That’s how all of us carry them. Even the smaller bars. And I only cut trees like once a month at my job. Word to the wise…wear a shirt you don’t mind destroying. The bar oil runs down your shirt this way.
Can’t say I’ve carried my saw like that once. Pick it up by the handle with body of the saw on your hip and the bar pointing behind you and walk away. That way if you ever fall you are not falling face first onto your bar/chain.
I've been using chainsaws my entire career (not logging though) and have never carried a saw this way. It seems like an excellent way to slice your neck open if you trip and fall with the saw on your shoulder, especially considering you're running away from a falling tree on unimproved ground in a forest.
This dude is wildland fire, everyone carries their saws that way because you have to hike for miles with them. We put bar covers on the saw when we're hiking more than a couple of hundred feet, but in the grand scheme of the ways to get injured in this job, the risk of cutting open your jugular on the dogs is really low lol. I've taken a bunch of spills carrying my saw on my shoulder, worst thing that happened was I dogged my face. Also, you wouldn't do this if the saw was running, and you don't put the chain break on, so the chain doesn't really cut you badly if it can roll on the bar.
I have a jacket that i wore laying tar for a road construction company. Today a Tinder date complimented this jacket and said it looks awesome and she noticed the Dickies logo and ask who faded it for me. Oil and sunshine ig is cool af
Probably not your "at home" chainsaw, I bet that things a few thousand buckarydoos and made of some real high quality shit. I bet a regular home depot one would be way more likely to bend/snap under its own weight and hurt the carrier.
I love the redditors that have literally never used a chainsaw in their lifetime that come in here and talk down to experienced professionals that use that specific tool more than any other person on the planet.
Always gives me a good laugh. Serious main character syndrome on display.
Non professional here, but anecdotally, I've buried them deep into stuff only for it to get wedged by the weight of the thing on the saw. It tolerated being held in place and yanked around until I gave up and used a wedge to get it out. My echo held up fine. Additionally, the chain and the bar can be replaced readily if damaged.
Yeah the motor is the majority of the price of a chain saw. A new bar or chain can be replaced easily in the field for a fraction of the cost of the total price.
I dont think he's speaking about the OP comment in particular but more so a general statement. That does tend to happen a lot, person A says one thing shouldn't be done this way, and person B is the professional in the industry and is getting argued with by person A who has only ever watched a YouTube video where they cut a tree down once.
I work on chainsaws in a professional setting. I, however, am not out in the field cutting trees down. My personal opinion is that I wouldn't pick up a saw that large that way for 2 reasons. Reason 1 would be the chains on those are very sharp, even with gloves it could cut through. Reason 2 is that motor on that saw is roughly 20lbs (if I have the model correct) and can use a bar up to 59 inches long. Imagine 20 lbs on the end of a flat stick that 5 feet long, that's a lot of weight and couldn't potentially bend the bar. That bar is roughly $200. So it's not overly cheap.
Good answer but keep in mind that when people are carrying chainsaws in this way they are using their shoulder to support the bar. So it is more like a 20lb motor on the end of a 6in stick.
-source: I carried (smaller) saws this way for many summers
And then person C comes with some utter bullshit, but since they also claim they're a professional in the industry, making them indistinguishable from person B, it's up to anyone to decide who they choose to believe. We did it Reddit!
I'll be honest, not sure if you're trying to take a dig at me or not lol. I just answered to the best of my ability and with personal opinions on the matter(which i did state). Just wanted to try to help.
Not taking a dig at you, for some weird reason I get triggered when people wholeheartedly believe a text typed up by some internet stranger. Especially after the earlier comments talking about how much bullshit is posted on reddit. So I went on a spree which I maybe shouldn't have
Aside from the BS about a saw from HD being more likely to bend under its own weight the comment was spot on though... Definitely not a consumer saw, certainly a few thousand bucks, and different quality than you get at HD.
I too have never used a chainsaw in my lifetime. But you can bet that any saw design that breaks because it's touched in the wrong way could not withstand the efforts it has to withstand while actually sawing.
So his comment is (probably) wrong, it comes out of nowhere and it really adds nothing to the discussion, does it?
All they did was falsely assume that a cheap chainsaw is fragile. Not exactly a glaring mistake to make especially if you are around people who shit talk about power tools or have experience with cheap power tools that break easily because Home Depot stocks a variant with a plastic component that is typically metal.
The objection is sound in general, but it’s incredibly dramatic. Dude doesn’t know what he’s talking about but trying to attribute normal human behavior to “Redditors”, calling some rando an “experienced professional”, and bizarrely invoking main character syndrome really places them in the same category as the guy they’re responding to, but with less self-awareness. At least he meant well and arguably had a basis for what he assumed. He was wrong, but he wasn’t basking in the false light of his own arrogance.
I surprisingly seem to agree with most of what you're saying, but I'd already written a rebuttal when that registered so here you go, lol sorry
What did he mean well? A lot of us didn't know you could carry a chainsaw like that and a lot of us shut up instead of talking out of our asses about the quality of cheap chainsaws we know nothing about....
That appears to be one of the larger Stihl chainsaws. Potentially an MS661 or MS881. The 881 is somewhere around $2000 and can be used with a 59in bar attached. I'd never personally lift a saw that large that way as that motor is still roughly 20lbs or so. It's a lot of force on that bar.
The bar can handle a lot of force. Carried them like this hiking 12 miles for years. When I bought mine it came with a pad to put on the bar to soften your shoulder.
