********WHAT AGE DID YOU FIRST START USING A CHAINSAW????

[bigblackdodge]

I was 11 and it was my dads little tree trimmer poulan 1800. From that day on it was mostly my little saw that I cleaned and filed. My dad would run the 306a dropping and bucking and I would work up the tree tops with the 1800. Grandpa would jump in with his mini mac 35 or homie super ez. Man I miss them days...yesterday would have been grandpas birthday and he would have been 84. Hate to admit it but typing this watered my eyes a little...sure do miss ole grandpa.

Ain't nothing wrong with that! Our Elders should be Our Salt!!! Hope with all that I have, that I can be half the Man My Father is & that My Grandfathers were!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Holtby]

I was 21....We never had a chainsaw on the farm until a young 19 - 20 yr. old friend of our family showed up with a Strunk "Eager Beaver" around 1959 or 1960. We were deep into the winter with trees & logs dragged up near the house w/Farmall F20 & a 30 inch buzz saw mounted on front. Never got to try the "Eager Beaver" out then. But he was great extra muscles lifting logs up onto buzz saw table. I was about 21 when I came back home from Viet Nam in the Marines in 1970 and my brother had a Homelite w/manual oiler and that was my first time. We weren't overly impressed with the Strunk "Eager Beaver" at the time because it seemed like he spent more time fiddling and working on it than any real amount of cutting???

 

[danl]

In 1971 I was 15 started using Dad's blue XL-12 manual oiler, It is one of the reasons along with Pink Floyd I can't hear much anymore...

 

[haveawoody]

With Canadians the mother is expected to eat a chainsaw and hockey stick before we are born so we are ready to do the Canadian thing at birth

 

[demc570]

AGAIN,I APPRECIATE ALL YOUR REPLIES!!!! there is some great stories,some tear jerkers.....My dad and his family cut wood and sold nuts,and what ever else they could do when he was a kid,to get by....so by time i came along he didnt want or care to mess with burning firewood..but he taut me me the things i needed to know about doing it,how to run saw and work on it......retired now truck driver,he stills fixes things,mechanic for people......he says most time,from chainsaws to weed eaters,usually carb cleaning and fuel line are biggest problems-well and that people dont want to fix because they dont know how,or have the experience to..and or its becoming a throw away world....i seen him put snowmobile engine on golf cart-that thing would scream! take stuck engine been sitting for years and get it running,fabricate parts that could not get anymore or afford,to make something work....so for me running a saw to cut wood was in teens helping my uncle who burnt wood,i help him when i could.of course working construction in my teens we used a chainsaw alot and still do,to cut trees out and to cut the 6x6 post for pole barns,standing on the trusses to top them..ididnt start burning my own wood till about 10 year ago,and me and uncle usually cut together,hes 73 and still going cutting and hand splitting!! we usually split the wood,i always give him the lions share! good times......and iam only 44,and i hear ya speaking about the big 30" plus rounds,there getting heavy,because it cant be me???right??.....yep i have started to noodle some of those big rounds lately myself..being avid weight lifter all my life,its hard to not try to lift it first,then cut if i cant.......still some young and dumb i guess..o and yep my poor old pickup truck has a lot of dents on the top bed side of rounds that were to heavy to lift and it took all i had to lift them their,then roll on over....

 

[Mad Professor]

Was curious what was the age when you started to use a chainsaw,to cut or help cut firewood????

Eleven. I was 5' 9" and 145 lbs.

 

[066blaster]

12, learned on a 032 I remember my hands tingling from the vibration.

 

[066blaster]

I always had to sit in the truck when I was really young. when I was about 5 while my dad was cutting I was messing around in the back of the truck and threw a log chain over the cab and cracked the windshield. He bought me a hatchet and iwasn't allowed by the truck anymore. I did a lot of cutting with that hatchet.

 

[Greenland South]

Around 11 or 12. Mall 2MG. Still have the saw. It's on the project list.

