Sharp Chains...Game of Logging

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Yesterday I had an opportunity to attend a seminar on chainsaw safety held in the parking lot of my local Husqvarna/Dolmar dealer. It was a pretty neat deal that came with a free lunch and a bunch of free hand outs such as T-shirts, hats, saw accessories etc. And since this was a free event…you couldn’t beat the price! The speaker, Kevin Snyder, is a certified safety instructor from the Game of Logging, which if you haven’t heard of before, is an organization that promotes safe chainsawing thru education and competition events. Kevin is also a professional logger and was a pretty cool dude. He was very passionate about his profession and had the look, and attitude of a logger. While he had more knowledge about trees, wood, and saws in his pinky than what I have in my whole body I found him very humble and he viewed every question or comment as not only a chance to teach but also for him to learn as well. We need more people like him in this world...
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Anyhow…
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Kevin was very passionate about safety and wearing the proper personal protective equipment (PPE) when ever you use a saw. He taught us the proper use of PPE, safe saw handling techniques, proper saw maintenance, chain sharpening, tree felling, limbing, and bucking techniques. Interesting to me was how much time he spent on the proper way to sharpen the chain on your saw. While everything he discussed ultimately led back to safe saw handling, the one area playing the biggest role in your entire sawing experience was keeping your chain sharp. Using a sharp chain has major implications to how your saw works, its longevity, your safety, and enjoyment of this great machine. A dull chain doesn’t cut wood as efficiently making your saw run faster and hotter. A dull chain makes smaller chips which can easily work their way past your air filter and into the cylinder. A dull chain will wear out your bar and sprocket tip faster. A dull chain can increase the risk of kick-back. I have always known, from experience, that a dull chain is undesirable because you can’t cut wood as fast…duh…but I never realized how much of an insidious roll it had with safety and overall health of your saw. If you love your saws as much as I do… and would like for it to live a long, healthy life with you in the woods then please take the time to learn how to sharpen your chain or at least develop a “sharp chain plan” so that you are never left in the woods with dull cutters. That was my biggest take away from this seminar and I know that this little investment in time will make me a better sawyer and a better ambassador for this “hobby” as I preach the chainsaw gospel to those who will listen!
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The last thing Kevin did was to cut down an 80 foot pin oak to demonstrate proper felling techniques. If you are a consistent reader of my blog you know that I very rarely fell trees as most of my trees have been bulldozed down in a field. The doomed tree for today was leaning two foot in the opposite direction of where we needed it to fall. Kevin methodically walked us thru his felling plan, demonstrated the proper notch, hinge-wood, back-cut, wedging, and safe escape route and plopped the oak safely to the ground. It was cool to see how a wedge can lift a tree as much as it does and also how much confidence Kevin had in his abilities. I honestly would have never considered cutting this tree down...way out of my league! It was a great experience and it has left me craving for more. Safe cutting everyone and keep your chains sharp!
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Below is a picture of Kevin at work. His saw of choice for this job was a Dolmar 7900. Kevin had four Dolmars this day, the 7900, 6400, 5105, and the 420. I took this picture with my phone so its not as quality as I would like.

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OWB