Is softwood really that soft?!?
- Thread starter MaddBomber
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GASoline71
Mr. Nice Guy
They will never make a saint out of it Gury. . .
dingeryote
Blueberry Baron
OK,
Just for the new guys here, and for those still scratching your grapes wondering WTF?
Stihl 009= 24" bar PNW.
4" Bar in hardwoods east of the Missouri river.
Saw will run backwards south of the equator, so reverse chain.
Long bars on 60cc Saws are great for limbing west of the Missouri river.
East of the river, increased gravity doubles thier weight.
See. It's simple once ya look at the details.
Stay safe!
Dingeryote
Just for the new guys here, and for those still scratching your grapes wondering WTF?
Stihl 009= 24" bar PNW.
4" Bar in hardwoods east of the Missouri river.
Saw will run backwards south of the equator, so reverse chain.
Long bars on 60cc Saws are great for limbing west of the Missouri river.
East of the river, increased gravity doubles thier weight.
See. It's simple once ya look at the details.
Stay safe!
Dingeryote
windthrown
361 Junkie
I wanna see a video of any 60-75cc saw cutting say, a 16 inch log with an 18" B&C and then a 25" B&C, same type of full comp chain on both. My personal experience is that there is no real difference, and in fact the longer bar chain stays sharper longer. Then add a video of dropping a 24 inch tree with both. The 25 inch bar is faster being able to cut from one side. BTDT.
You guys back east have shrimpy bar disease. And some grand illusion that you have all the hardwood species and all we have is balsa wood.
You guys back east have shrimpy bar disease. And some grand illusion that you have all the hardwood species and all we have is balsa wood.
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I wanna see a video of any 60-75cc saw cutting say, a 16 inch log with an 18" B&C and then a 25" B&C, same type of full comp chain on both. My personal experience is that there is no real difference, and in fact the longer bar chain stays sharper longer. Then add a video of dropping a 24 inch tree with both. The 25 inch bar is faster being able to cut from one side. BTDT.
You guys back east have shrimpy bar disease. And some grand illusion that you have all the hardwood species and all we have is balsa wood.
You should be talking about your big 4'+ pnw monsters...
Stihl Hyde
ArboristSite Operative
OK,
Just for the new guys here, and for those still scratching your grapes wondering WTF?
Stihl 009= 24" bar PNW.
4" Bar in hardwoods east of the Missouri river.
Saw will run backwards south of the equator, so reverse chain.
Long bars on 60cc Saws are great for limbing west of the Missouri river.
East of the river, increased gravity doubles thier weight.
See. It's simple once ya look at the details.
Stay safe!
Dingeryote
^Ha ha ha ha ha, that was a good one
windthrown
361 Junkie
Well, the easterners would not understand a 48+" DBH tree... no point of reference. I have a grove 4+' DBH redwoods here along the driveway.
But that is a good point I guess. Add a video trying to fall a 48" DBH tree with an 18" east coast LONGBAR...
I will do my best as soon as i get back east on the 23rd.
but i will likely have the norm, 20...
RandyMac
Stiff Member
I'm with Gary, sets of bars and chains just for hardwoods, I also have chainsaws just for the hard stuff. An old Doug Fir or Sitka snag can be pretty tough, not only hard and stringy, but sometimes rather large, geardrive country. Some big knots in Redwoods are as hard as anything I've cut, almost glass like. Northern CA has lots of different broadleaf trees, from the weed-like Alder to to the great Valley Oaks, some are as tough to saw as trees from anywheres else.
As for using little chainsaws on larger wood, that was part of my training, educational and fun. While at the PNW GTG, I had Booker's snappy little Husky in my hands, I caught myself eyeing a big Fir snag on the next hill over, would have been a blast to fall with that little saw.
The technique is the same using a 16"-18" bar on a 36" tree as it is with a 42"-48" bar on a 8 footer.
As for using little chainsaws on larger wood, that was part of my training, educational and fun. While at the PNW GTG, I had Booker's snappy little Husky in my hands, I caught myself eyeing a big Fir snag on the next hill over, would have been a blast to fall with that little saw.
The technique is the same using a 16"-18" bar on a 36" tree as it is with a 42"-48" bar on a 8 footer.
