Who uses the chain brake?

[Tzed250]

Do a google image search for chainsaw injuries. Sobering stuff...

 

[greendohn]

I engage my chain brake when the saw is running and I'm moving around. That click/clack caught the attention of an old timer I've been helping with fire wood the last couple winters. Back when he was still running saws, there were no chain breaks.
I was snaking my way thru the tops of a couple blow downs that were all tangled up. I'd get to a solid/safe position, cut what I could, click the safety on, move/position again, until I was coming out of the tangle to drag brush I shut the engine off. Too tight to kill the engine and re-start while I was in there. He ask me about the brake.
Standing in the clearing, I started and revved the engine to WOT and engaged the brake. The brake worked as designed and the old man was amazed it could stop the chain so fast.
Being a home-heating fire wood hack of several years, with no one teaching me to run saws, I need the broadest margin of safety afforded me by my equipment and the chain brake is a feature I won't be with out.

 

[Positrack]

Evidently I'm in the minority, but I always use the chain brake, particularly if I'm cutting around other people. It really doesn't take any particular effort once you get in the habit of using it, and I like having it locked when I'm not actively cutting. I don't even think about it at this point; it's simply second nature. Much like the safety on a gun, it's no replacement for good saw handling, but it's another layer of caution, and personally I think it's a good practice to get into. Yes, I even start the saw with it on (and I like the fact that the chain doesn't spin like mad when the saw fires on high idle). I'm sure it is a little wear on the clutch at start-up, but I blip the throttle very quickly after it fires, and I doubt my start-up procedure causes as much wear as bogging the saw and partially stalling the chain even one time in the cut which I see guys do with regularity. The only way the chain brake will hurt the clutch is if the chain is trying to spin, and it shouldn't do that at idle unless your idle is set too high or the clutch springs are weak. In any case, I haven't burnt a clutch yet and really, even if I did, chainsaw clutches are pretty cheap in the big scheme of things...

Also, I don't see how you could really burn out a properly functioning chain brake; the brakes on all the saws I run won't slip even at WOT. If it doesn't slip, it won't burn the brake. The clutch, sure, but not the brake.

 

[514mach1]

I use it to sharpen the chain. A few of my saws don't have brakes and I don't mind it. I just don't use them when I'm clearing brush or clumps of osage (hedge) where the chance of catching and kicking is high. I don't leave the saw running when walking through thick brush either, so I don't use the brake then. I try to treat the chain like the barrel of a gun... ALWAYS know where it is and where it can go. I don't wear eye, head, or leg protection. But I should and will probably start. I like being able to see and walk.

 

[trophyhunter]

I use them every time, old habit from climbing and starting saws up in the tree's. Several years ago I had just started the saw (standing with my foot in the handle) and was laying into the trigger to trip the high idle when a sawyer working behind me released tension on a downed lead and it rolled into the back of my knees and knocked me down right on the bar and chain.

That brake being on was a big deal that day.

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

Not a pro so I won't judge but will share my experience non the less. Starting out using saws that did not have a chain break so did not know what I did not have. Nor did I use any PPE. Years ago while cutting with my brother who had a chain brake on his saw, he suffered a knee injury. He had cleared his area around a large hardwood and planned his escape route. When the big tree started to go he hit the kill switch on the saw but not the chain brake and took a hurried step to his left to exit the area. his foot caught on a small little sapling pungy that he had created when he cleared his area, the thing was barley a 1/2 inch above dirt level but it was enough to cause him a quick two step stumble of sorts, just enough quick change in his gait to cause the saw with the chain saw bar to take a nose dive into his leg as he was one handing the saw at that point. The chain was winding down as the saw switch was off, but the chain had not stopped. In a fraction of a second that razor sharp chain laid his flesh open to the knee cap. It was not a life threatening injury. But I remember it bled like crazy until we could get it immobilized. I was with him, we were close to a vehicle and a hospital. If he would have been alone on top of some mountain it could have been worse. Anyways, we both bought and began wearing chainsaw chaps after that and both began to use the chain brakes on our saws. I do not always use the brake to start the saw but I do use it consistently when moving through brush or when taking a step on slopes, slippery ground or whenever I am on any terrain that is not level and clear. I even will throw my bar cover over the chain when moving a good distance as I knew a man whose saw chain, though dead, still cut his wrist badly over a sharp chainsaw chain. The saw chain was not moving but he slipped while near it and his reaction was to reach out to catch himself and he contacted that chain. Laid him open but good across his wrist and they said he bled like crazy. No he did not die from it but like my brother, had a nasty cut, paid out co pay money to the hospital and surely had a limb out of commission for a while. All accidents that did not need to happen as there was a remedy that they overlooked to prevent it. I see merit to the chain brake and PPE so I use them.

 

[singinwoodwackr]

never start my saws with the brake on but use it while taking apart a tree extensively. Whenever I shift my feet or feel out of balance with a running saw my left wrist snaps that sucker on by instinct. Once stable again it goes off to cut. I learned how to cut and tend to still cut in a lot of brushy situations so it became just like breathing in short order. I've been known to wear out brakes I would not cut with a saw that didn't have a brake.