Chris-PA
Where the Wild Things Are
There have been many posts over time that have ponder this question. Sometimes people will come on and ask questions in a manner that makes me mentally cringe a bit – I suspect they may not have the basic skills needed for service and/or use. I sense that I am not alone, as other posters tend to leave it alone until someone gets brave and wades in. Other times people will post and it is clear that while they may lack some specific bits of information, they seem to have the background with tools and mechanical things and will probably pick it up OK.
At one time this was a country of generalists, people who had broad skills and fair proficiency in a lot of practical areas, mechanical work being a common one. Now thanks to the increasing complexity of our world we are a nation of specialists with a lot of knowledge in a couple of areas, but less in others. When something breaks we throw it out or take it to an expert to fix. When we want something made we buy it or hire and expert to make it.
It occurs to me that part of what makes chainsaws interesting is that they area bit of a throwback, they sort of represent “country cred”. If you can go out and take care of storm damage or pull firewood out of the woods you've probably got some useful experience. So to use a saw requires a fair level of skill in quite a few areas, which was once common in rural areas.
There's using the saw for felling and bucking – there are endless things to learn about that and of course it can become a specialty itself, but once the knowledge to get a tree more-or-less safely on the ground was more common. Maybe a pro would cringe at your farmer's back cuts or whatever, but the job gets done OK.
Then you need to be able to sharpen a chain – putting an edge on steel was also once a common skill. Now, we have serious conversations about whether a loop of specialty steel saw chain is of sufficient value to bother resharpening or if it should be disposed of when dull. And there is no need to sharpen other disposable junk.
And then there is the whole issue of mechanical maintenance and repair, tuning, mixing of fuels, etc. Some of which can get quite involved and there is a minimum level of tools and knowledge required. You need to know the different types and sizes of fasteners and ways to use them. How tight is tight – some sort of mechanical sympathy in how you treat things. These skills were once pretty common, and manufacturers could assume more ability in these areas than they do today – some of the things that would have been acceptable in decades past would be laughable today.
Then if you get into heating with wood this extends into identification of tree species, splitting, stacking, lighting fires, learning about chimneys and stoves, etc.
These days all sorts of OPE is marketed more as appliances, without the customer/operator being made to feel like they should have to learn how it works or get dirty working on it – just turn it on and use it. But I don't really think it works so well with chainsaws in spite of the attempt to portray it that way to get more sales. There's just too much to know to make it work.
So after all that long winded carp, what kind of basic skills should one expect to have to use a saw well?
At one time this was a country of generalists, people who had broad skills and fair proficiency in a lot of practical areas, mechanical work being a common one. Now thanks to the increasing complexity of our world we are a nation of specialists with a lot of knowledge in a couple of areas, but less in others. When something breaks we throw it out or take it to an expert to fix. When we want something made we buy it or hire and expert to make it.
It occurs to me that part of what makes chainsaws interesting is that they area bit of a throwback, they sort of represent “country cred”. If you can go out and take care of storm damage or pull firewood out of the woods you've probably got some useful experience. So to use a saw requires a fair level of skill in quite a few areas, which was once common in rural areas.
There's using the saw for felling and bucking – there are endless things to learn about that and of course it can become a specialty itself, but once the knowledge to get a tree more-or-less safely on the ground was more common. Maybe a pro would cringe at your farmer's back cuts or whatever, but the job gets done OK.
Then you need to be able to sharpen a chain – putting an edge on steel was also once a common skill. Now, we have serious conversations about whether a loop of specialty steel saw chain is of sufficient value to bother resharpening or if it should be disposed of when dull. And there is no need to sharpen other disposable junk.
And then there is the whole issue of mechanical maintenance and repair, tuning, mixing of fuels, etc. Some of which can get quite involved and there is a minimum level of tools and knowledge required. You need to know the different types and sizes of fasteners and ways to use them. How tight is tight – some sort of mechanical sympathy in how you treat things. These skills were once pretty common, and manufacturers could assume more ability in these areas than they do today – some of the things that would have been acceptable in decades past would be laughable today.
Then if you get into heating with wood this extends into identification of tree species, splitting, stacking, lighting fires, learning about chimneys and stoves, etc.
These days all sorts of OPE is marketed more as appliances, without the customer/operator being made to feel like they should have to learn how it works or get dirty working on it – just turn it on and use it. But I don't really think it works so well with chainsaws in spite of the attempt to portray it that way to get more sales. There's just too much to know to make it work.
So after all that long winded carp, what kind of basic skills should one expect to have to use a saw well?
