Favorite Chainsaws for Firewood Cutting and What is Your Woods Like?

[woodshop]

..thats right, Wisconsin is full of white tails, no? I planted several acres of both hardwoods and softwoods on my Dads farm in PA (we are starting a tree farm) and the deer will chew them all off here too. We have had very good success with those plastic biodegradable liners you put over the tree and tie to a stake. They look like crap, but they do keep the deer off the tree till it gets big enough to fend for itself. One thing we found though, is the bees and wasps love to make nests in them. Minor problem.

Dave

 

[Crofter]

Also, I don't cut my firewood much in advance, but rather keep just enough sticks around to keep from freezing.
John

Every once in a while Gypo tells the truth! I was at his place last February and his honey had to go down to the Co-Op for a bag of pellets for the parlour stove, because John had been concentrating on cutting enough pieces for the saw trials. Not a stick of wood in the shed. :blob5:

 

[glens]

Can walnut stand any flooding? The bottomland along this river has good peat-dirt soil, but it floods every spring....

Everything needed to know about walnut tree habitat.

I have a friend who runs a fairly large sawmill and they won't touch walnut.  They utilize every bit of the product and it's too much trouble to clean everything out before starting a run of walnut, then clean it back out again after (I guess animal bedding that contains walnut "stuff" is bad news).  Then, they'd have to steam it...  Not worth it.

Glen

 

[weimedog]

I have a couple of saws to choose from but what always ends up in the truck are two old Homelites.

Homelite Super XL925 w/ 28in bar & Homelite XL800 w/20in bar.

Especially when its really cold. They start. They cut well. They don't weigh a ton. Nothing goes wrong. AND they START (I know its a repeat.)


( Brain fade...I just got back from plowing for the second day in a row with the Cat 140H & Deere 644 assigned to the task! WE had 15 to 18 inches to push around)

 

[woodshop]

...then clean it back out again after (I guess animal bedding that contains walnut "stuff" is bad news).? Then, they'd have to steam it...? Not worth it.

Glen

Walnut wood contains a toxin made by the tree, that among other things inhibits other plants and trees from growing. Tomatoes plants are especially susceptible, but most pines and many other tree species too. This toxin is also harmful to some animals, thus the bedding issue.

Dave

 

[eyolf]

I've got enough saws to last me for a while, but I'm always looking around for more...yesterday I plowed snow, today cut a load of firewood with Jonsered 670, Homelite Super-EZ and Husky 51 recently resurrected from junk pile.

Favorite? None! Except maybe one of the old 1949 McC 3-25's inhabiting the barn. heavy, slow, loud, hard to start, don't run good in the cold...but kewl.

Maybe I should mention the Homie 330 that sits in the hall of fame (barn): I was going to school, landlady needed a tree taken down, but couldnt afford an arborist. I volunteered if she could find me a chain saw. Her Brother had a Homie 330, but was afraid of it...and also wanted a tree down to let more sun into his and a neighbor's garden. I could have the saw if I could get both trees down without hurting anything.

Not much story there for you real arborists, except I suppose I cheated someone out of a fee. But I got the saw, and I made quite a fair amount of money with it for sevearl years. The wood from the brother and sister's trees was sold as firewood. I also work-studied for the college as a groundskeeper and talked the head guy into letting me take out a row of trees where they were planning to expand a field-house; the contractor paid me for this and I also got to sell this as firewood. I also milled one of the trees into a wide, burly board that got made into a sign, and got paid extra for that. And so on, for several years...even while I had "real jobs"!

That 330 was a cheaply made, consumer quality saw, but it held up with just basic maintanance for a long time. I still have it, it looks like its been through the wars, but it still runs, sorta, considering it's got about a thousand hrs on it! Maybe that one is my favorite!

 

[TimberMcPherson]

Ive been doing a little firewooding lately, mostly Euc. Gotta say its horses for courses. I have been dropping average size (about 25 dbh) blue gums and find myself working between my 660, 440, 353 and ms200.
I dont like using a heavy saw when its so hot lately down these ways. Just chop and change depending on what I can get away with.

 

[pbtree]

For fire wood I love my Husky 365...

 

[heviarti]

My favorite saw is a poor little 10-10 mac that runs darn reliably. I've been working my 6-10 more lately because the little 10-10 is acting a bit tired. I used to cut quite a bit with my 1-71, but it's down for a rebuild, and i need to get the case welded.

Woods here are mainly pine, but I cut in peoples yards, so i see alot of sycamore, cottonwood, poplar, black locust, and catalpa.

 

[SawTroll]

I have 3 saws that I consider good firewood saws. The last couple of years a Husky 353G has been my woods saw (felling, limbing, bucking), and an old Jonsereds Raket 621 has been my main saw for cutting into firewood length.
The Jred lacks safety equipment and is quite heavy, so it is used in the woods on special occasions only.

The third one is a MS 361W bought last november, and isn't broken in yet. I didn't buy it because I needed it, but because I wanted it. It will probably take over some duties from both the older saws.

I have some problems with my hands, so I like heated handles.

Favorite? ...only time will tell, all 3 for the moment, for various reasons !

The woodlot: Mainly birch less than 16" DBH. Max DBH on our lot about 24". Nothing that the 353 can't handle with 15" bar (I have seen one at the neighbors lot that was about 36" DBH, but it split into 3 lesser logs right above that level).

 

[SawTroll]

By the way; is birch considered a hardwood in the USA?

 

[Bills Oak]

Firewood Saws

My favorite saw is my Husky 359 with a 20 inch bar, easy starting, reliable, cuts fast. For the bigger stuff I break out the Mac Super Pro 105 with a 42 inch bar, a real beast & heavy but it will go through anything. OK, don't laugh but I also use a Poulan Wild Thing 16 inch saw, it is great for 1 foot & smaller stuff, light, cuts great & is cheap to keep going. I also use a Mac 610, 10-10 on occasions--I cut all oak, Red Oak, Black Oak & mainly Water Oak. Hickory when I can find it for the guy's with meat smokers---about 60 cords last year, all split & dried.

 

[glens]

By the way; is birch considered a hardwood in the USA?

Since it's not a conifer, yes, it's "hard".

 

[max2cam]

Bill's Oak:

Is water oak what might also be called a swamp oak down there?

What we call swamp oak up here is a type of white oak: (Quercus bicolor).

 

[max2cam]

Homelite Super-EZ

That was the Homelite I wanted but ended up with a 150AO instead.

 

[Bills Oak]

Yes, I have heard it called that. If you're cutting a bigger one--maybe over 24 inch diameter water will actually pour out of the cut as you hit the center. It actually almost "bleeds" a pink/red color fluid, I'd guess almost a gallon or more on the larger ones. Have to keep it off the saws as much as you can...it will eat up bars & chains--good degreaser...

 

[Brush Stomper]

My favorite of the saws I have now is my MS460. When I get to the smaller stuff I like my MS250. I cut Mesquite wood which is a hard wood.

 

[SawTroll]

Since it's not a conifer, yes, it's "hard".

Interesting! Does that meen that all trees with leaves on is hardwood? Over here there is some leave trees that is a lot softer than birch! I would never have thought of them as hardwood (bad firewood too).

 

[trimmmed]

SawTroll, note that Glen said "hard" , in quotes. Yes it's a hardwood, irrespective of the hardness of the wood. Most of the birch I use is either black or yellow and they are both pretty hard and make good firewood, The black is one of my favorite woods to turn, so I only burn the scraps

 

[SawTroll]

Hardwood

Point taken!

WOW, that is a beautiful bowl !