Firewood saws?

[dougfirfirewood]

038 mag

can't go wrong with a 038 mag IMHO....

keep the air filter clean as much as possible.

opcorn:

 

[Stihl 041S]

Horsepower and Humidity

Sorry, I thought Humidity ment more.

Lab numbers:0%-200HP;30%-198.6 HP;90%-193HP. All other factors being equal.

 

[Ray Bennett]

In your area, are there tons more of Black & Red Oaks dying lately(last 2-4 years) than the White Oaks & Hickories? That seems to be the case around here.

Yes, I have oak trees dying all over the place, now with bad Gypsy moth damage and the dry summer I worry I will not have a 20 inch tree five years from now. Does any one know what is killing the big Oaks? I'm was wondering if some disease or blight was going around.

 

[Patrick62]

Different set of numbers

It is 3 1/2% per thousand feet, relative to the air pressure.
This is why larger saws are used up here for smaller tasks.

That being stated, I do a bunch of my limbing with a 026-18-Skip It is lighter and easier to work with. The big guns come out for blocking duty.

440, and a 460. Both with 24" full skip.

I will agree that a 361 would be a really sweet compromise!

-Pat

 

[superfire]

it is abot horse power

more cc = less work
less cc = more work
more cc = longer bars + less bending
less cc = shorter bars + more bending

 

[Justsaws]

024 lives in the vehicle of the day. Do not like the saw so I am willing to risk it. If I am going to get firewood on purpose then this year is the year of the Husky. 181, 1100, 380, etc, or some newer Jonsereds.

 

[ralphbsz]

Yes, I have oak trees dying all over the place, now with bad Gypsy moth damage and the dry summer I worry I will not have a 20 inch tree five years from now. Does any one know what is killing the big Oaks? I'm was wondering if some disease or blight was going around.

I'm on the opposite end of the country (northern California), and we have oak trees dying left and right, due to something called "sudden oak death". Google for it, and you'll find all the information, and then some. All my tan oaks are already gone, and deciduous oaks are getting to be few and far between. Don't know whether it is related to any problems you're having in the east.

What does sudden oak death mean to me? That within a 150' radius of our house, I have 5 oak trees that died on the stump, and have to come down this winter. For the most part, they seem to be 18-30" diameter at breast height; one I haven't had time to look at yet (it is down a slope, I only see the crown, and it died in the last few weeks), and one forks right at ground level into 4 or 5 trunks, each 15-18"; that one is going to be a bear to cut.

Good news: I'll have firewood for a year or two, without having to kill any live trees.

Bad news: With hauling the dead trees out of the forest (up steep slopes, using winch on pickup), and chopping up and disposing of the crowns (by burning them), this will cost me a few weekends, and is going to be hard work.

Good news: This is the perfect excuse to buy the Dolmar 7900 I've been wanting for a while. My Stihl 026 is a great saw, light, indestructable, but using it on large oak trunks (in particular bucking) is just too tedious. For limbing and cutting apart the crowns, I love my little Echo 3400. You might see a trend here: I go for the saws that have the best power-to-weight ratio (or had it at the time I bought them); to me this means more work gets done without getting too tired.

Bad news: The area around the house is going to look pretty bare, until the madrones, bay trees, and live oaks fill in the gaps. And I might even have to do something to fight erosion under the missing trees.

 

[Roteiche]

Hi,

in germany for homeowners isn`t firewood often bigger than 16". Often smaller. I think here`s a 50 cc saw with 4 hp enough. OK - the 361 is the best solution.

Roteiche

 

[windthrown]

I'm on the opposite end of the country (northern California), and we have oak trees dying left and right, due to something called "sudden oak death". Google for it, and you'll find all the information, and then some. All my tan oaks are already gone, and deciduous oaks are getting to be few and far between. Don't know whether it is related to any problems you're having in the east.

(snipped)

Bad news: The area around the house is going to look pretty bare, until the madrones, bay trees, and live oaks fill in the gaps. And I might even have to do something to fight erosion under the missing trees.

SOD will affect and kill your live oaks as well as tanoaks, and is found in over 100 tree species now. Once your live oaks are bigger than 4 inches in diameter they can get the disease in the bark and croak. Bay laurel, or what we call Oregon myrtle up here is also a carrier and suseptible to it, as is madrone. So far as I know, SOD has not left California yet, except for one county in southern Oregon. Not back east yet, but if it does get there, there are going to be entire forests that are wiped out by it.

Here is a web site that has information on reducing the spread as a homeowner:

http://nature.berkeley.edu/comtf/html/sanitation___reducing_spread.html

 

[ralphbsz]

in germany for homeowners isn`t firewood often bigger than 16".

I think what Roteiche is trying to say here: In Germany for homeowners, firewood is rarely bigger than 16" (In Deutschland ist fuer Hausbesitzer Brennholz nicht oft groesser als 16" = 40cm).

