Pulling the trigger on the Milwaukee Hatchet

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GeeVee

East Coast Champion
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I have been thinking about something smaller and lighter than my Echo TH saw for first pass/wayfinding disc golf course buiding, and had asked in here about "whats the smallest, lightest gas saw" and got some replies (thanks) but it all boiled down to, still looking at minimum 6-7 pounds, and since my Echo isn't much more than that, was skipping gettign anything new.

I spoke with my neighbor at the ranch yesterday, to give him some help not clearing any of my land while he is blazing a path large enough to fence his property. (w/o a survey, and relying on my survey marks, dead reckoning and a compass through thick Hammock) He had a wagon full of tools, and he and his wife and passel of children are working down the line with a brush cutter, a 352, and a 590. Several different hand blades and making small burn piles and raking all the leaves and peat and burning. (Industrious people for sure.

THEN I SPIED THE HATCHET in the wagon.... "Can I try that out, been thinking about getting something like it" (Before you flame me about borrowing a saw, I rolled up on my JD Gator with my TH, 352, 590, and MS 440...)

It was exactly what I need. I cut a couple of 2 inch Hickory shoots, a 4 inch Ironwood, and a handlful of cabbage palms limbs, and gave it back before I popped a Boner over my new find. Picking one up today. Even though its the 12v battery platform and I am invested in the 18v, I have to have it. I spent a few minutes on my phone computer and of course found the 18v 16", but its a rear handle, and my efforts to research if could I put the 6" bar from a hatchet on the 18v Rear Handle, I just said F-it, the rear handle 18v was just as heavy as my Echo..... I'll just buy as many 12v batteries as I need. This little booger will help me greatly when I am building something new. I will be faster and spend less time wayfinding, and have more strength and energy to go longer into the day. And not have to fill and oil so much.... A bonus, I can keep it in my truck without stinking up the place. Bigger bonus, riding the fire breaks I keep, sightseeing or bird watching, game spotting, I can remove any overhangs or palm limbs for my passengers comfort, without leaving the seat. Review coming once I put it to work this weekend.

On a side note- We walked the length of work he had done, and I was real happy he wasn't being heavy handed on trees "on the line", and he had done real well clearing line of sight on 650'. I had my binoculars, and was able to see 1300', about four parcel corners worth between me (I own the entire length) his property of 660' and the neighbor on the other side of him who owns a parcel behind him and becomes my adjoining property neoghbor- who paid some one to thrash that line because he intended to clear and fence his entire land for horses and cows. I own quite a bit more past both of them, but I dont have it cleared like down the property lines. I have a 2 mile long loop we like to call a fire break. Got to talk with the second neighbor while I was using my ASV RC 30 and rootrake/Grapple to round up cut vegetation and stack it for the first guys burning, and he realyed his wife said not to bother with fencing the back part of theirs, its too wet for the horses, so it will grow back.....

Neither of them had to have a survey performed when they bought their land with homes on them, so none of them have actual survey stobs and paper. Although neighbor one did find two stobs of a different surveyor I had never seen ( I knew of one ) and I was able to get the surveyors # off the cap, so I will find him and see about a courtesy copy for my neighbor. The three foreign stobs do agree with the alignment so its good.

Double side note- I thought I was going to have a problem with first neighbor. Had been shooting with no backstop, to the extent they put a 32 cal round ball into my 2 story Outhouse, that I dug out and had to show them, a couple of years ago. They have built a backstop now....

Still worried about them a bit though, doing all this work by hand, and i see a brand new Kubota 38 Hp 4wd FEL sitting in the front yard. He's had it 2 weeks, and he says he can't get it down the lanes he's opening up to fence. ???? Not a SPECK of mud on it anywhere, bucket has ALL of its fresh orange paint. H'es got a stack of fence posts to install, and he's not thinking he wants to find a 3pt Auger, he'll install with PHD's.... ????? NOt huge machine, maybe 4' wide, I just think he's a novice, and it is thick Oak Hammock land. To each his own.
 
Update: I put it to work, and its everything I hoped it would be. Light and well balanced I can't say anythgin about battery life yet, as I didn't wear the first charge out of it. I trimmed half of my own home's landscape yesterday and used it on: White Bird of Paradise, Queen Palms, Cabbage Palms, Crotons that are very old large and woody, Bismark Palm, and Loquat.

