Did Anyone Else have to learn this way???

[Dusty Rhodes]

You are so right Templar. Your mentioning it brought back the memory of the sound of the saw. I think my Dad and my Grandfather on my mothers side knew what they were doing. My Fathers, Father, had a saw mill and did some logging in his younger days, My Grandfather on my mothers side had a saw mill too and him and my grand uncle cut timber on the mountain for the saw mill. Ran mule teams I am told. Guess I come from a line of sawyers. Funny, never been a logger or run a saw mill, but I sure love cutting wood. Somehow it must get in the blood from the genes that are passed down. I am sure money was tight back then. No PPE and what would it have been anyways, other than maybe a helmet of some sort. I never heard my dad or grandpap tell of any accidents. You are right, a lot of work got done, those men knew how to work and were not afraid of it. I cut a tree down last year with a felling axe. Only about 14" diameter tree. My plan was to drop it then limb with with the axe then cut it up into pole lengths to drag out. Heck after felling and limbing that tree I was tuckered out. What a wimp. Went home and got the chainsaw to finish the job. Part of it is impatience, part of it is laziness.

 

[RandyMac]

Old school all the way, progressing from axes and handsaws, to an XL12, to a C5, then my own McCulloch 250 at age 16.
I did the second sawyer routine, something that is quickly fading away.

 

[colin.p]

I learned to fall trees from my father when I was probably nine or ten years old when we were clearing some property near Alstead, NY. The good news is that it was a really good time, the bad news, my dad was really bad at falling trees. It was a blue chainsaw with a manual oiler. That's all I remember after 30+ years. I always/never wear PPE

Sounds like an old Homelite? I remember the first time I ever went out cutting was with my FIL, who had an old Homelite (in the early 80's) and that thing was a real PITA to start when it was hot. Cut good though.