British English Chainsaw Terms VS American English?

Treestuff
Advertise with us
Wesspur
Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
P

Philbert

Chainsaw Enthusiast
. AS Supporting Member.
Joined
Nov 25, 2006
Messages
19,707
Reaction score
37,708
Location
Minnesota
I was watching some YouTube videos by a guy with a British accent, and he used a few terms that were new to me:

'tick over' - what we call engine 'idle' in the US, and

'barrel' - referring to the chainsaw 'cylinder'.

Since a lot of Europeans and former crown colonies may have learned 'British English' versus 'American English', I was wondering if there are other UK chainsaw terms (aside from using metric equivalents for imperial or SAE units).

The STIHL UK website lists 'petrol chainsaws' (versus 'gas' in US).

One of my electric chainsaws discussed 'connecting to the mains', which I realized meant 'plug it in'!

Philbert
 
US = Wrist pin UK= Gudeon pin US = Oil pan? UK = Sump US = WOT UK = Flat out or Full Throttle. Don't know what the US term is for Cyl head but commonly referred to in the UK as Top End US = Kill Switch UK = Cut out Switch No more spring to mind at the moment I'll keep working at it
 
Thanks for those!

On sites like this, 'top end' usually means the piston and cylinder (sometimes 'plug and jug' in casual slang) for chainsaws.

Might be different for other types of engines, such as those that have removeable heads.

Philbert
 
HarleyT said:
My nephews were raised in England. They still call cookies "bisquits",
and they still laugh when anyone mentions "Uncle Willy"......
Click to expand...
If you move away from chainsaws & equip there are many, 2 that readily spring to mind in the auto world are US= Hood, UK = Bonnet, US= Trunk, UK= Boot, also the UK way of spelling Tire, differs UK = Tyre, It's ongoing + also in the US have the steering wheel on the wrong side & drive down the wrong side of the US =Highway UK =Road :clap:
 
We have 'roads', 'highways', 'freeways', 'tollways', 'byways', 'lanes', 'streets', 'avenues', 'boulevards', 'circles', . . . Some of these terms come from you guys; some from the French.
What we don't have are 'motorways'.

I am sure that there are still some chainsaw or arborist related language differences. We wear 'chaps' or protective 'pants' (sometimes with 'suspenders'), helmets with face screens and 'ear muffs'. On UK sites I see: 'Seatless trousers for chainsaw use to be worn over normal trousers' or 'trousers' with 'braces', and 'ear defenders'.

I also see 'secateurs', which we call 'pruning shears'

Philbert
 
earlthegoat2 said:
Scored piston=cocked up or buggered
Click to expand...
As I understand it, 'buggered' is fairly general in usage, similar to our use of 'screwed up' even in cases where no threads are present.

Chris-PA said:
Having a chainsaw in your boot would be a rather different thing on either side of the Atlantic.
Click to expand...
We can even confuse ourselves. If your buddy says that he 'scored a practically new chainsaw' is he happy or sad?

Philbert
 
Oddly, I use the term buggered almost exclusively to describe screw threads or screw heads that...are...screwed up....or buggered.

It's a common thing in the gunsmithing world to use buggered to describe a slotted screws head that has been damaged by using an improper non hollow ground screwdriver to remove it. The taper ground screwdriver will cam out and ding the slot and sometimes more. You see this all the time on nearly all older S&W revolvers.
 
Philbert said:
As I understand it, 'buggered' is fairly general in usage, similar to our use of 'screwed up' even in cases where no threads are present.


We can even confuse ourselves. If your buddy says that he 'scored a practically new chainsaw' is he happy or sad?

Philbert
Click to expand...
Buggered is used but more often it's Knackered a term derived from in bygone days a slaughter house for old or otherwise unfit to work horses =Knackers Yard. Meaning worn out, broken, generally US which = an abriv of Useless "Scored a practically new" Would be termed "I got a bargain"
 
ken morgan said:
thought Knackered was more of an Aussie term, but who knew :) I know they use Queens English also, but was under the impression that the English actually used a different term.
Click to expand...
Could be that our Southern Hemisphere cousins use the term also but in my childhood before & during WW2 in the Midlands of England it was a daily use term also used in the way of if you have over stretched yourself in terms of physical excersize
 
Another UK term I don't know if the US has a term for it " Clapped or Clapped Out" the reference originated from back in the days of the Music Hall/Variety shows If an artist was not good the audience kept up a continuess quicker than the slow hand clap but not as quick as the clap of approval until the performer left the stage It was adopted for a bit of kit that was no longer any good due to wear /poor performance Hence a blunt/worn out saw chain would be termed "Clapped /Clapped Out".
 

Latest posts

Back
Top