How old were you when you first used a chain saw?

Seeing Woodwhore 's post about his sons play chain saw got me to thinking when i first used a saw for real. Being little i used to use a little buck saw and limb the trees dad felled. I YEARNED for the day i could use a chain saw.
I think i was 14-15 and it was a little Homelite with a 14" bar and a metal anti kickback safety tip.
So how about it FHC how old were you? What type of saw was it?

 

…….. "chain saw" ????????? What is this "chain saw" you speak off?

 

Did i say it wrong? My yooper accent may be off. Chain sore or is that with a New England accent?

 

Truth: my mom used a Craftsman saw on Boston Common while I was still in the womb.
Beat that ?

 

I think I was in my teens before I used a chainsaw. Years before, I had already been driving on the highways.

One could be dangerous to me

The other could be dangerous to others.

I had no accidents with either.

Now whats this "Yooper accent" you mentioned, eh???

 

25. Bought a house with a wood stove and had to learn quick.

 

I first used one in my mid teens, bought my first saw at 19.

 

Almost 53. Like red oak, we bought a place with a stove and the steep climb to wood use began.

 

19 years old. Homelite 400 Before that I used a hand bow saw.

 

I first ran a saw when I was probably around 13-14. Some of you may think Im crazy but I have let my son run a saw a few times and hes 9. Granted his use of the saw was only after I had already made a cut into the logs and he just finished the job. Under my very close supervision of course.

 

I started with a bow saw and hatchet early on, I don't even remember what age. By 11 I was cutting all the wood for our Scout troop's camping adventures from our woods. All we had was bow saws, axes, one man cross-cuts and two man cross-cuts. Dad never owned a chainsaw. A family friend brought over a HUGE Mall beast of a saw and they let me run it for a cut or two. It was all I could do to pick it up!

I was 35 or so before we moved back "home" to out in the country and got a cheapo Poulan to clean up around the house and even started heating with wood using that tiny thing. I've been through a few saws since, but soon decided a quality saw was the way to go.

 

Not until about 5 or 6 years ago when I bought my house, and a saw for firewood and yard work was a necessity. So mid thirties?
When I was in my teens I'd help my stepfather clear land for his landscaping business. I'd get the two Jonsereds out of his truck for him but that was that most contact I had with his saws. I never asked to use them and he never offered, probably for the benefit of us both.

 

We were rural and I had several trash/town dump picked saws that I got running and would play with. So I was given a brand spanking new homelite xl for my 8th birthday. I swear it was my 9th but It was always said it was 8th. 47ish years ago and I still have the saw
I started my kids early with tools and equipment. A picture of my daughter around 8 or 9 using a pavement breaker while barefoot and wearing a dress shows up every now and then.

 

Mid thirties when I first started using a chainsaw. It was a Homelite Super xl. I think it had a 16 inch bar. Wish I would have found this site back when I first started cutting and burning wood.

 

Got my resignation discharge, then some travel fun, then grad school. Rented a cabin in a Boston suburb with no heat.
Bought a Franklin fireplace stove, then had to cut and split wood that the highway dept guys dropped off . Real Dumf.
Most of it was late 70's Elm that the guys thought was cute watching me try to split. So first use of a POS saw was ~ 30 YO. More Dumf.
No PPE, no sharp chain, straight gas, nothing. Used draincase oil for the bar. Took a year to figure it all out and that chainsaws are like ordinance....

 

Yep, me too. Except exactly twice that age ...

 

13. It wasn't until I was in my 20's before I had my own saw though. Mostly I'd just cut when my dad got tired, or I begged him enough to let me cut.

 

18-19

 

Well I bought my first saw about 8-9 years ago. Used my father’s on occasion before then but couldn’t tell you exactly what year I was. Dad used to run it a lot at the ocean cutting wood. Now we’ll just stick to scrounging wood that way and take it out there. If I had to say a number, late teens. Hah dunno why it wasn’t remembered as fresh, maybe because I just did it. I know I cut tree bottoms at 17-8 working for Xmas tree farm.