Chain-saws as bug-out tools?

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one was an accountant who was trimming some overhead branches for a tree stand and some how the saw came back over his head and snagged his neck and almost beheaded him.
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:eek: :what: THAT was probably 'kickback' and scares the hell outta me.

I trim overhead branches, but NOT with a gas powered saw. I use an electric pole saw like this:
http://www.remingtonchainsaw.com/106821.html

It's much lighter than a gas powered saw, I'm standing on the ground (ok, sometimes in the bed of my pickup), and I'm away from and to the side of the saw and branch. I use a 1250W inverter which makes around 10 amps, plenty for most power tools.
 
Don't buy anything except a Stihl or Husky!
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This is more or less true, but my father has an old partner chainsaw that is, easily, the best chainsaw I have even seen. He still uses it instead of his brand new husky he bought when he was trying to find a coil for the Partner. I don't think they make them anymore, I have seen Partner concrete saws though. If you see one at a garage sale or something, buy it.


The only other thing to add, is you need chain sharpening equipment and you need to use it. A sharp homelite will cut circles around a dull Stihl. And the saw will last better and it will be safer. The importance of keeping your chain sharp cannot be overstated.

And no matter what it says on the bottle or in the manual, mix your gas at 32:1! Or richer. Unless it is a really huge saw. And Unless you really care about emissions and don't mind buying chainsaws. It won't hurt your saw to trail some smoke. That means it's healthy... We use Castor 927 motorcycle oil because it smells good.
 
hrmm I am thinking chainsaw are more trouble than they are worth... so I've thought of an alternative auger a hole into tree add dynamite or some other explosive. As long as you get away from the tree you have nothing to worry about. Okay I don't know anything about explosives but my Grandpa cleared trees in panama during ww2 with explosives and never hurt him self but nearly lost his fingers to a chainsaw.
 
You should still keep a good hand saw in your bugout kit. They're far too useful. A hacksaw too, if you can find room for it.
 
Dionysusigma, this is "why not an axe?". :D


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(Photograph taken from this thread.)
 
In May of 03 an F4 came through the small Missouri town where my parents were living. Once I got word of what happened I loaded up the truck, including my 14" chainsaw and took off.

Once I got down to the area, I was very glad someone else had cleared the roads in. There were old growth oaks 48"+ in diameter that were down all over the place. My little 14" saw would not have made a much of a dent in trying to clear that type of timber. Had the roads not been clear it would have made for an interesting couple of miles trying to get to the house.

And having cut lots of wood for the fireplace, I can't stress safety enough when handling a chainsaw. The last thing someone would want in a SHTF situation is to have to deal with the type of would a chainsaw would leave.

Semper Fi
 
Chainsaw skills

I heat with wood and still use my 25 year old Stihl regularly. It was the *first* purchase I made after buying the house a quarter-century ago. I even have an attachment so I can turn logs into lumber.

A chainsaw is a very useful - but very dangerous - implement, especially for the novice or unskilled. A kick-back happens when the top front of the bar encounters an obstruction or just harder wood and it comes at ya' PDQ. One of the best ways to prevent kickback (other than to be damned careful with that bar....) is to keep your left arm stiff and locked (if you are using the throttle with your right hand). A kickback will go *up* not back at ya'. Keep chain slack to a minimum and keep that chain sharp. If the saw starts makin' sawdust as opposed to chips, it's time to sharpen.

Got a couple year's firewood out of Isabel. The big mistake was thinking that pecan would make good firewood. It doesn't split worth a damn and I'm prety good with a maul after heating with wood all these years. Wood's the only thing that warms ya' *three* times. Once when you cut it, once when you split it, and once when you burn it....

Cheers
 
Didn't try splitting it myself (had to buy it), but I've found pecan to make a wonderful firewood. Food tastes great after cooking over it, it burns plenty hot (but not too fast) and much more evenly than oak and especially walnut.

That said, I do need to buy a chainsaw. I've been borrowing a coworker's for a while now and have used it quite a bit to cut up broken branches from my olive trees. Also had to cut down a dead tree in the back yard. Very useful but also really easy to see how quickly one can get hurt.
 
