What did you cut with...

[dik650]

Before you got bit? Was talking with another member and he brought up this question. I had an old Homelite 330 that I cut with for many years and was happy it cut. Then went to an auction and bought a 460 with a burnt up piston. Didnt know how to work on chainsaws so after a little searching came across one site and then another. And the rest is history. Once it bit I was no longer happy with just cutting, it had to cut fast and flawlessly. Dont get me wrong, I wouldnt trade the knowledge that I've learned for anything, its just a wonder to me how you can get all wrapped up into something so simple, but compmicated and dangerous, as cutting wood. My neighbor cuts about 15 cord a year but still doesn't know how to tune a saw. So, with that, what did you cut with and how long before the bug took hold?

I was obsessed with chainsaw as far back as I can remember. 4, 5 years old. My dad had a top handle Poulan that he'd use periodically to tip a tree around the yard. I really really wanted an 066 for a long time. I'd rather have gone to the saw shop than the to any toy store. First saw I ever bought was a tired 056 super that a drunk guy stole.

I worked in the woods with the Son of a career logger who had not the first clue of how to tune a saw... Over 40 years in the woods!
The saying "Daddy done it this-a way & it's good enough!" Good enough for a lot of East coasters is the absolute bare minimum.
I've got some stump pics from another old man who spent his entire life in the woods. You'd think the guy was blind by the complete lack of level matching kerfs..

 

[Normzilla]

I had a Stihl 011AV for 30 years, never knew how to take care of it, left gas in it all year and used it once a year to cut down a Christmas tree and never understood why it had so much trouble running. Also used it once to cut roots and had no clue why after the first root it would just smoke and bounce off the next root. Used 044 Magnums for the good part of my career firefighting to cut holes in roofs to ventilate fires using carbide chains. I had a good understanding of that use but no clue about cutting trees. I retired and a friend asked me to help clear some burnt trees from a parcel. I bought a 500i and started to educate myself. That led to a falling class in Oregon and now 5 saws later plus a collector Mac 15, my midlife crisis is in full swing. I cut 1-2 days a week clearing trails and occasionally fall hazard trees. Kinda like drinking from a fire hydrant, the knowledge I am picking up and super glad I found this forum thanks to @Normzilla

View attachment 377046

That's a great picture Amigo. I'm glad we befriended each other.

 

[Normzilla]

I was obsessed with chainsaw as far back as I can remember. 4, 5 years old. My dad had a top handle Poulan that he'd use periodically to tip a tree around the yard. I really really wanted an 066 for a long time. I'd rather have gone to the saw shop than the to any toy store. First saw I ever bought was a tired 056 super that a drunk guy stole.

I worked in the woods with the Son of a career logger who had not the first clue of how to tune a saw... Over 40 years in the woods!
The saying "Daddy done it this-a way & it's good enough!" Good enough for a lot of East coasters is the absolute bare minimum.
I've got some stump pics from another old man who spent his entire life in the woods. You'd think the guy was blind by the complete lack of level matching kerfs..

Same here love of saws and drawn to them at a super young age.

 

[dik650]

Pics of "good enough".

PHEW!! Thats from a man who's been doing it for as long as I've been alive!!

there are a few down in the woods that make this one look like Doug Dent sawed it up!!! This stump has a several big wood pulls out of the heartwood. Definitely not gonna get top dollar for those butts..

 

[Dustin4185]

I grew up going to the woods with my dad to cut firewood. I vividly remember him chucking an old Mac in the river when it wouldn’t hit a lick! He worked hard for everything we had and he did a side job and traded for a Homelite Super XL. He also acquired a Pioneer around the same time. When I was 10-11, he started letting me cut smaller stuff on a cutting stand he had built with the old Pioneer. My senior year of high school we moved to a house that didn’t have a wood stove and he gave his saws to his brother. He couldn’t stand it and bought a stove for the basement, but didn’t have a saw. I went in together with my sister and bought him his first Stihl, a 290. To him, it was a big saw, lol. I started taking over bucking logs and such, but he wouldn’t let me fell, said I was too young to die! I always thought the ol 290 was a decent saw and got around to getting one for myself while I was in college. I did an internship with the agency I’m with now and was sent to saw training. They handed me a fairly low hour Husky 272xp. Still one of my favorite saws. I was luckily enough to get on at the same location when I graduated college and grabbed that saw to stick in my truck. When I promoted, I offered to buy them a new saw out of my budget to be able to keep the 272, but the supervisor wouldn’t go for it. A month later some new guy backed over it with a dozer. I guess the old Pioneer was the first saw I got to use, the 290 was my first saw, but the 272 was my first real saw that I enjoyed running!

