Reaction

It goes without saying that anyone who uses a chainsaw ought to have proper training from a competent person. Nevertheless, nobody will prevent you from buying or hiring a chainsaw from a DIY shop and setting about your garden with abandon, and most chainsaws are supplied with only the most rudimentary instructions.

I do not claim to be any kind of expert on chainsaw operations. What follows is based on my own experiences, and might help somebody just starting out with a chainsaw, and daft enough not to have proper instruction.

It goes without saying that this article is in no way a substitute for formal training, and in no way do I condone the use of chainsaws by incompetent, untrained operators. As a minimum, you should read the instructions and safety information supplied with the machine: in particular, there will be important information about chain tension, idle speed adjustment, etc.

Don’t put your body in the kickback arc

If the saw kicks back - and it will at some point - the tip of the chain bar will describe an arc whose centre is approximately at the centre of the mass of the saw - usually near your left hand. If you hold the saw so that you are cutting downwards, with the blade in

line with the centre of your body - which is what most people naturally

do - the tip of the blade will fly towards your face if it kicks back. The way to use a chainsaw that leads to the lowest risk of a kickback injury is to put the workpiece between yourself and the blade. If you can’t do that, stand well to the left of the kickback arc. Then, if it does kick back, the blade tip will end up to the right of your right ear - still frightening, but not catastrophic.

A well-maintained chainsaw, used properly, cuts by itself. If you are cutting downwards, the weight of the saw alone should normally be enough to push through the cut - you don’t need to force it. If you need to push on the blade, or the blade tends to get stuck in the cut, something is wrong - most likely the chain is blunt, or the cut is closing up around the chain.

Push and pull

If the work is fixed - a stout tree branch, for example - it will pull your arms towards the work. If the work is not securely mounted, the work will be pulled towards you. Even heavy logs can be pulled surprisingly forcefully towards the saw. These push and pull effects are not necessarily a problem, so it’s as well to be aware of them.

Watch the chain tension

When cutting continuously, the chain will get hotter than the chain bar, and expand more. This means that the chain tension will reduce. If the chain becomes too slack, it can jump off its sprocket, which often means that you’ll need a new one. In any event, there will be a certain amount of downtime. If you adjust the chain tension when the chain is hot, you’ll reduce the chain slack, but when the chain cools down it will bind on the bar, and not cut at all. Most manufacturers recommend adjusting the tension when cold, but this means that you’ll need to keep an eye on the chain slack when the chain warms up, and either tweak it or let it cool down if the chain starts to hang off the bar. Needless to say, a chainsaw that offers tool-free tension adjustment will provide for easier tension control than one that requires a screwdriver.

A properly-adjusted chainsaw does not turn the chain at idle

For safety reasons, a petrol chainsaw should be capable of being left ticking over between cuts. A properly-adjusted machine will not idle fast enough to engage the clutch and start the chain turning. The engine might idle too fast if the choke is open. This is why the instructions supplied with most chainsaws state that, when starting the machine cold, you should close the choke as soon as it seems that the engine will fire. Other than leaving the choke out accidentally, a chainsaw whose chain moves when idling probably needs its idle screw adjusted.

Be aware - trees don’t always fall where you want them

It is standard practice to cut a hinge (a wedge-shaped cut-out) in the side of the trunk to control the direction of fall. Any chainsaw will be supplied with instructions showing how to do this. Even if you cut the requisite hinge, there is always a chance - a good chance, in my experience - that the tree will fall other than where you planned. Of course, a skilled operator stands a better chance of getting the fall right than an unpractised one, but it is very difficult to get a leaning tree to fall other than in the direction it is leaning. Naturally you aren’t going to put any part of your body underneath something that will fall when you cut it, but you might be surprised how quickly a heavy log rolls away from the trunk it was cut from. If possible, position yourself uphill from any place where falling wood will land.

Kevin Boone

Photograph purchased from Dreamstime Agency