Nice day in the PNW. Headed up on top to make a few cuts on a Douglas Fir with the Echo CS-490. I took a CS-590 for back up but never ran it. The chain on the 490 needs to be sharpened. Nice and quiet up there after shutting down the saw and a lot more that needs to be cut. My back was hurting so I didn’t do much lifting. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
To help "save" my back, I elected to go with a pickaroon as opposed to the log tongs. Hardly any bending or stooping to pick up a piece.
X2 I prefer the pickeroon and/or the "cleaver" to tongs when carrying rounds. The tongs are too clumsy for my liking. Have you tried this method Reloader? I know you have those bungee type tongs.
You went prepared, cool drone & firewood pickup tool. My favorite cut is with the tree off the ground, perfect height, then branches removed.
I’ve got pickeroons but I’ve never tried it for moving rounds except when running the splitter. Might have to give that a try. Firm is a soft wood, how well does it do on the hard woods? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
In the still image of the video, I see that Reloader has the green things at the bottom of the image that have hooks on the end. I have those and like them a lot to carry rounds that are not so big that it is impossible. I also use a pickaroon quite a bit and can't imagine being without one. My back bothers me a lot, too. Wish it weren't so, sucks! I've been at it hard today and it's not good.
Old age catching up to me here. Nice to be retired. A little at a time keeps us supplied with Winter warmth. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I got one of these but it just slides off the logs. Maybe I need to sharpen the tips. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
My back too. Heating pad has been my best friend as of late. I give you both lots of credit to be firewooding at your ages as you have several years on me.
Sweet video. Im not big into modding saws but hit the 490 with a muffler mod and itll really wake up. I love mine its my favorite saw extremely light and well balanced.
I tried those also. Can't remember what brand they were but after giving them a try-which included bending over to hook them onto the rounds-I didn't care for them at all. Reloader , I have been using the pickaroon in a lot of ash and red oak. Sometimes, I have to "set it" better to ensure it doesn't slip out while carrying it through the woods. Very little bending.
I second (or third..or fourth) the pickaroon. It's a great back saver and is probably my number one most used 'firewooding' accessory. I also like the pulp hook, especially for softwoods (just watch where you swing it). I have a couple of the cheaper log tongs and haven't used them in years. Recently I have started using the LogOx more when splitting.
Pickaroon for me although I must admit I have never tried the log tongs. The pickaroon moves, shifts, pulls and rolls large rounds or smaller logs and carries small to medium rounds or splits. I would rather stay in the house than work around firewood in any capacity without my pickaroons. I have a couple of manufactured ones and 3 0r 4 that I have made my self. I have a perfected design that works well on commercial handles. Love my pickaroons!
I have three pickeroons. A long handled and a short handled Oshenkopf and a long handled Garret Wade. Really like the Oshenkopf ones and use them a lot. I really want to like the Garret Wade, but it doesn’t stick and hold in the wood as well as the others. Need to do a little work on the point and it would be fine, but it mostly lives behind the back seat of my truck to drag crap out of the bed that I can’t reach. All have hickory handles as I can’t stand tools with plastic or fiberglass handles. They have become a mandatory part of my wood gettin. Couple years ago I drove 12 miles back to the house to get them. I got to my gettin place and realized I forgot them.
Here are pics of two of them. The one is a copy of an old commercial design on a standard axe handle. It has an added wing to prevent the head from shifting. Works fine. The other is what I have started doing (no wing) and is on a straight pole axe handle. I have two others, one on a standard axe handle and another on a shorter house axe handle. I use the shorter one when working in the wood shed and the longer ones in the field or hooking rounds out of the trailer. The 1 .5" pipe seems to work well as a collar. I shape the collar on an anvil with a small mandrel and also a bick. Use the horn for shaping the hook. Everything is cold worked. The hook is welded to the pipe with the two welds reinforcing where the pipe was factory welded together. Last thing is to drill a hole through the collar and handle and put a rivit pin of steel or brass through it and peen it over. The hook is mild steel heated and quenched. No extreme hardening in mild steel but has been holding up well with only an occasional filing. If it gets short over time I will build it back up with some hardface rod. Hope the drawing is clear enough.
