About a year and a half ago I was looking for a bigger saw than my old Shindaiwa 488 and asked here. Some time has passed and things may have changed. At that time, the 6100 had a reputation for being very easy to start for a sort of largish saw, and having decent power for it's size. Does that reputation still apply to the current 6100, or is there something more suitable?
I'm an old mechanic (not a logger or arborist) with arthritis and bone spurs in my hands and wrists, and tears in my rotator cuffs that aren't quite bad enough to justify surgery. The jerky shocks of trying to pull start a bigger, high performance engine are not kind to my wrists and shoulders. For a skinny older guy I can still handle fairly serious tools, but jerks and bangs hit me in the damaged parts and my hands sometimes want to open reflexively. Not great when handling something with sharp spinny bits. I've managed to control that so far, but I'm not getting any younger or less damaged.
So my question is: Is that 6100 still around? Is the current version still easy to start? Is it still a good saw?
And in addition, is there a different saw that would be more suitable for me?
I'm an old mechanic (not a logger or arborist) with arthritis and bone spurs in my hands and wrists, and tears in my rotator cuffs that aren't quite bad enough to justify surgery. The jerky shocks of trying to pull start a bigger, high performance engine are not kind to my wrists and shoulders. For a skinny older guy I can still handle fairly serious tools, but jerks and bangs hit me in the damaged parts and my hands sometimes want to open reflexively. Not great when handling something with sharp spinny bits. I've managed to control that so far, but I'm not getting any younger or less damaged.
So my question is: Is that 6100 still around? Is the current version still easy to start? Is it still a good saw?
And in addition, is there a different saw that would be more suitable for me?