Even though I don't live in Germany, I have many relatives there. A prime example is my sisters house (in the Rheinland, northwestern Germany, between Duesseldorf and the Netherlands): Her yard has several dozen chestnut and beech (Kastanie und Buche) trees which are easily 25-28" diameter at breast height. Matter-of-fact, one of those large trees chose the storms early in 2007 to fall over, fortunately missing her house (but squishing another few trees in the process). The reason that she heats mostly with firewood is that firewood is available for free in her own yard.

I'm sure that what Roteiche is saying is true (the majority of firewood trees in Germany are small), but some areas that have not been intensively logged over centuries are exceptions.

 

[ralphbsz]

SOD will affect and kill your live oaks as well as tanoaks, and is found in over 100 tree species now. Once your live oaks are bigger than 4 inches in diameter they can get the disease in the bark and croak. Bay laurel, or what we call Oregon myrtle up here is also a carrier and suseptible to it, as is madrone.

Yes, I know that ... but the effects of phytophtora (spelling?) seem to vary widely. We lost all our tan oaks already a few years ago, in about one year. I think it would be impossible to find a tan oak within a 1-mile radius that is still alive. Since then, we've been losing deciduous oaks (we have mostly black oak) at an alarming rate; the ones near our house I take out of the forest. While bay trees = laurel are carriers and infected, we have not seen any effect on them at all; they continue to grow like weeds, so much so that I have to keep trimming them back or felling them to keep the area firesafe. Our madrones have been quite ill forever; I think we near the southern end of its range, and they just don't get enough moisture during the summer to be really healthy. They have always had cankers which cause branches to die back (leaving ugly black skeletons behind); many of our large madrone's are 1/2 or 2/3 dead black sections, and if you watch their progress, they will eventually completely die (although it takes a long time, and even after they're dead, they remain standing for decades). In the last few years, a few small (3-6" diameter) madrones have died suddenly; I think that might be sudden oak death. The good news: None of the live oaks have been affected yet; we have one that is starting to develop black spots on the leaves and the black mushroom fruit bodies on the stem, but no other symptoms, and otherwise healthy. If just the live oaks and bay trees survive, I won't be too unhappy.

http://nature.berkeley.edu/comtf/html/sanitation___reducing_spread.html

Thanks, another useful link. Unfortunately, all the area is infested, and the bay trees are probably the real problem (but I can't just go around cutting every bay tree in a mile radius, that would be insane). So trying to prevent the spread of phytophtorum around the house is probably a little silly. I've been thinking of spraying (still) healthy trees in the area with Agri-Fos, as a precautionary measure.

 

[windthrown]

SOD fungal pathogen spelling is: Phytophthora ramorum

Yes, there is not much you can do in that kind of infected area I guess? Maybe some resistant trees will show up. As for madrone, they are actually very drought tolerant and show all kinds of weird groth here as well (w/o SOD). They do much better here on warmer south facing dry ridgeline spots. They grow well to the south of here; I have seen them in the mountains above San Diego, and they grow like weeds in the hills around the SF Bay area. There is another type that grows in the mountains in Mexico too.

I had a SOD scare here 2 years ago. I was bringing redwood cuttings from Monetery and Santa Cruz county to establish them here in central Orygun before the quaranteen was invoked. I had some rhodies next to the cutting beds that started to have signs of SOD. So I called the ODF and they sent a person out to take samples from all the cuttings, the rhodies and some other plants. Fortunately, none of them tested positive. Inhale, exhale. We have a bazillion trees here, and about all of them are suseptible to SOD. Sadly, it is probbaly only a matter of time before it reches here. We already have a problem with Port Orford cedars dying from a very similar pathogen: Phytophthora lateralis.

 

[romeo]

I have "fire wood" saws but find myself more than often using a stack of full blown racing saws. Make a couple of cuts and trade to the next saw while the other one cools down. I am not trying for high production though. Just trying to get my racers ready and the fire wood is the bonus.opcorn:

I like to drag home 8 to 10 footers and cut them into 1 inch sections. Cookies burn too.

 

[Al Smith]

I like to drag home 8 to 10 footers and cut them into 1 inch sections. Cookies burn too.

Well,that they do indeed,further more you don't have to split them.Lot's a sawdust though .It will burn too .

 

[litefoot]

I tend to agree with the original post that for, most of us, a 50cc saw is sufficient for firewood. Lately, my firewood trips with the boys consist of me felling several trees (dead-standing) then my boys take over the saws for limbing and bucking. I do most of the packing back to the truck or trailer. The boys (teen and pre-teen) have more fun that way. And a 50cc saw is not too heavy, and it doesn't chew through the wood so fast that they ground-pound the bar. Of course, it should be mentioned that we rarely fell trees larger than 15".

