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

[max2cam]

Fun day yesterday. Split the rest of the cut black ash and then sledded it out of the swamp. It was near 30 F. and the snow was getting soft. Some bare spots already appearing.

Then moved my operations down the road to a different swamp. This one is a mixture of balsam, spruce, and black ash. Made a trail and then cleaned up fallen stuff around a series of springs that appear to be the source of water in that swamp. They are clogged with organic debris and I'll cleam them out and get them flowing again this spring for frog habitat.

Some big dead black ash to cut in there too.

Maybe I'll switch to the Jons. 2050 today for a change of pace....

 

[tony marks]

so many variables.. mine is mostly hardwood..im learning my 962 olympyk ,after having it modded, the sucker got a tude about anything you cut with it.. the 372 got more balance and runs real smooth .. so if im just bucking a lotto wood .. id probably pick it..then if you are talki stuff that is best handled by 16 bar .. why carry the exstra wt..my 026 with 95 vp chain is very easy on me..
i could do almost all the work with either saw..rite now im using the 962 .. want to get an feel for it ..soon as i learn it, that just mite be my pick..
12.5 lbs. like an 028 with one more bad attitude..but not near as safe as say an good 028..just gonna take more time in..i sure am glad i got the choices i got tho..
ps the most important thing is,, do you know how to bring a good sharp durable
chain to work..makes all the difference in the world ,good or bad..jmo

 

[woodshop]

sawtroll... in GENERAL most hardwoods are actually harder than most softwoods, but there are many exceptions. Ex. Balsom Poplar and most Willows, classified as hardwoods, are way softer than say Southern Yellow Pine. of which there are 9 species, all of them pretty hard stuff. Flooring is often made from SYP.

trimmed.... BEAUTIFUL bowl. I love that figure. You must have found an exceptional piece of heartwood for that one. Little bit of spalting or is that coloration natural stain? I'm curious how you finished it to bring out all that figure so well. Did you polish while on the lathe?

Dave

 

[trimmmed]

Dave, thanks. That color is in most black birch I find, you just have to bring it out. I do that by letting it sit for a while covered in chainsaw chips that come from a spalted log. I let that mess sit like that, kinda like a small haystack. The spalting starts doing wild stuff and the trick or luck maybe, is to catch it with the color, but before it gets soft. Black birch is excellent for that, but you will have losses due to cracking later, so cut a bunch The finish is mineral oil, the shine is in the wood. I bring that out with a buffer that attaches to my lathe, then buffed with carnuba. What the buffing does to the wood is amazing.

 

[max2cam]

Although I sort of badmouthed the Jons. 2050 in another thread, it is good cutting saw. I had it out yesterday and took down 2 big dead black ash in the swamp. The 2050 starter is sort of cheap and a weak point and the oiler is rather puny and non-adjustable, but once the saw is warmed up it has good very smooth cutting power and the saw is nicely balanced. I guess that I just like to cut.

Another good point of the 2050 is the wide gas and oil openings and the way the caps seal. No gasket or o-ring to fail but no leaks either. On the Echo CS-510 the gas filler opening is small and prone to spillage.

Yesterday when my back started hurting I found myself down on my knees cutting a couple times to help ease it. Need winter pants with dry knee inserts for that.

These ash logs would have been milling size but dead dry and getting some of that yellow dry rot and therefore firewood grade.

Deer following me around woods hoping for something green to come down for them to eat. Must be tough trying to survive in a January woods....

 

[bhemry]

I used to use my 026 with a 20" bar for everything. I'm 5'8", so I can almost touch the ground with the nose of the bar without bending. I've got a Husky 346 XP in my work truck that runs pretty good too, although I personally prefer Stihls. Recently I bought an MS361 and love it! I put a 20" bar on it too for the same reason. If I were working on wood of 16" or less, the 026/ 346 would be about optimum size/ weight for me, but for anything larger, that 361 is awesome! I've got a 020T too, and it just screams, but I really don't want to run a top handle design for firewood cutting because of safety reasons (kickback) unless I've got a good reason to (stuck saw or I'm in a tree). If my bigger saws only had the same power for their size as that 020!

