I’ve owned a chain saw for years. I have never hurt myself with it. When I bought it, I spent the extra money and got one with a chain brake (wasn’t required back then)
I used that saw for years. Every so often the tip would bounce up a bit and the brake would activate, no big deal. Then one day the upper part of the tip caught something and the saw came up and back at me at about 900 miles per hour. The brake worked as advertised, and the chain was stopped before it got anywhere close to me. Even though the blade was stopped and didn’t hit me, my face did look just like this :eek:
I got a new respect for that saw that day.
Either call your buddy bonesaw or just call him Chainsaw.
So when he eventually becomes a serial killer, there’s definitely one weapon that he’s not going to select as his signature. It’s probably for the best, ultimately; chainsaws are so overdone. He’s going to want to stand out from the pack.
Chainsaws scare the crap out of me. I’ve never used one and I think it’s a good idea that I continue not to. I use plenty of scary power tools - I call the chopsaw the “Defingerator” - but when part of a tree fell down on my boyfriend’s car I called somebody to deal with it.
I’ve been in WA for about a year now; we decided to heat our house exclusively with the wood stove, which necessitated my buying and learning to use a chainsaw. I got “lessons” from a friend of mine who used to be a logger – he insisted I buy goggles, ear protection, and chaps. And USE them, which I do.
At first, I had some serious safety concerns, and I couldn’t understand how people could adopt a casual attitude about it. After the first day of use, I got it – I likened a chainsaw to the “Hole-Hawg” drill mentioned in Stephenson’s *In the Beginning was the Command-line*:
Once I understood that, it increased my safety concerns even more – but it’s the right tool for some jobs and, while there’s no doubt that it’s inherently dangerous, remaining hyper-aware of that makes me pretty comfortable in using it.
One of our local firefighters here is nicknamed chainsaw for that very same reason but he got his thigh. Guess who has to do chainsaw training for all the newbies/fire academy classes.
A friend of mine had to take a chainsaw safey course to get a job with a tree removal service. You can get chainmail thingies to cover your legs. They were mandatory for the safety course.
He’s got a shed that’s open on 3 sides, but it’s sheltered in the trees. It used to be open on just one side – that’s what got him. No breeze, and the shed was filling with carbon monoxide. The effects were cumulative over time, weeks of time in his case.
This sounds like a good idea. I am new to the area, so have nobody to share pizza and beer with. I will not use the chainsaw when I am at home alone though.
Was the roll-eyes really necessary? I assumed that your friend was using it indoors too- otherwise, no worries about carbon monoxide. Of course, the three-sided shed was closed in enough, but it wasn’t an out-of-line assumption…
I read an accident report for a guy who was on a ladder and dropped his chainsaw when he fell off the ladder. It missed him. But it did fall on his wife, killing her.
Of course that’s just one anecdote, not a general indictment, but ugh.
That’s wierd. I clicked that link five times and it took me to five different pages.
Anyway, if you search “chaps” at the site, it’ll take you to the chainsaw chaps.
I heated with wood for about 10 years. I’ve dropped many a tree.
One of the most import things you need is steady footing. NO reaching. And remember, when the tree is cut through (even if it’s on the ground) dynamics change.
The log you just cut off may very well roll at you. You must keep a great deal of situational awareness. And be focused at the same time.
It’s a tool like any other, and frankly, circular saws seem to be more dangerous. (disregarding the whole dropping a tree on you truck thing ).
When I was in medical school, we had to take a Forensic pathology class. Once a week, we had to observe the pathologist doing an autopsy, and write a report. I still remember his comments about suicide by chainsaw.
When people commit suicide by cutting themselves with a knife or other sharp object, you sometimes see “hesitation marks” (shallow cuts in the area made before they cut deep enough to kill themselves). With chainsaw suicides, you rarely see “hesitation marks”.
My office once managed a rooming house that had occupants who were, well, less than desirable. The local cops would look the other way, figuring we were keeping these characters off the street.
A landscaper claimed one of the roomers owed him money. He went up to the rooming house with a chainsaw to collect. The roomer went into the bathroom and locked the wood door, and then held it close with his hands. The landscaper attacked the door with the chainsaw and cut the guy’s arm about 1/2 off.
The attacker went to jail, the attackee went to the hospital where they reattached the arm, and we were amazed that anyone at the house could do something that even the local cops hadn’t seen before.
I have a pair of chainsaws that I use all the time. I was scared of them when I first started but I haven’t had any incident in the 6 years when I bought the first one. However, I have some personal strict rules and I don’t violate them.
However, my 40 something year old screw-up brother in law wanted to borrow a chainsaw from his father to use on his tiny semi-urban property. My FIL refused because he decided that the BIL could screw up anything and wasn’t competent for anything like that. The BIL stole it anyway, decided to climb a tall ladder to cut a branch. He fell and cut his arm to shit and sustained significant injuries from the fall itself. I never, ever cut anything over my head. That is one of my strict rules.
The tool I have that scares me the most isn’t a chainsaw. It is the table saw that I have in the basement. I gives pretty of kickback, there is no safety mechanism and you fingers and wrist are often inches away from the blade. You can lose a finger in the blink of an eye.
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