 

[stihlaficionado]

mid 20's. I used a beat up Poulan to remove a pine tree stump below ground level. Dug around the tree, washed it down & cut it near the roots. All for $4.00 an hour

 

[Holtby]

AGAIN,I APPRECIATE ALL YOUR REPLIES!!!! there is some great stories,some tear jerkers.....My dad and his family cut wood and sold nuts,and what ever else they could do when he was a kid,to get by....so by time i came along he didnt want or care to mess with burning firewood..but he taut me me the things i needed to know about doing it,how to run saw and work on it......retired now truck driver,he stills fixes things,mechanic for people......he says most time,from chainsaws to weed eaters,usually carb cleaning and fuel line are biggest problems-well and that people dont want to fix because they dont know how,or have the experience to..and or its becoming a throw away world....i seen him put snowmobile engine on golf cart-that thing would scream! take stuck engine been sitting for years and get it running,fabricate parts that could not get anymore or afford,to make something work....so for me running a saw to cut wood was in teens helping my uncle who burnt wood,i help him when i could.of course working construction in my teens we used a chainsaw alot and still do,to cut trees out and to cut the 6x6 post for pole barns,standing on the trusses to top them..ididnt start burning my own wood till about 10 year ago,and me and uncle usually cut together,hes 73 and still going cutting and hand splitting!! we usually split the wood,i always give him the lions share! good times......and iam only 44,and i hear ya speaking about the big 30" plus rounds,there getting heavy,because it cant be me???right??.....yep i have started to noodle some of those big rounds lately myself..being avid weight lifter all my life,its hard to not try to lift it first,then cut if i cant.......still some young and dumb i guess..o and yep my poor old pickup truck has a lot of dents on the top bed side of rounds that were to heavy to lift and it took all i had to lift them their,then roll on over....

I think that's pretty cool that your Dad & Uncle are still working on & fixing things and that your Uncle is still cutting & hand splitting that wood at 73!!!!!

 

[demc570]

I think that's pretty cool that your Dad & Uncle are still working on & fixing things and that your Uncle is still cutting & hand splitting that wood at 73!!!!!

thank you!! yes it pretty amazing,they dont give up and keep on going!

 

[lindnova]

About 24. Dad always borrowed a Remington electric from work or an old neighbor would cut the larger trees we needed clearing. I had to use a hand bow type saw. My dad taught me the value of hard work. Partly economical, but I had to really want to do something like that with danger with my mom being protective of me. Didn't really have the need for a saw much back then. Got a lot of small trees and resprouts cut up by hand. When my brother got a Poulon and decided he was going to go into the firewood business was the same time I bought my house and started burning wood; field edges were reaching critical mass and needed to be trimmed back also. I got a Poulon Wild Thing also and cut 1 to 2 cords a winter for three years before getting serious with Stihls.

I like this thread because we have had this conversation at work about when the kids can start running saws. A lot has to do on an individual basis, but the general consensus these days is 15-16. I will have a hard time letting my kid run a saw. He is only 5 now, so I have a while. He is just starting to help stacking split wood...I will be careful about leaving him in the truck. The chain incident is something I could see my son doing.

 

[Greg Perryman]

About 24. Dad always borrowed a Remington electric from work or an old neighbor would cut the larger trees we needed clearing. I had to use a hand bow type saw. My dad taught me the value of hard work. Partly economical, but I had to really want to do something like that with danger with my mom being protective of me. Didn't really have the need for a saw much back then. Got a lot of small trees and resprouts cut up by hand. When my brother got a Poulon and decided he was going to go into the firewood business was the same time I bought my house and started burning wood; field edges were reaching critical mass and needed to be trimmed back also. I got a Poulon Wild Thing also and cut 1 to 2 cords a winter for three years before getting serious with Stihls.

I like this thread because we have had this conversation at work about when the kids can start running saws. A lot has to do on an individual basis, but the general consensus these days is 15-16. I will have a hard time letting my kid run a saw. He is only 5 now, so I have a while. He is just starting to help stacking split wood...I will be careful about leaving him in the truck. The chain incident is something I could see my son doing.

My boy is 5 too and whats so cool is he has a small toy chainsaw, and he likes helping me around the wood pile and back 80. Just last weekend I was doin the trimming with my 24 stihl and I let him carry the saw (not running of course) while I was dragging limbs. The look on his face was priceless.

