Fried Chicken
ArboristSite Member
Forgive me, those born after 9/11 and/or those who have adopted their disposition, for what I am about to say.
Chainsaws are fun. Power tools are fun. Big meaty spitty hissy machines powered by volatile cancerous fire; like a cocaine fed grizzly bear with a hornet's nest shoved up its own *******. GGGRRRRRAAAAAAARRRRRRR. Fantastic.
Women don't care about any of this. Women don't care about the minute differences between the 20 different 2-stroke oils or which jewelry metal makes the best spark plugs; they prefer to wear their jewelry. Women harbor no concealed pleasure in deciphering a suddenly broken thing, nor which voodoo magic witch doctor concoctions coax moar GGRRRRRR out of said thing. They want something to work, to follow a simple logic in its function, without having to maneuver disastrous pitfalls. These principles encompass what I call "The woman test", which seeks to answer a very basic question "Can a Woman use it"; It's not exclusive to power tools. iPhone passes the woman test, Android does not. A Toyota RAV4 passes the woman test, a Dodge Charger with an ethanol tune and nitrous boost does not. A Polaroid passes the woman test, a Nikon Z9 with a 20mm f/1.8 full frame manual focus override prime lens does not. Etc.
So this brings me to the Sthl GTA 26.
I got one for my mom last year to avoid nagging to get the MS210 out for tasks the pruner couldn't do. What followed was the usual skepticism, ignorance, stupidity, and nagging... But she did recognize the benefits after I showed her how to use it.... and occasionally over the course of the year she would ask me to set it up for her. I sent her the Stihl video tutorial on how to set up and use it... to which she replied with hissing and spitting. Not good.
Yesterday, however while working, sick, in the garage, on some godforsaken ********, I hear the most extraordinary noise: zzzt zzzzzzzzzzzzzt zzzzt zzzt zzzzzt zzzzzzzzzzzzt... and there was my mom wielding her GTA 26, going around the yard wreaking havoc on the plants that have displeased her. Chain tensioned, bar oiled, and everything. I didn't have to do anything.
It was a difficult exam, but the Stihl GTA 26 officially passed the woman test; and that is amazing.
The saw itself is exactly as good as its looks aspire to. What do I mean by that?: a toy will look like it does something, but then not actually do it (i.e. a toy gun). On the flip side, the GTA 26 won't go out and do something beyond what its looks suggest. It neither looks like it will fell a redwood, and nor will it fill a redwood. It will cut through pretty much anything across the length of its bar, following basic chainsaw principles, just on its GTA 26 sized scale. Cutting, pruning, and chopping wood, perfect.
There are further more subtle details here completely lost on the "influencer" idiots, that allow it to pass this test. In lieu of making scary angry noises and emitting smoke, the chain will auto stop if it encounters a reasonable torque, requiring you to free it before starting again. It employs a simple and intuitive screw mechanism to remove the cover, and chain tensioning is done by hand pulling the bar. The blade guard makes kickback injuries virtually impossible, and simultaneously disallows tempting undercuts that can cause unexpected behavior. All "dangerous" things are in plain sight, but still the safety features don't insult the users intelligence. There is no weird messy oil reservoir to fill, you simply (and intuitively!) drip a nice-smelling biodegradeable oil onto the chain and continue working. Cleanup is similarly simple: remove the cover and clean. Bonus: you're forced to see how it works when you remove the cover.
There also aren't any stupid modes or weird electronic gimmickery. There's no on or off switch, no combination of trigger pulls to enable some stupid feature that impresses tiktok yahoos but nobody actually uses. Battery in, chainsaw goes. Battery dead? Chainsaw dead. The safety switch is right where you expect it to be, and works exactly as you would expect it to, and finally: it delivers on all the fundamentals: build quality, comfort, ergonomics, noise, reliability, power, etc.
Highly recommended, even to seasoned chainsaw-ists. It's not a gimmick tool: it not only accomplishes standard chainsaw tasks, but goes beyond and does pruner and cutter tasks, all while delivering on the fundamentals. AND it passes the woman test.
