leader From the time that they were super small Okay this tree What we’ve done in the past or recently

Is we’re letting these things grow So you can see from here to here it grew Over 16 About 16 inches last year and we just Let it all grow And then this year it’s got about 10 Inches until it gets up to about Five feet high we’re just letting them Grow now And we found that if we keep the shape On the outside It’ll start filling in it looks kind of Scraggly for now But then when we only start letting it Do eight inches here eight inches here All of this will fill in and it does two Things it gets our tree To where it’s a marketable size Earlier and instead of shearing and Getting all this Filled in and lots of needles and then Our trunk gets incredibly large By letting it just run to about five Feet Height wise and then slowing it down we Are getting a tree faster to market size And we have a lighter tree to sell Okay one of the things that you have to Do is cut handles um I used to be hesitant to cut handles When we first started because it seemed Like it was taking away so much of the Tree But i cut too much vanilla now i’m more

Airing on the side of being aggressive You need at least 10 inch handles I don’t mind having up to a foot handles Means you take everything off the bottom Sometimes when the tree is only yay tall We might take off uh Up to you know just a few inches but It’s that’s not the complete handle Once the tree gets to about three feet Tall you can take off the first 10 Inches to a foot And just take it all out and Again if you do this early enough And earlier it’s better than later it’s Easy to get in And it just keeps the trunk smaller So you just have to have the handles Gone I’m going to take even a little bit more And we’ll This will be where the christmas tree Starts This will all be fitting into a stand And this tree will look great If you don’t take out the handles early On sometimes This branch starts growing up into the Tree And then it comes here and it sends Branches out and then you cut the tree Down And then the customer wants you to cut Off Some of the branches so that they get it

In a stand And you pull this branch out and there’s A big empty space in the tree So it’s really good that you get 10 Inches to a foot Early on before the tree starts filling In and taking its shape Because if you take that out later you Create a hole but if you have the Handles out When the tree is three feet tall then What you see is what you get Okay okay cutting handles ask my boys is The least favorite job on the farm Uh sometimes i kind of like to do it When we’re shearing so You’re shearing standing up and then Bending over but if you’re doing just Handles You spend the day walking up the trees And just leaning over finding all the Branches And then you get to walk over to another Tree well we need one over here I won’t do a full foot on this one but i Can take the first Eight inches off now And spending the day bending over Leaning over and cutting them It’s not what the 53 year old dad is Supposed to do is what his sons are Supposed to do Okay okay cutting handles ask my boys is The least favorite job on the farm

Uh sometimes i kind of like to do it When we’re shearing so You’re shearing standing up and then Bending over but if you’re doing just Handles You spend the day walking up the trees And just leaning over finding all the Branches And then you get to walk over to another Tree well we need one over here I won’t do a full foot on this one but i Can take the first Eight inches off now And spending the day bending over Leaning over and cutting them It’s not what the 53 year old dad is Supposed to do is what his sons are Supposed to do All right thanks for joining me on the Flanigan homestead where christmas trees Are my business teaching including Horticulture is my job and outdoor Projects are my passion I’m going to do several more videos on Sharing christmas trees Like i said there’s going to be a Probably a long one on just how to do The tops On nobles because the tops you could Talk about for hours to get those right But there’s much more christmas tree Stuff to come hope to see again