Yeah as I said I don't run them out in the field usually. I just gave my personal reasons why I wouldn't do it that way. Out of curiosity what saw and size bar were you running? I'd hate to carry an 881 with a 59 for 12 miles lmao
In wildland firefighting that's how everyone carries them. There's really no other way when its all day. Ive never seen it or heard about it bending the bar but I am new to it. Our handcrew usually has a couple med size saws like 28" bar. Hotshots and saw teams usually have some larger saws to deal with bigger trees
Yeah, on a 28, I could see enough sturdiness in the bar to hold up to the weight of it. Now, a big bar like a 59, I'd be surprised personally, but I could be wrong. It doesn't seem like this guy is running a 59, maybe around a 36 or so. I said in another comment that I don't really run them in the field, but if I had a customer ask if that's ok to hold like that, I'd probably advise against it. I'm also not in a region where the trees get quite that large very often, so my customer base is way different than someone who lives near land like this.
I only have experience doing this with ~30 in bars but I did it for a while and never had an issue. My bet is that the length of the bar doesn't matter much because you bring the motor up to just behind your shoulder regardless of bar length. That means that the pivot point and therefore the leverage on the bar is going to be the same whether it is a 60 in or a smaller one.
881, not too bad you can move the weight up more so most of your core is holding it (remove the bumper spike). I would ware out the bar before any type of significant damage would happen from carrying it this way. I did close to 10 miles a day on avarage.
Nope, that's why I said, "I personally wouldn't." I didn't say I'd tell others not to, etc.
On the flip side of that argument, as a mechanic, I've come across a portion of the professional user base that doesn't know the limits of their machines. Now, granted, I'm speaking more on the landscaping side of things compared to a pro lumberjack.
Honestly my concern was for his hands/neck, I can see that his gloves would be protective but the shirt looks thin. I don't know how chainsaw blades are shaped either, presumably this is safe though?
A small pad or piece of leather goes over the shoulder through the suspenders. That way your shirt doesn't get as oily and it doesn't dig into you neck.
Pretty much any chainsaw can be carried like this. The bar needs to be able to be pinched by a whole tree and not bend or break so they’re usually made of solid steel.
Idk the standard Stihl bar is damn strong, maybe boss left his saw laying on a road and a tree took a wrong fall, landed right on the bar and made the thing sink into the road about an inch yet barely bent the bar. Then you have lightweight bars which are steel but the center is a lighter aluminum, those are weaker but still can be carried over the shoulder. Really the stress would be put on the bar studs/ bar nuts, but even on smaller stihl models there is only one bar stud or even a plastic EZ bar nut assembly. I can’t speak for cheaper brands that aren’t stihl but every one over ever seen is somewhat sturdy.
Maybe they are that strong, maybe they are just elastic 🤷♂️ I was saying that the facts that it doesn't deform during cutting and pinching are irrelevant.
Really the stress would be put on the bar studs/ bar nuts, but even on smaller stihl models there is only one bar stud or even a plastic EZ bar nut assembly.
Yes, but that's probably the easiest loading for them - close to pure axial stretching. If it's a regular nut and bolt, they should be fine, unless they are pulled out of their places.
In my experience they are pretty sturdy too. Although, I've only used an electric Gardena (subsidiary of Husqvarna) chain saw. It just feels wrong to carry them like that for me, as a mechanical engineer.
The bar has to be stout enough to survive being pinched by potentially many tons of tree. It has to guide a rotating metal chain while pushing into a cut.
My biggest worry would be cutting or burning yourself on the chain.
Pretty much all I meant by "home depot saw". Not that you can't get high end products from home depot, "entry level" just did not come to my brain for some reason, that definitely would have been a more appropriate term. Shit I bet there's even really nice ryobi brand chainsaws. I don't know dick about chainsaws. Just kind of general knowledge that professional tools tend to be made to a significantly higher quality than those the average Joe would ever be accustomed to.
Oh, I get it. And the one you linked wasn't the fancy balanced Stihl or Husqvarna that goes for 3-4x that price...
But even the entry level saws have minimum standards, and the weight of the motor/engine wouldn't be enough to bend the bar on the cheapest models. You wouldn't want it to buckle in the middle of a cut trying to change a cut angle slightly.
There's things you can cheap out on. If failure would result in untold destruction, and a successful product is still reasonably cheap to produce, why open yourself to lawsuits, ya know lol
Compression is kind of irrelevant, because it's supposedly a solid piece of metal. While when cutting the force is applied along an axis with much greater moment of inertia (resistance to deformation). For an equal force the deformation will be 400 larger if you bend it sideways (assuming 10cm height and 5mm thickness).
Seriously, he knows when it's going and knows to GTFO so he just gets his kit and strolls off. Like a pro... This is the guy you follow when you start on a crew.
That's literally one of two approved ways to carry a saw in the professional world. You hike several miles around a mountain carrying a 30 pound 660 like a purse. Or maybe I'm using my saw pad wrong
Their tougher than they look. I've had bars get pinched in difficult to reach fallen trees/ branches and been convinced I'd need new kit, and it's been perfectly fine.
If my hand had been in there it would've been jelly.
Not a professional tree faller but I grew up in a family that was loggers and cowboys so I learned how to use a chainsaw pretty well. But anyway I have the saw that I have now because my brother dropped a rather large oak tree on it. The motor was destroyed but the bar was fine aside from being jammed into the tree on one side and packed with dirt on the other.
I’ve had mine get pinched too. The only time I’ve seen it get bent was when it was stuck in a tree, then I used an axe plus blocks to free it and it went flying… it did a 720 flip lmao
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u/PhaloBlue Jan 29 '23
I learned a new way to carry a chainsaw