Katrina dropped a 3' diameter branch from an oak tree in my backyard last week :what: , an axe would just be way more trouble than it is worth (although I have dropped 18" diameter trees here with an axe just to prove to the boy that I still could :D - & then gave him the axe & told him to make firewood out of it :evil: ).

In addition to the other safety warnings, be sure to check out what is under whatever you are cutting. When the branch came down it landed on top of some 4-6" saplings & compressed them down. If you don't cut them first, they will spring back up FAST once the weight is off of them. The same goes for any branches that are supporting the trunk off of the ground. Once the weight is removed, the tension will be released somewhere - you don't want to be standing there with a running chainsaw when the trunk comes rolling over in your direction.

As has been mentioned repeatedly they are very dangerous if you don't know what you are doing or aren't paying attention. The same can be said for most any other useful tool though. I spent the morning doing something with a router that would have taken a week or so if I had to use a file. Learn on the small stuff in a controlled environment & stop when you get tired. You don't want to have to learn in a SHTF scenario where your family is depending on you getting that tree out of the road.
 
Tallpine,

When I've got a tree on the ground I stop and look 1/3 and 2/3 of the way through to see which way the trunk is gapping and if there's any wood fiber strands popping and twisting. On more than one occasion the way the tree was torqued would have put me on the receiving end of a dangerous blow if I had not looked at the tree's "body language" telegraphing it's kick and moved myself (and saw) to the other side.

When I cleared our property for the house site a young friend of mine offered to help (he was a forrestry grad student and had just taken "Chainsaw 101"). He offered to bring some of his fellow classmates down. Great! Except that after they dropped the first tree in the clear they hung up the next and then the next on it and then the 3rd on the first 2 creating a hanging snarl of 80' pines that were hung in an oak. It took me 3 hours of careful work untangling that snarl after I ran them off. :banghead:
 
Well, if you want to cut your way out of a storm, then I wouldn't want anything less than a 20" bar and the horsepower to match. I still just use my last saw I bought while working: an 046 with a 30" bar.

Also, that puts you into the standard 3/8" chain instead of that mini-stuff

You want to have extra chain, and maybe an extra bar or two - or at least extra sprocket noses (which you can usually replace with a hammer and punch - one rivet). Replace those dang "spur" drive sprockets with the replaceable rim type - the rims are only about $4 and you need a new one about every other chain. That way you don't have to replace the clutch drum every time.

Yeah, keep it sharp - less work and safer that way. When I was in the woods, I would probably touch it up three or four times a day at least, depending on conditions. After a while you can do it freehand with just a round file with a handle stuck on it.

Use the recommended oil and mixture unless you like buying new saws. Stihl and Husky have their own brand oils sized for various containers. I mix it up 5 gal at a time (I used to use that in a week or less). Motorcycle or outboard oil is not designed for hi-rpm chainsaws.

There might be other so-so saws around that work for occasional use, but you will almost never see anything but a Stihl or a Husky in a logger's pickup - trust me on this.
 
"I can't imagine how anyone lives without a chainsaw."



I can't either. I can buld a house (cabin) with a saw, (and have a few times), clear a road, clear downed trees, build a shelter, or a bridge. I settled on the stihl 036, a meduim size saw that can cut good sized firewood, and still be light enought to handle easily when cutting gable ends, notching corners while standing on the wall, or standing on a ridge cutting it off even etc. Does everything I've needed, other than specialty cabin work in tight spaces.

I agree on the stiff left arm approach to minimizing kickback in some situations. chain saws are NOT toys, and can hurt or kill you so fast that you litterally won't know what happened until it's done. A friend is an EMT, he told me of responding on a call where a guy that had a saw penetrate his chest and heart from a kickback. He was a semi-experienced firewood cutter. He relaxed at the wrong time. They didn't have to do much when they got there, he was pretty dead.
 
pleasant, affable bedside manner
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I can't for the life of me imagine what you're referring to! :rolleyes:

Live in woods = love chainsaw

BTW I've got a Husky now, but I did very well for years with a Poulin and my neighbor's old Sears is a work horse.
 