 

[Oregon_Native]

My favorite so far.

so far of all the saw's i have cut with my favorite would be my Pro Mac 610 it may be old and a little on the heavy side but i am on the younger side so it makes up the difference. but it cuts good i think it runs better than the stilh 032 pro i have used before but that might come down to i can file a chain better than its owner.

 

[Freakingstang]

hmmm, I have a couple options...

For years I had two 365's and that was that. I picked up a 55R and played with the muffler and cylinder and dropped the bar size to 16". I then upgraded one of the 365's to a 372 with a muffler mod and a little porting work.

I find I don't use the 365/372 as much as I used to, but it is all relative to what I am cutting. Last weekend, dropped a 50" elm This weekend a couple 20-24" Cherry's and about a dozen 12-16" elm/ash/cherry.

I grabbed the 372 with the 28" bar to take out the big monster. Then bucked it to the crotch with the same saw. Used the 55R to finish all of the top and mid sections. I don't find myself grabbing the other 365 I have....It isn't as ballsy as the 372 and carries the same weight. When I need something bigger than the 16" 55R, the 372 gets a 20" bar on it. I have a 24" too, but rarely use it.

After the big elm was down, I used the 55R on most everything else. This past week I picked up a dolmar 110 (43cc, 16" bar mid 2's HP) for a very cheap price at a yard sale. After I put a new chain on it, I used this pretty much non stop this weekend, with the exception of having to grab the bigger saw on a couple bigger trees. I found I had a hard time letting the little guy down when needing a bigger saw. The Dolmar is so smooth, and feels like it has the same power of the 55 with less weight. I have a husky 50 that runs good for what it is, but it isn't half of what the little Dolmar is. Now, I just need a cylinder an piston to turn the little dolmar into a 54cc. Then I'll be happy.

So how is that, clear as mud? Hope so. The fact is, everyone has differant needs and everyone has differant views and opinions, that is what makes us human. How else can someone compare a lightly modded 372, to a 55 Rancher to a little 43cc Dolmar? Although a modded 372 with a 20" bar and 8 pin rim is hard to beat.......


Steve

 

[woodfarmer]

i used the jonsered 625 22" bar exclusively for twelve years until i picked up an 066 a few years ago 25 and 32" bars for the big stuff. added a new jonny 2159 before christmas(flaw in cylinder, whole other story, but repaired under warranty) which i really liked and a jonny 2171 24" bar in the new year. i cut mostly beech, maple and ash avg. 20 to 24" dbh.
max.. i would recommend upgrading your jonny to the 2171 and never look back. due to the almost three weeks of rain, i havn't been to the bush as much as i would like, so there is a dozen or more trees on the ground i dropped between christmas and new years waiting to be skidded out.

 

[wedge]

echo cs4400 for the top and husky 288xp for the big stuff here

 

[WadePatton]

My 024 Super was the family farming/utility saw until I started heating with wood. Then it became my firewood saw. It quit and I parked it and bought a new 2145 Jonny. Loved the red saw. Got stolen. Went and bought a new 2150 Jonny, loved it too. Oilers adjust on both Jonnys. 2145 was recovered and I had it overhauled as these theives, as most, are complete idiots and had ruined it.

Black Locust-seasoned is my firewood of choice. 70% of what I cut has been down long enought that the bark is gone. The rest is Oak, Ash, Cherry, Walnut, Hickory, Cedar, etc. Luckily the Osage Orange is really scarce at my elevation. We call it Bodock and I love to burn it, hate to saw it--the brush is impossible.

Adding to the fleet and working on my sharpening skills. Going to mill some Poplar and such for building.

 

[Gravely Grinch]

660 for felling and bucking the big stuff, 026 for limbing, 034 for most of the bucking. The 034 has a shaved muff, 16" bar, .050 .325 chain and a 9 pin rim. It's light, well balanced and cuts like a mofo. Rest of the saws get enough use to keep them from getting shelf rot, I bring 2 of them every week for the people that don't have saws to use. We cut river bottom, mostly hedge, locust and red elm.

 

[MOE]

I cut a lot of dead oak. For limbing and blocking under 12" I use my husky 246. for falling and blocking bigger stuff I use my dolmar 7900. I also like to use my partner P 85 for blocking bigger trunks because it sounds soo cool with the modded muffler and has a ton of tourque.