Chainsaws are fun. Power tools are fun. Big meaty spitty hissy machines powered by volatile cancerous fire; like a cocaine fed grizzly bear with a hornet's nest shoved up its own *******. GGGRRRRRAAAAAAARRRRRRR. Fantastic.
Women don't care about any of this. Women don't care about the minute differences between the 20 different 2-stroke oils or which jewelry metal makes the best spark plugs; they prefer to wear their jewelry. Women harbor no concealed pleasure in deciphering a suddenly broken thing, nor which voodoo magic witch doctor concoctions coax moar GGRRRRRR out of said thing. They want something to work, to follow a simple logic in its function, without having to maneuver disastrous pitfalls. These principles encompass what I call "The woman test", which seeks to answer a very basic question "Can a Woman use it"; It's not exclusive to power tools. iPhone passes the woman test, Android does not. A Toyota RAV4 passes the woman test, a Dodge Charger with an ethanol tune and nitrous boost does not. A Polaroid passes the woman test, a Nikon Z9 with a 20mm f/1.8 full frame manual focus override prime lens does not. Etc.
So this brings me to the Sthl GTA 26.
I got one for my mom last year to avoid nagging to get the MS210 out for tasks the pruner couldn't do. What followed was the usual skepticism, ignorance, stupidity, and nagging... But she did recognize the benefits after I showed her how to use it.... and occasionally over the course of the year she would ask me to set it up for her. I sent her the Stihl video tutorial on how to set up and use it... to which she replied with hissing and spitting. Not good.
Yesterday, however while working, sick, in the garage, on some godforsaken ********, I hear the most extraordinary noise: zzzt zzzzzzzzzzzzzt zzzzt zzzt zzzzzt zzzzzzzzzzzzt... and there was my mom wielding her GTA 26, going around the yard wreaking havoc on the plants that have displeased her. Chain tensioned, bar oiled, and everything. I didn't have to do anything.
It was a difficult exam, but the Stihl GTA 26 officially passed the woman test; and that is amazing.
The saw itself is exactly as good as its looks aspire to. What do I mean by that?: a toy will look like it does something, but then not actually do it (i.e. a toy gun). On the flip side, the GTA 26 won't go out and do something beyond what its looks suggest. It neither looks like it will fell a redwood, and nor will it fill a redwood. It will cut through pretty much anything across the length of its bar, following basic chainsaw principles, just on its GTA 26 sized scale. Cutting, pruning, and chopping wood, perfect.
There are further more subtle details here completely lost on the "influencer" idiots, that allow it to pass this test. In lieu of making scary angry noises and emitting smoke, the chain will auto stop if it encounters a reasonable torque, requiring you to free it before starting again. It employs a simple and intuitive screw mechanism to remove the cover, and chain tensioning is done by hand pulling the bar. The blade guard makes kickback injuries virtually impossible, and simultaneously disallows tempting undercuts that can cause unexpected behavior. All "dangerous" things are in plain sight, but still the safety features don't insult the users intelligence. There is no weird messy oil reservoir to fill, you simply (and intuitively!) drip a nice-smelling biodegradeable oil onto the chain and continue working. Cleanup is similarly simple: remove the cover and clean. Bonus: you're forced to see how it works when you remove the cover.
There also aren't any stupid modes or weird electronic gimmickery. There's no on or off switch, no combination of trigger pulls to enable some stupid feature that impresses tiktok yahoos but nobody actually uses. Battery in, chainsaw goes. Battery dead? Chainsaw dead. The safety switch is right where you expect it to be, and works exactly as you would expect it to, and finally: it delivers on all the fundamentals: build quality, comfort, ergonomics, noise, reliability, power, etc.
Highly recommended, even to seasoned chainsaw-ists. It's not a gimmick tool: it not only accomplishes standard chainsaw tasks, but goes beyond and does pruner and cutter tasks, all while delivering on the fundamentals. AND it passes the woman test.
