Thank you all for the comments,i still have more thinking to do on the matter.. You all have presented very good points,pros and cons..Thank you for taking your time to respond to this thread,and for your thoughts and concerns for my daughter!!!!
NEED YOUR HELP AND GUIDANCE PLEASE!
- Thread starter demc570
- Start date
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brenndatomu
Hey you woodchucks, quit chucking my wood!
Jawsaw, interesting...I think I'm gonna start my Christmas list now...
yes
sounds very interesting,and pretty safe too it seems--zogger always has great info
ppkgmsy
ArboristSite Operative
I think its great you are interested in involving your daughter in working with firewood and I also give you credit for being the kind of Dad that isn't afraid to ask for advice. I have a son who is 11. He's a smart kid who knows how to swing a maul, he can run a splitter, and I've watched him bang out 50 pushups. He's been so helpful with my firewood work that I got to thinking about letting him run a small chainsaw. Every time I had the thought, though, I'd get a little twang in my heart that said "not yet." Couple things happened lately that supported my sense of "not yet."
First, a local forester, a great guy with decades of experience just had a crazy, 1-in-a-million saw accident and cut up his foot really bad. Second, I ran into an old-timer who retired from logging and now teaches forestry at a tech school. I asked him about my son, and he said he made his boys wait until they were 14. These two incidents have made me decide to wait awhile before my son gets to handle a saw.
I'm not supposing to tell you how you should handle things with your daughter. I'd bet if you didn't love her so much you would have gone ahead and made up your own mind and avoided some of the comments on this board. Just thought I'd share with you, dad to dad, how we're doing things.
Hey, maybe someday we can get our kids married and they can cut our wood for us!
First, a local forester, a great guy with decades of experience just had a crazy, 1-in-a-million saw accident and cut up his foot really bad. Second, I ran into an old-timer who retired from logging and now teaches forestry at a tech school. I asked him about my son, and he said he made his boys wait until they were 14. These two incidents have made me decide to wait awhile before my son gets to handle a saw.
I'm not supposing to tell you how you should handle things with your daughter. I'd bet if you didn't love her so much you would have gone ahead and made up your own mind and avoided some of the comments on this board. Just thought I'd share with you, dad to dad, how we're doing things.
Hey, maybe someday we can get our kids married and they can cut our wood for us!
When I train my son it will be with a stihl ms180 with safety chain . Probably the safest and easiest to handle saw I ever used and it actually works extremely well for firewood chores for a small 8 pound saw
Cheesecutter
Addicted to ArboristSite
married!!!! lol i told her when she was 30 she could start dating
....but seriously thank you for kind thoughts and great information,and yep dad to dad,its hard to let them do anything that could hurt them,i really over protective,so that reason why i started this thread....thank you very muchthank you,thats good to know...she wants a stihl brand like her dad uses...so that would make a nice saw to start with-when i decide to let her...thank you
well that depends is your son a husky or stihl fan
.....just teasing,and heck the chainsaw doesnt scare me half as much compared to dating age,when it comes aroundjust looked at them both,nice idea!!! thank you
nathon918
Addicted to ArboristSite
realistic?
ok what makes a 16 yo more capable of driving a car than someone a week from turning 16?
a week and a piece of paper... thats it! now thats realistic
nathon918
Addicted to ArboristSite
so your reply to the OP for being retarded because he used all caps, was what you consider important?
must be a "do as i say not as i do" sort of guy. no?
im moving on
poloman
ArboristSite Lurker
Don't expos her to the dangers of operating a chainsaw, hatchet or axe. One brief mistake will change her life in a very bad way.
Do take her out with you! She can do a lot to help you. I look back with sheer pleasure on the time my daughter and I worked together.
It doesn't last forever. It is truly precious.
Live a positive life!
Do take her out with you! She can do a lot to help you. I look back with sheer pleasure on the time my daughter and I worked together.
It doesn't last forever. It is truly precious.
Live a positive life!
11 -well eternity, ya they want to help but there is a limit, running power tools like a chainsaw at 11 is risky at best , detail attention span is short, on the other hand strictly drugery work spoils the experience for them as well and quickly sours them on helping. That jaw saw might be a nice option A little time with that and then the transport stacking, repeat so its not all the same thing all the time Both of you doing the same thing together. Changes come too soon so enjoy. I got 2 big boys and one tiny girl, she out performed her brothers 2-1 every time. ( course that was likely for bragging rights back home with mom.) They are all out on their own now and doing OK. Never worried about her dating, a she could dang nere whip both her brothers, everybody new who her bothers were and then if that wasn't enough there was this Britany spaniel that considered her his personal property ( not to mention the old guy). Back in junior high some guy got a bit out of line she was on him like a disturbed nest of German hornets decked him on the spot. I just gave her a hug and said nice job. By the way Brothers are both 6.6ft + abit and not skinny rails the girl is just barely 5ft . I doubt whether the guy ever lived that down.
For some time, your daughter can learn a lot about safe & efficient chainsaw operation just by watching you. While you're cutting, you can explain what you're trying to do and why. In the meanwhile, that'll keep you on your game, so you don't teach bad habits.