 

[luckycutter]

Husky 346 (20" bar) for the smaller stuff and a Husky 372 with 28" bar for the bigger stuff. If the 372 can't cut it, I don't want to split it.
I cut predominately oak, madrone, alder, maple, and if those are not available, lots of doug fir.

 

[Freakingstang]

If the 372 can't cut it, I don't want to split it.

I 2nd that thought. Splitting stuff that bigs becomes challenging and tiring. Not worth the effort imo.


Steve

 

[Marco]

335 Poulan Pro for all around stuff, 505 Poulan Pro for serious gitter done blocking up to 24", P51 Pioneer with a 32" bar for to serious blocking, Various Homey's- Xl12's, Xl super, xl123 for building hog pens & backup and a few other cripples running around.

 

[Diesel JD]

For years the 025 was my "Big" saw and I used it for practically everything except for the rare occaison when I cut in a tree or when I pruned my own trees, then I would break out the 009. I liked the 009 okay...no wow factor but it got the job done. I probably need a 200T or 192T at least if I get to doing any serious work in the trees or even a lot more pruning. The MS390 was an expensive idea that came about from the fact that during my firewood cutting last winter and in the cleanup from teh Sept 2004 hurricanes...I figured the 025 was too small for some of my needs and I was too cheap to buy the MS440 like I really needed to do. I find myself using the 390 a lot since it is big an dpowerful...even though it is bulky and heavy it gets the job done and the weight isn't bad once you get used to it. No more bending over with teh 25" bar. I'm not as big as some of you but at 6'2" in boots leaning over with a short bar is irksome.

 

[Wood Butcher]

My brother and I have several saws for firewood- a 066, 039, and a couple 025's. We also had a 029 and a small husky (don't remember the size) that burned up in a building fire last summer.

And the most important one is an old Mac 10 10, because that is my loaner saw!

If I only carried one saw into the woods, it would usually be the 39. Both the 39 and the 66 have 28" bars on them, our reasoning is there is more chain so it lasts longer between sharpenings, and the bars are the same size so the loops can interchange. In the past we've had both a 54 and an 84, but for firewood they are a little on the overkill side and after a while quite tiring when limbing. The first 025 was to replace the 29, and it is more of a brush clearing saw than firewood, but I've been getting a bit of slab wood from the local sawmill and the 25 is perfect for cutting that stuff up. It has the wrenchless chain adjustment feature which I really really like, if the chain jumps while you are clearing a wwillow thicket it takes less that a minute to turn the saw off and put the chain back on. And you can do it standing up, don't have to put the saw on the ground. I'm not a big fan of the EZ start system though, but I would be if they had it on the 66! Anyway, I liked the first 25 so much I got another one too.

Woods around here are mostly oak, ash, hickory, sycamore, willow, and cottonwood.

 

[Bad E]

I have two saws for my firewood. A 20 year old Pioneer P-39 and a new Husky 365 special. Yesterday I went up into the woodlot to "get away" shortly my wife joined me and helped load while I cut. I told her I would take her down the mountain with the next load so she could fix breakfast and she went. Went back up to pick up one last load and my neighbor came up on his ATV.
He is a retired logger and his skill and knowledge of the woods is far beyond mine. I heard you cuttin' he said, I came up to get in on the fun. I gave him my Pioneer ..he sharpened it to his liking and the two of us proceeded to cut already downed trees. After a bit I invited him for breakfast, but he said he had just eaten before coming up. You go eat I'll finish stacking what we have cut into a pile so we can load it.After breakfast I went back on the hill and we brought down several loads. Luckily it started to rain so we called it quits.I say luckily because my backside was beginning to drag the ground.

My woods are mainly soft maple, with some ash, and some black cherry which with his advise we leave the good ones standing and cut down the deformed ones. I also take down an occaisional large poplar tree. I use that for kindling and fire starting. Thay are probably the largest trees I cut averaging 16-18 ".A few even larger.Also for access I have taken down some pretty good sized red pine this year.

 

[toolfreak]

My favorite firewood saw is my 55rancher. I use a 2-10 for limbing. 500EVL as a back up. Jonsered 80 with 28" bar for larger stuff. The timber around here is full of oak, maple, hack berry, cottonwood, scrub bush, hickory and more. Most of the wooded areas where I live have deep ravines,especially around the rivers. They are tough to hunt if you are not in shape, but they are full of deer.