GASoline71
Mr. Nice Guy
Yep... some of those big ol' gear drive saws come in handy now and again. It's why I'm deperately tryin' to get my old 770G runnin'. I am gonna need that sucker for a "BIG" takedown very soon. The 28" bar I have for it ain't gonna be enough to go all the way across... but it's gonna have to do. I can't afford a 4 - 6 foot bar for it as of yet. Gettin' it converted over to .404 from 1/2"... I only have enough 1/2" left for one loop...
Along those lines... Takin' out a dead hardend (not rotten) Doug Fir will test you and your saw... Also some of the big Oaks we have here in the NW corner of WA are a mother to get through... don't matter what you're usin'.
Gary
Along those lines... Takin' out a dead hardend (not rotten) Doug Fir will test you and your saw... Also some of the big Oaks we have here in the NW corner of WA are a mother to get through... don't matter what you're usin'.
Gary
chewbacca
ArboristSite Member
OK,
Just for the new guys here, and for those still scratching your grapes wondering WTF?
Stihl 009= 24" bar PNW.
4" Bar in hardwoods east of the Missouri river.
Saw will run backwards south of the equator, so reverse chain.
Long bars on 60cc Saws are great for limbing west of the Missouri river.
East of the river, increased gravity doubles thier weight.
See. It's simple once ya look at the details.
Stay safe!
Dingeryote
Clear as mud
Deadwood Kid
ArboristSite Member
i live in oregon. here there is about 3 main types of wood that people use for firewood. you got ur fir, alder and maple, the last two being hardwoods. fir is a well known softwood, and a hopped up saw has no problem boring threw it. but then again, alder is prolly the softest wood ive ever cut, takes me half as long to saw threw a log in alder than fir. but alder is a hardwood. so it really depends on the species of the soft\hardwood.
http://www.sizes.com/units/janka.htm Found this interesting. Looks like our soft Pacific Madrone fits right in with the oaks for hardness,harder than most. The white Oak we where cuttin down in Oregon beats lotta other oaks as well. Sure don't have any "real" hard woods out here.
Treeslinger ported a 372 xpw just so I could run 32" bar no problem. Sold on the idea after running one at the get together and thinkin back to a fallin job I did on the side of a hill droppin a bunch of 40" plus Cedars using the 066 and 32" bar. Ive cut Madrone with 32" bar on 066 no problem and if you look at the chart it aint soft by any body but Africa or Brazilian standards.
West Coast special.
windthrown
361 Junkie
Ur missing Madrone, kid. And Oregon white oak. And depending on where you live, Califronia black oak. Those are the species I go after in slash piles for firewood (trash trees from clear cutting) along with maple and doug fir tops and cull logs. Alder is great stuff too, but light. Good for cooking and smoking with, along with apple wood. Not found in slash piles though, it is too valuble at the mill. Similar to cedar. BLM does not let you cut cedar for firewood here either. Cedar is good for planking salmon on the BBQ (soak it in water first).
Most of what we burned at the ranch in central Oregon was Doug, Madrone, white and black oak, alder, and piss fir (grand fir, also incorrectly called white fir and really crappy fire wood but there was tons of dead snags and culls that we had to thin and dispose of). Here in Clack. Co. we have almost all alder and Doug firewood and some maple and oak that I dragged back from some tree jobs. Maybe 10 cords now. We are good to go this winter.
windthrown
361 Junkie
What? Why Jethro, that just cannot be! Nothing west of the Mississippi is harder than anything back east! All we have here is balsa wood!
Some western mushy hardwoods compared to the three midwest balls on species listed to smack Gary previously in this thread include (note that the PNW bigleaf maple that Gary was cutting is a lot harder than the more common type.... oh my, look at that... its harder than beech):
Bigleaf Maple: 850
Oregon White Oak: 1290
American Beech: 1300
California Black Oak: 1308
Bigleaf Maple (Pacific Coast spp): 1450
Pacific Madrone: 1460
Pacific yew: 1600
Black Locust: 1700
Apple: 1730 (What, there are apples in Washington?)
Hickory: 1820
Blue oak (est): 2000
Mesquite: 2345 Beat that!
One thing to point out though is that the Janka hardness tests are done on dried wood, with 12% moisture. When they are green, they are a lot softer. Of couse, this side of the Mississippi, you can see by the list above that all the woods here are softer, or rather, way mushier.
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Gentlemen - decorum, please!
Turkeyslayer
Smells Great
Good link! Makes sense to me. Mostly cut eastern "hardwoods", but do find when cutting cottonwood, white pine, silver maple, and black willow, they seem to cut faster, and I can dog in a bit more with the saw without bogging.
