First Fell with the MS361

[Zeus103363]

i have had a MS361 for about 5 years myself. Best saw I have ever had! I has some port work done to the head and let me tell ya, it will sling that chain around a 25" bar! I believe after the port job it would pull a 28" bar but the oiler wont keep up. After using this saw i just don't see the point of stepping up to a 70cc class saw! i have never ran into some wood it couldn't handle! If I ever find another for sale I would buy it in a heart beat! Thanks for posting the video! Enjoy your saw!


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[unclemoustache]

Nice job! I'm impressed about you hitting your thumb with no flinch, no swearing - you must have just grazed it. (Either that or you're a better man than I am, which is a scary thing for us both!!)

 

[HuskStihl]

I thought it looked good. On a back leaner, having more hinge wood will get you a better upper body workout, but decrease the likelihood of you accidentally cutting through your hinge and losing it backwards. If fences could talk, they would advise not cutting thru the hinge wood on back leaners.

I was truly impressed by your wedge driving. Be careful with a solitary stack, especially with the slippery wedges

 

[FLHX Storm]

i have had a MS361 for about 5 years myself. Best saw I have ever had! I has some port work done to the head and let me tell ya, it will sling that chain around a 25" bar! I believe after the port job it would pull a 28" bar but the oiler wont keep up. After using this saw i just don't see the point of stepping up to a 70cc class saw! i have never ran into some wood it couldn't handle! If I ever find another for sale I would buy it in a heart beat! Thanks for posting the video! Enjoy your saw!

I know I am enjoying the MS31 a lot, maybe even more than I should. I did look up what length of bar it would handle, even downloaded the manual from the Stihl site and read as much about it as I could on other sites just to make sure before I finalized the deal on the saw. The more I read, the more I wanted THIS saw. I did open the oiler as far as it would go when I put the 24 on it and made sure it would keep everything oiled before I did any felling.

I did see on a couple of sites where they said it could pull up to a 32 inch B&C after the mod, but the oil pump would have to be replaced. (the same for a 28" B&C) I think they said that one from an MS440 would do the job though right now I'm not 100% for sure. For me though, the 24 suits me just fine. Most of the time I think I'll have it wear the 20" bar for general felling, limbing and bucking, since most often that is all that is needed, n save the 24" bar for some fat trees.

I've gotta say though, this saw is an animal!

 

[FLHX Storm]

Nice job! I'm impressed about you hitting your thumb with no flinch, no swearing - you must have just grazed it. (Either that or you're a better man than I am, which is a scary thing for us both!!)

Actually when I hit my thumb, you could hear a nice thud! N from the bruising and the way it still hurts, I would have to say it was a good solid hit, no grazing! I did become protective of it after the hit trying to keep it out of harms way though. One thing I learned log ago was to complete whatever task and lick my wounds after no matter how much it hurt.

Heck, my forefinger on my right hand only recently has started growing a good solid fingernail. That finger has taken a beating more times than I care to think about. I've hit it so many times with a hammer, enough where the skin came off. But, I just switched over to having my middle finger hold the nail and kept on going. If that doesn't make your butt pucker, how about this incident! I was using an electric chop saw and the middle finger from my left hand decided to jump in front of the blade. Actually cut it half way through back in January of 2007. With blood dripping everywhere, I held it up so then I had blood running down my arm. I looked at the wound and you could see right through the center of my finger ............. Now here's the good part! I got out a needle n thread, cleaned up the wound and then sutured it together. That was rough! Then I took some gauze, wrapped it up and taped it. Then added some duct tape to keep it in place and went back to work. I did curse once on that one. I used the s word! That fingernail has grown in crooked ever since.

One thing to keep in mind, I have 6 brothers so I learned early on not to exhibit any pain or become vocal even when I wanted to scream because it hurt so bad. I'm not tough though, you will still see the tears streaming down my face. I never quite learned how to suppress those.

 

[FLHX Storm]

I thought it looked good. On a back leaner, having more hinge wood will get you a better upper body workout, but decrease the likelihood of you accidentally cutting through your hinge and losing it backwards. If fences could talk, they would advise not cutting thru the hinge wood on back leaners.

