# Saw Cleaning?



## roelex14 (Dec 17, 2011)

Just curious of what you guys do/use to clean your saws for both maintenance and disease prevention reasons. Both chain saws and hand saws. Thanks in advance!

-roelex


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## flushcut (Dec 17, 2011)

Bleach or lysol (I.C. label) and a good understanding of what your are cutting and any potential for disease. In weekly cleaning I use acetone to clean off pitch and general grime plus an air compressor for all the oily dust.


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## 2treeornot2tree (Dec 17, 2011)

After every use, I blow my saw off with my air compressor hose, including the air filter. Never done nothing for diese prevention though.


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## ATH (Dec 17, 2011)

Simple Green does a great job cleaning the hand saws.


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## redheadwoodshed (Dec 17, 2011)

Pine-sol and water works pretty good.


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## Chainsaw_Maniac (Dec 18, 2011)

Air compressor hose once per day. Do it when you clean the filter.

Using a chemical disinfectant is over kill in my opinion, since the forest is not really where you'll find a lot of diseases that can infect a human. You'd get these anyway from contact with your co-workers or the wood or whatever.


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## flushcut (Dec 18, 2011)

Chainsaw_Maniac said:


> Air compressor hose once per day. Do it when you clean the filter.
> 
> Using a chemical disinfectant is over kill in my opinion, since the forest is not really where you'll find a lot of diseases that can infect a human. You'd get these anyway from contact with your co-workers or the wood or whatever.



Um, dude isn't asking about tree to human disease but tree to tree disease ya know like oak wilt and such.


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## Chainsaw_Maniac (Dec 20, 2011)

I feel silly. Of course you arborists are actually cutting into trees you don't intent to kill. Loggers/wood cutters wont care because the tree is getting cut down anyway.

Is it common for arborists to disinfect their saws?


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## kykayaker27 (Dec 20, 2011)

diluted bleach spray for the disease thing and to wash parts for a teardown i use a old junker dishwasher,dave:biggrin:


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## flushcut (Dec 20, 2011)

Chainsaw_Maniac said:


> I feel silly. Of course you arborists are actually cutting into trees you don't intent to kill. Loggers/wood cutters wont care because the tree is getting cut down anyway.
> 
> Is it common for arborists to disinfect their saws?



It is common for us to disinfect saw especially if we have been cutting in an infected area and knowing when certain deseases are more active.


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## Jeffsaw (Dec 20, 2011)

I wipe down my handsaws and pruning shears with rubbing alcohol. ( Its the kind you can't drink ).


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## Bounty Hunter (Dec 20, 2011)

We use S100 cleaner for the saws...it does an amazing job. It's mostly intended for motorcycles, and we buy it at the Harley Davidson dealer. It won't harm plastics or promote corrosion, but cleans oils, grease, dirt, sap, grime and filth quickly...it's formulated in Germany. 

As for disinfecting the saws...never thought of it beyond the S100. Almost all of our work is tree removal, not pruning or thinning.


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## axetree (Dec 22, 2011)

i use purple power degreaser and just leave if full strenth its cheap and cuts through the pitch and sap really well and then use the hose to rinse the purple power off, after i clean them they look like new again. i use it in a small spray bottle and it works great.


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## pbtree (Dec 23, 2011)

flushcut said:


> It is common for us to disinfect saw especially if we have been cutting in an infected area and knowing when certain deseases are more active.



Yep!


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## VL07 (Dec 23, 2011)

Hand saw gets cleaned and sprayed with wd-40 after every use...the acid in palms will rust the blade on first use if not cleaned. Chainsaws get cleaned at the end of the day. Bleach is recommended for disease prevention.


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## dec4life (Jan 11, 2012)

*Bleach*

I found that using diluted bleach to disinfect your saw, will cause it to be more susceptible to rust. So, I wipe my handsaws down with a light oil after disinfecting.


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## fellowfeller (Jan 19, 2012)

I've always used Bleeche White from any auto store. Main purpose is for white lettering on tires. But it does wonders on stihl grey and for some reason it cleans the heck out of plastics like the huskys have.


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