at 36 I figure I'm almost mature enough to learn to run a chainsaw....I have never liked "age" as a useful category....some people have their stuff together sooned than others, some later. Ever notice the number of "adults" in those "hold ma beer and watch this" videos? nuff said i thinks.
How old where you when you learned to use a chain saw
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MrWhoopee
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I have no input on the age thing, that is a kid to kid decision IMHO...but no matter the age, get that young lad strapped into the proper PPE. Teach the safety side early and often.
That is something I didn't learn till a later age. A few times Dad had us use earplugs around the chainsaw, but he didn't enforce it much and at the time I thought it was silly. I still have pretty decent hearing, unlike my Dad (every time I call my Mom has to yell for him to turn the TV down!).
Late 20's fot the chainsaw,but only because that was the first time I needed one. I was taking the boat out by myself and go clamming and fishing when I was 11 and I could drive when I was 12. My parents let me start working on fishing boats which involves using hydraulics and electronics when I was 14. But every kid is different, since your grandson can handle a maul hes probably ready for the saw.
BTW, i used a saw before I found this site, but I was doing it all wrong. this forum has probably saved my life on more than one occasion.
Times are a lot different now than they used to be too, and it didn't take long for things to change. I'm 32...20 years ago when I was 12 I can remember hauling grain from the fields a couple miles down the backroads on a straight truck loaded with 20K + lbs of corn...sometimes driving the semi with 40K+. If I got busted back then the local cops would have told me to go home and had an adult conversation with the farmer I worked for. Now it would be all over the evening news and the farmer would probably get locked up and bankrupted.
I don't know how that applies to chainsaws, if at all, but the point I'm trying to make is society is a lot less forgiving with minors doing "adult" jobs.
I don't know how that applies to chainsaws, if at all, but the point I'm trying to make is society is a lot less forgiving with minors doing "adult" jobs.
I think he's old enough. Just start him on some branches, not the trunk. work him up to thicker content that actually requires thought into getting the blade stuck/etc.
I'd be careful having him limb branches. They can be even more dangerous than the trunk. Straight cuts through trunk or heavy branches that have no chance of pinching the bar will be best to start. Teach him what the bucking spikes are for and to never use the nose of the bar (that'll come much later) to cut small branches. Teach that it's OK to use the top of the bar (after he has mastered the top-down cuts) and what to expect in reactionary forces. Make sure he understands when it is appropriate to do so.
Perhaps most importantly, drive into him that if something isn't performing well, STOP, do not force the saw through the cut.
My opinion on the first question is that I don't personally think its a crazy idea, but I'd check with his parents first and go with their opinion. I'm assuming your not acting as parent which I know is entirely possible
To answer the second question, I was about 28 when I actually learned the correct ways to operate a chainsaw, fell a tree, correctly cut, and do it not only safely but more efficiently. However, my father "taught" me how to run a chainsaw at 14. He is 59 now and still hasn't actually learned how to run a chainsaw. All I can say is he is one lucky man!
Agree. Much more room for things to go wrong limbing (tripping especially). By comparison, not a lot can go wrong bucking a big old trunk.
And show him what kickback looks like....rev it up and touch the top of the bar nose on something. Better for him to see it happen and know what it looks like ahead of it actually happening.
It should be a kid by kid basis. I agree that some adults shouldn't be allowed to operate power tools, machinery, or even automobiles.
I was driving garden tractors at around 10 or 11 and smaller farm tractors at around 16. I learned how to drive when my sister turned 16 and I was 13. I sailed the family's small sailboat, and trailered it home with a couple friends when I was 17. The first time I used a chainsaw I was 18. I borrowed it and figured it out myself based on what I had seen others do with one over the years. About a year later, my father and I bought a crappy Homelite saw at Sears. I read the book cover to cover before I used it. Most of my chainsaw knowledge came from that Homlite manual. We upgraded to a Stihl 029 a few years after that and it had an even better manual. I bought some PPE out of the Northern Hydraulics catalog because I thought it looked cool when we bought the 029. I didn't get real serious about using the saw until I got serious about burning wood and reading about it on the net about 6 or 7 years ago. Now that I have read a lot about technique and safety, I'm better and safer, but those manuals sure did give a very good foundation of knowledge.
I was driving garden tractors at around 10 or 11 and smaller farm tractors at around 16. I learned how to drive when my sister turned 16 and I was 13. I sailed the family's small sailboat, and trailered it home with a couple friends when I was 17. The first time I used a chainsaw I was 18. I borrowed it and figured it out myself based on what I had seen others do with one over the years. About a year later, my father and I bought a crappy Homelite saw at Sears. I read the book cover to cover before I used it. Most of my chainsaw knowledge came from that Homlite manual. We upgraded to a Stihl 029 a few years after that and it had an even better manual. I bought some PPE out of the Northern Hydraulics catalog because I thought it looked cool when we bought the 029. I didn't get real serious about using the saw until I got serious about burning wood and reading about it on the net about 6 or 7 years ago. Now that I have read a lot about technique and safety, I'm better and safer, but those manuals sure did give a very good foundation of knowledge.
I was suggesting limbs from an already downed tree.... not a standing one. sorry if that wasn't clear.
even then, the bigger the better. Think of the moving target effect that you get with smaller limbs, the saw drags them all around, they pinch down on the saw after a second of cutting.
Best to learn on really big stable logs laying on the ground. you throttle up and get into the wood and just get a feel for the power of the saw and the tug of the cutters. Too much rev-up, cut from above, then cut from below, apply break, move, drag debris away, etc when it's limbs on the ground. Just my 2cents.
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