Worked very well. At first I was concerned, before I put it into any wood, and was just running it wide open, I might have thought it really didn't have much chain speed- as if I had a timing light in my eyeballs...... No matter. the full house chain and the torque provided, cut through whatever I was in.

I have to drill a hole in the loop handle to put a carabiner through maybe, but its the snizzle for what I wanted it for, I can tell- already.

For breaking new trail big enough for me to walk/follow my GPS to locate a new tee, flyway, or Basket location on a new disc golf course I've designed (I have three budgeted and two new requests just came in), it will let me stay moving without som much effort, in the heavy thick woods.

For keeping in my JD Gator so when sightseeing the fire break and trails around my ranch and just need to clip a stray Palm when I have a passenger or deal with a tree across the trail , this thing is the cats ass. I will feel real confident keeping it my suburban 24/7 so i wont be empty handed when I do go to the ranch, and a tree is down across the driveway. Wont have to carry a echo in a case fueled and olied everywhere i go.
 
Second Update. I used it again yesterday to disect the Queen Palm I decided I wanted to remove entirely rather than keep trimming it.

On the extension ladder, I was able to cut all the limbs off the crown, and then tackled the old boots, so I could cut the trunk down in 16" sections with my CS 340 Top handle, on the stump, and drop them into a small space on the deck.

The M12 Hatchet was absolutely perfect. Lots of one handed work, overhead and sometimes inches from my face.

Do NOT underestimate this tool, it may not have 5 digit chain speed but the full house chain, and short bar, you can get it to kick back.

Battery life is plenty sufficient. I will put it into some 3-4" Oak and some Ironwood, Hickory and Gum soon and let you know.
 
Good to hear. Been pretty impressed with the 12v stuff available now, easily comparable to 18v from years back.

Been trying to flip some Milwaukee 12v ratchet/charger/battery kits, but really thinking about keeping one of them for myself.
 
Good to hear. Been pretty impressed with the 12v stuff available now, easily comparable to 18v from years back.

Been trying to flip some Milwaukee 12v ratchet/charger/battery kits, but really thinking about keeping one of them for myself.
pm me for details on the flips? Yes I would keep one set. I dont have to have a ratchet, but would like more batteries for when I am trail busting/wayfinding, before I go running my ASV RC 30 on clearing Disc Golf courses.
 
3rd Update- Wifey used it to trim/prune/remove about 60 Banana Trees yesterday in less than an hour at my Sisters house, and made a pile of debris so big they only took half of it to the curb before being too tired between them to finish. Typically the trunks are 8" up to maybe 14" the limb cut close is under 2".

She said it was EASY..... She took it apart and cleaned it all up and reassembled, too.

Thats a SCORE for me. She aint so tool coordinated to be honest, unless its sharp things in your mouth, with a mirror, but she's never been afraid of work. She can drive my tractor and RC 30, run the splitter etc.

Banana Trees here are mostly ornamental, and are subject to freeze (which we dont get a 2 days and an overnight of lower than 32 here but every ten years) but usually the leaves get a bit frostbit, and brown right up. The trunks are like layers of cardboard wound up. A frond wraps the trunk and a frond shoots out to the side, and like most things, supports the next one coming out at a different space on the clock face. The frond once "dropped" becomes the outer layers of the trunk, and when you cut a cross section out of the trunk, its like looking down the corrugations at cardboard, full of "water" If you cross cut the whole thing anywhere on the trunk, the water pressure will push up the apical meristem in front of your eyes, and continue to grow and recover like nothing happened. There isn't anything woody about the tree, so to here the Cutie Saw handled it is a bonus. Everyone in my family has Banana trees in their home landscape. I typically sharpen a machete and trim older leaves and even cut the dieing trunks down close to the ground with a slicing motion not swinging it, but she can't handle the leverage needed to cut trunks, or really, slicing the trimming of branches with how many are in the way of a 2' long machete.

The tree dies when it puts out fruit, which it does and is good eating, a bit more susbstantial than a farm/plantation grown, and the skin has to be VERY dark yellow and spotted to be ripe, compared to store bought. While the tree grows, Tubers pop out babies, (multiple) and the trees are self sustaining along your fence row. In plantations, they grow them in rows that almost look like raised beds, but its just rows (upon row after) and the farmers harvest, cut down the fruited tree and lay them in the bed in small sections to rot and feed the beds.
 
