Defensive Chainsaw?

[zahc]

Out of curiousity, would you be able to lop off, say, a 2" limb with one of those larger saws by swinging the saw at it (fast enough that the limb couldn't get out of the way, if trees could do that sort of thing ) and pop through it with no noticeable delay in the swing the way you could with, say, an axe?

No.

With a sharp chain, though, and a fast saw,close.

 

[JohnBT]

When I was 17 I got a tree service job and a month later we were working at a Federal facility in D.C. I had a dumptruck parked halfway up on the sidewalk while I sawed up a trunk I'd dropped and this BIG fat guy in a bread truck was PO'd I'd blocked his lane. He was screaming and blowing his horn at me. Well, being 17 with an attitude I shot him the bird.

So there I was about 50 feet away when he jumped out of the truck and came at me as fast as he could. Oops. Shouldn't have done that I thought. Poor little old me, a 175 pound 6-footer with shoulder length hair and prescription sunglasses.

Then I realized I was holding a running chainsaw with a 36" bar.

Then he realized it too and walked away. He must have been smarter than he looked.

Those old boys I worked with sure taught me to keep a saw sharp. I think they sharpened nearly as much as they cut. But that's the only way to get the chainsaw to do most of the work. Leaning hard on a dull blade is foolish.

John