I have a 20" Homelite (sorry guys :p ) that I bought at a pawn shop about 12 years ago for $85. It refuses to quit working! I cut 3-5 cords a year for home heating. I even bought a back up saw in case this one quits. It just won't! And, I've had my fill of mauls and wedges, I use a splitter.

One thing I'm surprised Tallpine hasn't mentioned, I only use Stihl full-chisel chains. Make sure you have some experience before you use one, they cut fast! The disclaimer on the box will tell you: "THIS CHAIN WILL KILL YOU" :eek: .

Actually, a chain saw is no more dangerous than any other power tool, its just that the consequences of a mistake are much greater.
 
I am thinking about picking one of these up to take care of the sapplings springing up in my backyard :evil:
 
Is there a minimum diameter of branch/tree that's cutable with a chain saw? Obviously it would be silly to chainsaw something you could cut with a stout pair of pruners but do these smaller branches pose a safety problem besides hitting one unexpectedly that could cause the dreaded kickback? I was thinking that a young supple thin branch or sapling could just get pulled into the mechanism and jam it up and/or pull you off balance when that happens.

I really have zero experience with them beyond my dad telling me "Oh hell no!" when I was younger and wanted to use it to help him.

Are there any types of wood (plywood, particle/pressboard, pressure treated, etc...) that would not be suitable to cut with a chainsaw? Obviously it wouldn't be the ideal tool for precision work but would it be unsuitable silly or dangerous for some wood material under even emergency situations?
 
There is no real minimum branch diameter to cut with a chainsaw. Saws are used to limb trees all the time. Of course as long as you are sure to have good footing, a good grip on the saw, and you rev the saw up. Just because it's a small branch doesn't mean you should try to cut it with your saw on anything but WFO. You can cut plywood, sawdust board, boards, as long as it doesn't have nails in it, it's fine.
 
I've cut some pretty small stuff with a saw. When attempting to cut small stuff, part of the problem will be the small branches will flex and try to move away from the saw. Wet wood, and very flexible small brush or branches make this worse. Trimming branches against a trunk or larger branch gives some support to the small one, letting you cut it easier.


Cutting plywood or OSB can make some big splinters and chips, but a sharp chain helps somewhat. I've cut all kinds of lumber and sheet stock with my saw from time to time. Chain saws can be good "cordless" fencing tools.
 
Yammy ~

My family and I have spent the past week finishing up getting our wood in for the winter. I hate chainsaws, and knocking over trees has been scary for me ever since a homicidal tree tried to kill me a few years ago. Nevertheless, I know as much about 'em as most people who heat with wood.

Dunno about your other questions, but trying to cut really slender, supple things probably isn't dangerous per se, but it's a royal pain in the backside. If you can send a teenage kid ahead of you with a machete to deal with that stuff, the work goes quicker.

pax

If people really liked to work, we'd still be plowing the ground with sticks and transporting goods on our backs. -- William Feathers
 
A chainsaw is a great tool, but it also demands a great amount of respect by the user. I use a Stihl 290 Farm Boss. which I've been very happy with.

+1 on what everyone has said about safety equipment and technique.

In my NON-expert opinion, for moderate to serious work with a chainsaw you should get one with a 50cc or bigger engine and an INERTIAL chain brake. Inertial brakes are better than strictly manual brakes because they will activate no matter how you are holding the saw.

The best brands are Stihl, Jonsered and Husqvarna. Unless you are going to cut big timber regularly you probably don't need any bigger than a 16" bar. A big bar will come in handy 5% of the time; otherwise it's more than you need. A bigger bar sticks out more and thus is harder to maneuver in tight spaces (and keep away from foreign objects like the ground or your leg). Also, when you have more bar than you need, all the excess chain you are not using is bogging down your saw, taking away power you could be using to cut wood.

Finally just like a firearm, PLEASE take time to practice with your saw before you need to use it. I recommend reading Barnacle Parp's New Chain Saw Guide by Walter Hall.
 
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