I believe Mike is right on the tool ID, but a little off on the use. Top fallers climbed with spikes (tree gaffs) and a belt, lopping off limbs as they went, just as Mike said and they used the wedges when they cut the top off the tree. But they didn't cut the tree into log lengths as they came down. Back in the days of "skyline" logging, a tall tree on a tall hill would be topped and a block attached. Another tree, the tail tree, also on high ground (preferably the next ridgetop) would be rigged the same way and a cable and carriage run between them. Logs were hooked to the carriage and with power provided by a donkey engine, hoisted up and out to the yarding site. The top fallers job was to top the trees and rig the blocks. It was dangerous work, one risk being the tree "barber chairing" or splitting along the grain when only partially cut through, the top portion laying back like a barber chair. If that happened, the top faller could cut through his belt and hope he could hang on as the tree whipped back and forth while the split portion detached and fell, or do nothing and risk being crushed against the tree if the split extended through the part he was belted to. Because they did a job no one else had the guts to do, or had too much sense to do, top fallers thought pretty highly of themselves. One point of pride for the old time top fallers was that they never took their spikes off anywhere, not in the bunkouse, not in town. Another trick, once the tree was topped and the block rigged, was to hold their belt out away from the trunk and drop straight down, like falling down an elevator shaft, catching themselves a few feet above the ground by kicking their spikes in.
