I'll stack our UP cutters with the best. The guy who taught me to fell and cut took a Maple and a polar with a pickup jammed between them down one night without a twig falling on the two pinned occupants or we two medics. Good friend in more ways than one! The vehicle moved more from the jaws than the trees.
Sorry, go back to your geometry book. Any secant is shorter than the diameter. And I said "tilt." How do you force a saw without pushing? Aren't you presuming?
He's making money. A heart pull is hundreds of bucks.
I'm sure of that. We have some of the best in the Adirondacks also - well, we used to. I don't doubt for a minute what you say about this fellow, but I'd invite you to show him my comments and ask him if he takes exception with them.
Me - presume???? Banish the thought. 99% of the people who tilt a saw do not lift either the front or the back while they tilt the saw in order to lift part of the chain out of the wood. They rock the saw against the dogs and pry the saw. That results in full chain contact all the time. If you did lift, you're cutting less wood - takes more time to cut. Keep your chain sharp and cut straight through and that's the fastest way as well as the way that strains the saw the least. Neither one of us probably has the luxurey of getting out and watching the loggers these days, but watch the logger games on TV. When they cut the butts cuts for time, look at those saws - straight down through and straight up through the wood. If your saw needs lifting to keep the rpm's up it's underpowered, the chain is dull, or you're horsing the saw way too much.
Under powered? THAT we can agree on. I'm using a Farm boss with a 20" Oregon, and 20" of maple is more than I should be working. Makes nice bowls, though. Especially if you tilt the saw when ripping for shaving clearance.
I get to go to the woods with cruisers, piececutters, and even my former ambulance partner's husband, who has a few million in automatic harvesting equipment to play with.
Sometimes I get to go to the woods to pick up those idiots who file the depth gages off their chains so they can cut faster.
034 here with an 18 inch bar. I had a an 040-something with a 22 inch bar which was way overkill. Got rid of it and got the 034. When I was putting up 22 cords of wood a year it was a great saw. Now I use it for smaller work and I wish I had one of those 020-something saws. The amount of tree that I get into these days that really requires an 034 just isn't that much. But... it's been a good saw and I'll keep it forever, I'm sure.
Another point in common. I was a Cardiac/Trauma Medic for 12 years. Both vol and paid.
Ummmmm.... errrrrrrr.... I have to admit I've done that before. Cutting down the rakers makes for a very fast cut, but man oh man, hang on to that saw. I actually did it because the chippers had been filed away enough that the rakers were keeping them from cutting. Smart people go buy a new chain at that point, but I just had to get all the mileage I could out of my chain. Never really had a problem besides having to develop a much tighter grip on the saw, but at some point I really did get smarter and started buying new chains when they got to that point. You actually can file them down a bit and not cause any problems, but it just isn't worth it. Chains aren't that expensive.
I did that once, umm, summer of 1977. When the chain was sharp you could bog down and kill the McC. when going through a pine log. Extremely fast cutting.
What's the danger? The tip was free so there was never any kickback. I had to hold the saw up somewhat or the engine would die. The volume of sawdust around my right foot was incredible.
Limbers often have poor body position, and sometimes even forget their leg is on the other side of the piece as they reach, and even brace themselves against the cut. They lose a touch of footing, and the saw's through and beyond.
As the practice here was to pay by the piece, there were a lot of shortcuts taken.
I miss my 032, but when his magneto went out, I was able to swap him and $150 for the farm boss. I don't cut in the woods now, so the "homeowner" grade doesn't bother me. My wood arrives every year by truck. Ten full cords, and cash only keeps the price down, and the driver makes sure he's got enough outsize and oddballs to keep me in turnings.
Yup. I've got the file guide that rides on top of the cutter so that you don't over file the raker, but I didn't have it back then and since then I've just gone to replacing my chain when it gets down that far.
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