 

[blkcloud]

9 or 10.. it was a home-a-lite xl.. wasnt allowed to use the big saw for some time.. the big saw was a home-a-lite xl12..LOL

 

[z50guru]

I was 37 when i borrowed a plastic crapsman.....Im 40 now and own over 30 runners..

 

[Oliver1655]

10yo, a Stihl S10 top handle. (A Stihl 08 re-labeled for the homeowner's market.) We still have it & it is used regularly. 56cc with a 17" bar running .404 chain.

 

[Axfarmer]

I remember being about 9 or 10, back in the late 60's my dad and uncle did tree work on weekend and I got to run a big heavy Homelite saw! We would drag the big stems onto the back of an old chevy c60 flatbed with a winch and bring them to an old man with a mill. I loved to see the mill in action with it's Cat engine working. I wish my dad was still here to see me doing the same work 40 years later!

 

[zogger]

AGAIN,I APPRECIATE ALL YOUR REPLIES!!!! there is some great stories,some tear jerkers.....My dad and his family cut wood and sold nuts,and what ever else they could do when he was a kid,to get by....so by time i came along he didnt want or care to mess with burning firewood..but he taut me me the things i needed to know about doing it,how to run saw and work on it......retired now truck driver,he stills fixes things,mechanic for people......he says most time,from chainsaws to weed eaters,usually carb cleaning and fuel line are biggest problems-well and that people dont want to fix because they dont know how,or have the experience to..and or its becoming a throw away world....i seen him put snowmobile engine on golf cart-that thing would scream! take stuck engine been sitting for years and get it running,fabricate parts that could not get anymore or afford,to make something work....so for me running a saw to cut wood was in teens helping my uncle who burnt wood,i help him when i could.of course working construction in my teens we used a chainsaw alot and still do,to cut trees out and to cut the 6x6 post for pole barns,standing on the trusses to top them..ididnt start burning my own wood till about 10 year ago,and me and uncle usually cut together,hes 73 and still going cutting and hand splitting!! we usually split the wood,i always give him the lions share! good times......and iam only 44,and i hear ya speaking about the big 30" plus rounds,there getting heavy,because it cant be me???right??.....yep i have started to noodle some of those big rounds lately myself..being avid weight lifter all my life,its hard to not try to lift it first,then cut if i cant.......still some young and dumb i guess..o and yep my poor old pickup truck has a lot of dents on the top bed side of rounds that were to heavy to lift and it took all i had to lift them their,then roll on over....

There's no way I could pick up a 30 inch round, those I have to either bust up where they lay into smaller sizes or roll them into the tractor tote box. I got some oak last year I couldn't even stand up to roll! Quartered where they lay.

It's not too hard to bust up even big green rounds, just cut a kerf with the saw down a couple inches and lay in the wedges and whack it. The kerf has to be deep enough to really hold the wedge so it doesn't just bounce right out.

And ya, noodling works good too.

I lifted when I was younger but since my back got busted I have wussed out and have to be extremely careful..

back then as a little guy, this was my best at powerlifting, lifting at 126 lbs, bench 160, squat 320, deadlift 395 Could not crack 400, tried....

NOT EVEN CLOSE to that today I bet!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA I stacked up some 16x16 hickory rounds the other day, that's it, nothing larger and those sucked.

 

[Cheesecutter]

Dad had a Remington with a 20" bar. It lived in his shop in a box on top of an old potbelly stove, except for a couple days a year he used it for clearing fence rows. As a kid I remember trying to get it down, I could reach it, but it was a heavy old pig. When I was about 11-12 I was finally "big enough to go fetch the saw", we went out and he helped me cut down a few 4-6" trees. When my stepson was 15, we went out so I could show him how to run a saw. I found a nice 8" red elm, notched it, and started the back-cut. He just had to finish it off. I stepped back explained the drop zone, look up, escape routes, etc... He picked up the saw, started it, set it down and RAN over a mile home. He has ZERO interest in running a saw, ever!!! Depends on the kid.