Bonus points for explaining the safety aspects of what you're doing: how you hold the saw, place your feet, stay out of the 'plane of the chain' and such.
She'll get the message also that a lot of thought enters into operating a chainsaw. Without even addressing felling for now.
Whenever, if she's interested (ITEM #1), physically able and focused, you might try short sessions of cutting small sticks on a sawbuck.
The little Echo would be a good choice of first saw, and you could use it a lot for limbing. Tough little critter.
Happy cutting to you both.
Bonus points for explaining the safety aspects of what you're doing: how you hold the saw, place your feet, stay out of the 'plane of the chain' and such.
She'll get the message also that a lot of thought enters into operating a chainsaw. Without even addressing felling for now.
Whenever, if she's interested (ITEM #1), physically able and focused, you might try short sessions of cutting small sticks on a sawbuck.
The little Echo would be a good choice of first saw, and you could use it a lot for limbing. Tough little critter.
Happy cutting to you both.
thank you,yes i think this too is what i decided to do for awhile also....thank you for your time and good information...
LT100
ArboristSite Member
11 is too young to run a chainsaw in my opinion. My son is the same age and after a few minutes helping me with our splitter his attention wanders. I have him just run the lever on our splitter and watch what's going on, but I have to treat it like he's trying to catch me with my hands where they shouldn't be. All it takes is one slip up to have an really bad accident. Saws, splitters and most any other wood handling equipment is very unforgiving. The downside of a child running a saw is just too much to make it worth it.
zogger
Tree Freak
jaw saw..bar is hidden until you have the branch grabbed, and that takes two hands. You would have to go out of your way to get a kickback with it, and even then, the bar is still inside the protective jaws. .
This is absolutely about the safest chainsaw thing made. You can cut small firewood and kindling with it. No sawbuck needed, nothing. No dangerous holding something with your foot to cut it. No gadget branch holder needed, store bought or home made, just this saw. You can reduce a random pile of branches, say 3 inch and under although it will cut a bit larger than that, to 100% cut to size usable firewood. I've done it, it works, it is a spiffy design.
This is absolutely about the safest chainsaw thing made. You can cut small firewood and kindling with it. No sawbuck needed, nothing. No dangerous holding something with your foot to cut it. No gadget branch holder needed, store bought or home made, just this saw. You can reduce a random pile of branches, say 3 inch and under although it will cut a bit larger than that, to 100% cut to size usable firewood. I've done it, it works, it is a spiffy design.
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I didn't bother to read all the comments here, but the OP definitely got slammed more than he should have. What happened to all the nice comradere we usually have around here?
Maturity is not based on age. I think my son was 12 when I started him on a chainsaw. Lots of training, a couple videos on accidents (to develop a healthy fear), some hands-on-hands guiding until he got it right - and he's very good now. I had him cutting only smaller stuff in certain situations (i.d. free hanging limbs at the right height or small logs stacked crosswise on other logs so there's no chance of kickback danger, grounding, binding, etc.) When training a child, ask them questions about everything so they can verbalize in their own words what the info is, rather than telling them and getting an "uh-huh" in return.
My 12 yo daughter now wants to use a chainsaw. She isn't as savvy as my son and not as strong, so I might wait another year.
I'd recommend a small saw with all the safety bells and whistles. My little Husky is (IMHO) a perfect starter saw. Light, easy to start, small, and quite cheap at Lowes.
Maturity is not based on age. I think my son was 12 when I started him on a chainsaw. Lots of training, a couple videos on accidents (to develop a healthy fear), some hands-on-hands guiding until he got it right - and he's very good now. I had him cutting only smaller stuff in certain situations (i.d. free hanging limbs at the right height or small logs stacked crosswise on other logs so there's no chance of kickback danger, grounding, binding, etc.) When training a child, ask them questions about everything so they can verbalize in their own words what the info is, rather than telling them and getting an "uh-huh" in return.
My 12 yo daughter now wants to use a chainsaw. She isn't as savvy as my son and not as strong, so I might wait another year.
I'd recommend a small saw with all the safety bells and whistles. My little Husky is (IMHO) a perfect starter saw. Light, easy to start, small, and quite cheap at Lowes.
thank you for your sharing experiences with your children...and for your kind word and knowledge...THANKS DEMC.I didn't bother to read all the comments here, but the OP definitely got slammed more than he should have. What happened to all the nice comradere we usually have around here?
Maturity is not based on age. I think my son was 12 when I started him on a chainsaw. Lots of training, a couple videos on accidents (to develop a healthy fear), some hands-on-hands guiding until he got it right - and he's very good now. I had him cutting only smaller stuff in certain situations (i.d. free hanging limbs at the right height or small logs stacked crosswise on other logs so there's no chance of kickback danger, grounding, binding, etc.) When training a child, ask them questions about everything so they can verbalize in their own words what the info is, rather than telling them and getting an "uh-huh" in return.
My 12 yo daughter now wants to use a chainsaw. She isn't as savvy as my son and not as strong, so I might wait another year.
I'd recommend a small saw with all the safety bells and whistles. My little Husky is (IMHO) a perfect starter saw. Light, easy to start, small, and quite cheap at Lowes.