I was truly impressed by your wedge driving. Be careful with a solitary stack, especially with the slippery wedges

I have learned to hate back leaners and even side leaners. It seems the more I hate them the more I end up doing. Maybe I'm being punished or something. So far to date (knock on wood) I have not lost a back leaner, though I have lost two side leaners, both of which I had cut through a good portion of the hinge. Thankfully there was no damage in either case.

One thing I've noticed with wedges, they generally have teeth on one side and if your going to stack them, to keep the teeth to the outside so they kind of bite into the wood. Otherwise one will try to pop out every time. Thanks for the compliment on my use of the wedges, but really, I don't think I'm that good with them.

 

[mdavlee]

K&H wedges seem to stack pretty good. I think you're using oregon brand and they're ok. I've not had many of the K&H pop out. I bought a dozen of the madsens house brand when they were on sale a while back and some of the red heads. The K&H are still my favorite.

 

[HuskStihl]

I have learned to hate back leaners and even side leaners. It seems the more I hate them the more I end up doing. Maybe I'm being punished or something. So far to date (knock on wood) I have not lost a back leaner, though I have lost two side leaners, both of which I had cut through a good portion of the hinge. Thankfully there was no damage in either case.

One thing I've noticed with wedges, they generally have teeth on one side and if your going to stack them, to keep the teeth to the outside so they kind of bite into the wood. Otherwise one will try to pop out every time. Thanks for the compliment on my use of the wedges, but really, I don't think I'm that good with them.

I just never trust a stack sitting by itself. I have had them slip and pop out, textured or not, and if they are the only thing in the back cut, if they move, you will likey not have time to get something in there before you get the saw pinched or worse, it goes over backwards. My lawyers, working closely with the Scottish embassy, have advised that I insert this phrase whenever I give advice: "the advice given by the undersigned is not coming from a pro faller, just a schmuck who has ####ed up falling trees in nearly every conceiveable way, but rarely the same way twice"

 

[blacklocst]

Storm nice drop, since were talking about wedges I keep mine in my back pocket so their handy, also when I remember I wear a pair of carpenter pants w/ a hammer loop or thread a loop on my belt this keeps me from searching for a rock or limb to pound the wedges in. Congrats on the saw I bought mine this spring it was well used but you would never know it from the way it sounds at wot.

 

[Gologit]

One thing I've noticed with wedges, they generally have teeth on one side and if your going to stack them, to keep the teeth to the outside so they kind of bite into the wood. Otherwise one will try to pop out every time. Thanks for the compliment on my use of the wedges, but really, I don't think I'm that good with them.

If you're going to stack wedges try sprinkling a little handful of dirt between them. That seems to help them hold a little better. They'll still pop out if you hit them crooked or try to drive them after they've stalled out but the dirt will make it a little easier to get a solid stack.

 

[Dalmatian90]

Finally watched the video...Awesome job & video FLHX!!!

 

[Jere39]

Nice cutting for a lefty. I am left handed too, but living in a Right handed world, I drive wedges with which ever hand is handy.
Now I have a question. It appears to me you made your back cut with the top of the bar. Is that your preferred way, or was the slope of the ground what caused you to do that rather than walk around to the uphill side and cut with the bottom of the bar? Or, is my perspective so far off I didn't see it right?

 

[FLHX Storm]

Nice cutting for a lefty. I am left handed too, but living in a Right handed world, I drive wedges with which ever hand is handy.
Now I have a question. It appears to me you made your back cut with the top of the bar. Is that your preferred way, or was the slope of the ground what caused you to do that rather than walk around to the uphill side and cut with the bottom of the bar? Or, is my perspective so far off I didn't see it right?

I have multiple things working against me. First being a Lefty in a Right handed world (like you), but also being a Woman in a Male dominated world. N then lets not forget the injuries I've had from motorcycle accidents which has left me with enough hardware in my back and left thumb to open a hardware store which really throws a wrench in the works. And of course I'm so old when I fart, I fart dust! Well, anyway .......

To answer your question, I do tend to cut only from one side and it is the side most comfortable, and not necessarily for the direction of the fall. Of the 3 trees I felled that day, two were from the north with the tree falling to the west and one was from the south with the tree falling to the west. When I'm on level ground with no obstacles, I'll still fell the tree from one side and take the same position as in the video. There is a drawback to using the top of the bar for the back cut though. Your fighting with the saw because it is constantly pushing towards you rather than pulling the saw into the tree. For me, it also seems to help in keeping the hinge even.