 

[Serioussam]

My first saw was a brand new 450 jonsered in 1985 . I cleared a hospital site with it in 1989 and the owners of company were really watching me , figured the saw was small . I was getting $45/ day saw rental for it so in 2 weeks I upgraded to a 266 and loved that saw . I still have a soft spot for the 266s

 

[thedude74]

My first saw was a McCulloch 3214. It was stolen a month after I purchased it...bought another. Never cut firewood with them. Their sole purpose was for construction doing HVAC rough ins before the days of li-ion battery skilsaws and sawzalls. IIRC we used a capful of 30w motor oil per tank of gas.

 

[jakethesnake]

Started with a wild thing. It worked
Old man bought me a 55 rancher. Still my most used saw. Lives in the truck bed 99 percent of the time. Rain snow. Meh

 

[Normzilla]

Started with a wild thing. It worked
Old man bought me a 55 rancher. Still my most used saw. Lives in the truck bed 99 percent of the time. Rain snow. Meh

I had a 51 husky cut with for years

 

[jakethesnake]

I had a 51 husky cut with for years

They’re pretty well built. Almost smashed my baby this winter. Wind blew back cut closed. Walked to get a wedge tree went saw fell out. Left wedges a baseball throw away in truck.

I’ve got another 55 in the shed in a box needing put together. I got it from a fine gentleman here but haven’t had much need to put it together

 

[Deputyrpa]

We didn't burn wood when I was a kid, but we had a Mini Mac 30. If you only had one saw, and it needed to be dependable, this was not the one. When I got old enough to use it, I messed around with it all the time, trying to get it to run longer than 5 minutes. Eventually, I just threw it out.

 

[Spike60]

@Dustin4185 I usually don't comment on Stihls, good or bad, but the 290 was a marketing grand slam. Everybody thought it was a "big" saw. It was certainly bigger and heavier than it needed to be for the displacement. And that size allowed it to feel balanced with it's 20" bar. I'd see people in other shops pick it up and ask why that big saw had such a good price. People gobbled them up. Hardly hit the performance metric we look for here, but the truth is it did what it needed to do and was mostly reliable from what I recall.

Husky initially responded by sticking the Rancher label and a 20" bar on the 55. It was competitive, but it didn't have the big saw look or feel of the 290. But they figured they could make an overweight saw also and that's what gave us the 455. Just like the 290, they sold by the boatload.

 

[whitesnake]

@Dustin4185 I usually don't comment on Stihls, good or bad, but the 290 was a marketing grand slam. Everybody thought it was a "big" saw. It was certainly bigger and heavier than it needed to be for the displacement. And that size allowed it to feel balanced with it's 20" bar. I'd see people in other shops pick it up and ask why that big saw had such a good price. People gobbled them up. Hardly hit the performance metric we look for here, but the truth is it did what it needed to do and was mostly reliable from what I recall.

Husky initially responded by sticking the Rancher label and a 20" bar on the 55. It was competitive, but it didn't have the big saw look or feel of the 290. But they figured they could make an overweight saw also and that's what gave us the 455. Just like the 290, they sold by the boatload.

Plus a smoked 290 can easily be turned into a 390. Not that it’s a powerhouse but more better lol. Esp if you can pick up a smoked 290 for next to nothing.

 

[Dustin4185]

@Dustin4185 I usually don't comment on Stihls, good or bad, but the 290 was a marketing grand slam. Everybody thought it was a "big" saw. It was certainly bigger and heavier than it needed to be for the displacement. And that size allowed it to feel balanced with it's 20" bar. I'd see people in other shops pick it up and ask why that big saw had such a good price. People gobbled them up. Hardly hit the performance metric we look for here, but the truth is it did what it needed to do and was mostly reliable from what I recall.

Husky initially responded by sticking the Rancher label and a 20" bar on the 55. It was competitive, but it didn't have the big saw look or feel of the 290. But they figured they could make an overweight saw also and that's what gave us the 455. Just like the 290, they sold by the boatload.

100% accurate!

 

[huskihl]

Felling is my current addiction...

I keep hunting for more dead ones for you this year but I think you got them all