I Purchased the Milwaukee Hatchet last fall to deal with five trees that were uprooted during strong winds that came up overnight. The Hatchet came with two M12 1.5 AH batteries along with the charger. Used my bigger Husqvarna chainsaw to deal with the trunks and large limbs. My good neighbors attacked the trees as well with their saws. (Course had plenty of firewood to share with everybody, ha.)

In the past, my Craftsman Handi-Cut would cut up small twigs with no problem. But would have been slow work on these five trees. The Hatchet performed great. Grabbed a bunch of twigs with one hand and sawed away with the other.

One fully charged battery lasted well over an hour. Which was longer than I lasted. By the time the saw was starting to slow down, I was in need of a break as well.

Of course, all chainsaws drip some bar-chain oil. But this saw would drool. Later found that my trousers had oil spots that had splattered on them. Made sure that I drained and cleaned the oil out when I put the saw away till the next time. The chain is a “full house” chain and can be sharpened with 5/32” file.

Will give the Milwaukee Hatchet four stars.
 
Another update.

2 weeks ago, mowed at the ranch, and had a 16 limb broken off and across the drive, used the tool to get after some of the smaller limbs off the bigger, to be able to move them off the driveway so wife could mow. Trimmed alot of palms so wife could mow closer without getting swept off the tractor.

Sunday, I buried three people trimming Pine and Wax Myrtle on one of my DG courses, in two hours, and hadn't run out of charge on none battery. My helpers were picking up and moving the debris 75 yards to a burn pile and dragging 3 inch Pines in bundles with my 6x4 Gator, and they couldn't keep pace.

I took four volunteers to a different course and we trimmed alot of Palm fronds, and some Oak, I finished cutting and had to circle back to help them move the debris, hole by hole.

Really a nice tool, glad I bought it.
 
It’s so cute I’ll have to get my granddaughter one…lol
Unless your Granddaughter already knows how to start, and run, a gas powered chainsaw, maybe has a drivers license, and has riden dirtbkes or quads, I wouldn't recommend it. My Daughter, and DIL, well, they can and I'd let them use it.

But, your attempt at humor is dumb. Its a chainsaw. the full house of chain, and the torque, will hurt YOU, if you don't give it the proper respect. I can only make an assumtpion why you think its a toy.

I bought it for a specific reason, and it works, quite well -Five Stars.
 
Grab a 6.0 battery, night and day difference in tool output to the small ones plus it lasts far longer without needing a recharge.

I wasn't expecting it to have a ton of chainspeed, but the full house and the torque is plenty. I've cut some Ironwood, Hickory and Oak, even 8 inches, by rolling the log to make the cut through. Are you saying chain speed is going to be higher with w/ a higher aH battery?

Further, I DID buy it to be lightweight for when I am in real thick woods marking out flyways, so I am trying to keep it light. I have lots of chainsaws, when I am flagging a flyway for a forestry mulcher to follow, I don't need to be "working" a saw- thats what the forestry mulcher is for.
 
The chain speed is related to volt, not Amps. Ah being capacity (time).
Most of the small handy saws are 18 volts, but chain speed may vary.
A top handle gas saw is from 18 to perhaps some 20: meter/second.

I would consider what other tools you could use the same battery with.
In my case it would be Makita, because I already have several Makita tools.
However, Milwaukee is at the very top of quality professional tools.
 
Unless your Granddaughter already knows how to start, and run, a gas powered chainsaw, maybe has a drivers license, and has riden dirtbkes or quads, I wouldn't recommend it. My Daughter, and DIL, well, they can and I'd let them use it.

But, your attempt at humor is dumb. Its a chainsaw. the full house of chain, and the torque, will hurt YOU, if you don't give it the proper respect. I can only make an assumtpion why you think its a toy.

I bought it for a specific reason, and it works, quite well -Five Stars.
No, I am serious….just found one on eBay for 105 bucks…it will be great for her to cut up sticks and twigs…

been buying her quads since she was 5, but she’s a few years from driving age still. And she’s probably a better shot than you..lol

she’ll absolutely love it…I think I’ll even paint it pink for her…
 

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