Amen. The only tool I have that scares me more than my table saw is my Skil-saw. At least with a table saw the blade is bolted to the table and it stays in one place; with a Skil-saw you’re holding it. That Skil-saw, it’s just an accident looking for a place to happen.
What a sweet looking man, and an adoring Lisa. Poor little son, too.
My heart goes out to his family. And you, his friend.
Peace,
mangeorge
I once worked for an arborist who taught me that “a chainsaw can cut your leg like a hot knife through butter”. I always had that visual in mind and never had an injury, but a chain catch was always high on my ‘concern’ list.
I hope your friend has a boring recovery!!
My brother, verbenabeast, once caught a chainsaw with his face. He was 16 and cutting thick vines with it and it bounced up. Several hundred stitches and one missing tooth, he was amazingly lucky. Once he was out of the hospital, my dad made 'beast clean the chainsaw himself… to get all the little bits of him out of it. <eck!> Twenty years later, now he just has a cool scar and a deep respect for chainsaws.
DeVena’s story reminded me: When I was a teenager, my uncle the logger showed up at a family get-together once with a nasty-looking half-healed wound on his forehead. Yep, you guessed it.
…After seeing that, my dad was always religiously diligent about wearing a hard hat while using his chainsaw.
Stories like this only serve to reaffirm my visions of grevious personal injury at the hands of a serious power tool. It isn’t that I’m a paranoid worry wort about these things. Rather, whenever I see what violence a particular tool is capable of doing to materials far denser and more robust than I, it tempers my enthusiasm for using that tool and reminds me that I need to retain a deep and abiding respect for that which wouldn’t think twice about, nor have any difficulty with making me a few pounds lighter the hard way.
So, if I’m going to be using a tool that could dismember me, I make sure I’ve got all of the necessary safety precautions. And possibly one or two others that aren’t called for would still be good for those “just in case” scenarios. Like a lighter and a road flare in case I need to cauterize the stump. 
Nick, Chip or Stihl Toe.
We don’t have a chainsaw, thank Og, but we do have skilsaws and reciprocating saws. Most of the time, if I want wood cut, I’ll either use the reciprocating saw, or wait until Himself can do it with the skilsaw.
I broke a toe on a chainsaw once. It wasn’t being used at the time. In fact it hadn’t been used in 10 years or so. When I was 6 or 7 my mom decided to make things around the house safer, and threw it on the very top of a pile of tarps on a garage shelf, so I wouldn’t play with it, and apparently forgot about it.
Around 16 I decided to grab a tarp, jumped up grabbed it and pulled, and CRASH! My dad was pissed though. He had thought the chainsaw had been stolen years before because he couldn’t find it.
“Do you think he’s OK Al?”
“I dont think so Tim.”
Chainsaws and skil saws are accidents waiting to happen if you’re not seriously focused.
I cleared several acres of land for my house and yard. I had never run a chainsaw before and had my dad’s old Stihl 031AV that he bought in 1971. No chain brake back then and I used the professional chains, so the thing would bite hard. Halfway through the summer I bought a Stihl 440 (the second from the largest they make.) Of course at this point, I’d been cutting 6 hours a day for a few months, so the saw wasn’t very heavy. Now I only cut 4 cord a year for firewood, and it’s heavier than lead. I have found that the extra power is a great safety feature - this thing will cut rock instead of bouncing off! (It’s hell on the chain though)
If you’re going to use a chainsaw, a helmet with face shield and hearing protection and chaps are musts. Shut the saw off when moving over dificult terrain. Always make sure you have a firm footing. Always examine how the trees are leaning/laying so you know what to expect when you make a cut, but be ready for it to do the exact opposite. It’s amazing how far a tree can jump and a bent limb can swing when cut. Never cut when you’re too tired. I don’t know how many times I have said to my self, “That was a stupid maneuver. Time to quit for the day.”