 

[heimannm]

Match the hatch

I try to use the appropriate saw for the job, usually start with my old Jonsered 621, switch to the Stihl 036M when John 6:21 runs out of gas, use the Jonsered 2050 for the little stuff, reaching higher limbs on the down trees, etc. John 621 has a 16 and 24" bar, 16 and 25" available for the Stihl, 16 only for the 2050. Little Olympik 935 if it might get dropped out of a tree so something. Just bought a Jonsered 910E on eBay to use with a longer bar as I think the 621 and 036 work too hard with the 24 or 25.

Still would like to have one big old saw like the Homelite Super Wiz 66 with a 30"+ bar. I normally take the splitter along, pivots vertical for the big stuff so I just split it on sight and take the finished goods home. My biggest problem is I have more wood to cut than I can burn or have room to store.

 

[Stihl 041S]

joecool85:

I'M a machinist, couldn't tune my way out of a paperbag. The statement about Bonneville and dry air was heard in a group that was running fuel, mot gas. Got ahold of the guys, and they had a good laugh.

They were a great bunch of motorheads, way beyond me, but I could machine and troulbeshoot their electrics.

Rob( hope I got this straight)

 

[Brushwacker]

I'll cut big trees, not afraid of em the least bit. I employ a timber carrier and a strong backed cousin to pack the rounds into a trailer. The trailer has either a low step or a fold down ramp which make loading quick, easy, and fast. We can roll the rounds out near the splitter, and use the timber carrier again to pick the rounds onto the splitter. Or, we can bust the rounds in half with a maul. Its not that difficult really... the trailer sure does get full faster with the big wood.

As far as saws go, I laugh at 50cc saws. Sorry, I tried 'em and didnt like em. At low elevations (6,000feet) they run okay, but still I won't pull anything bigger than 16" with em. A high elevations... I really don't use them for anything big knocking limbs off...

... which brings me to my next thought. Why on earth do I want to set down my falling saw after the tree tips over? Because as soon as I knock the limbs off, I need to buck it up. And there isn't a limbing saw in the world thats going to buck up a 24" doug fir at 9,000 feet. Well, maybe my 372xp... and it sure makes an awesome limbing saw, its got power to spare... and is all warmed up cause it just tipped this big ole tree over.

.

Most decidious trees here branch out toward all directions if they do not have trees close enough beside them to block out the sunlight along side the trunk. Not uncommon to have multiple trunks and or branches many feet long with a lot of wood up in the air 10 inches and smaller in diameter. On the taller single trunk trees ,which dominate the middle of most healthy wood lots I am with you and seldom fire up the 026 and smaller. However some of those trees when sparsely populated or growing on edges and ditch banks are dropped it feels good to run a tank of gas through the smaller saw gnawing them down closer to the main trunk or trunks and then taking over and making fast work out of them with the bigger saws. I have had pin oaks springy limbs hold the main trunk of large trees up in the air well over my head the limbs were so thick.

 

[eyolf]

We are seeing Oak wilt here in MN, and its moving north at an alarming rate. I don't think its here at my farm yet, but I have witnessed a grove of dead oaks about 30 miles south. Scary.

This weekend I cut up a huge burr oak that was struck by lightning earlier this summer. I figured I might as well cut 'er up now, as the critters are moved up close to the barn for winter, and I don't have work with an audience. The tree split into a crown at about 11' with a medusa of branches up to 13" The trunk just below this was still 25". We cut for 2 hrs saturday with a Jonsered 90 and Jonsered 2149...and split and loaded for 4 hrs! We split the old-fashioned way, with a maul, but oak splits easy, especially if its frozen. And we only split small enough to fit in the boiler...if you can pick it up and wrestle it in through the door, that's good enough.

At home in the barn the Husky 395, 266, and 51 rested, as well as Jonsered 670, another 670 w/272 head, 625, 621, and 2141 (stays in the camper). The old Homies and McC's just hang on their hooks in the old dairy barn smiling at the young bucks doing all the work. My wife thinks I'm crazy, and maybe she's right. But I could be spending time at the bar, too, so it's not so bad.

So, what's the best firewood saw? Well, if I had to try to get by with only one...I'd pick the 621. Enough grunt to get almost anything done, not too heavy or clumsy. Modern replacement, probably husky 359/Jonsered 2159. Or Stihl 361.

 

[SawTroll]

....
So, what's the best firewood saw? Well, if I had to try to get by with only one...I'd pick the 621. Enough grunt to get almost anything done, not too heavy or clumsy. Modern replacement, probably husky 359/Jonsered 2159. Or Stihl 361.

I could have done most of my cutting with the 621, my father-in-law did for 30 years or so.

By now the 361 bears the brunt of the cutting, at least for the mature trees.