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

A few of us used to take cased shotguns with shells in our coats on the school bus, and leave them in the forestry classroom for the day and go duck hunting with the teacher after school. How would that fly today do you think? And I'm not that old. Nobody batted an eye when you carried a shotgun on campus, I think of that now. I guess I am getting old.

 

I honestly don't remember, I think mid/late teens, and on grandpa's if I remember right john deere probably from the late 50's or early 60's. Manual oiler, bugger to start because it never hardly was used, if it had a chain on it you used it as was, . Grandpa & dad had it around to clean up storm damage and that was it. Late 20's got sick of paying for firewood to go camping and got a used stihl 014. Things only escalated from that point on. In my extended family without question I have cut and split more wood than anyone. They look at me funny when I say I kinda enjoy it.

 

Kinda? come on, we love it!

 

Grandpa made a wooden box for the saw and painted a beaver on it and captioned it "the little chipper". I should see if dad still has it around.

 

Hey Horkn, this is my 015 hands down the loudest saw I have.

 

the 2 i started out with were a husqvarna 450 eii and husavarna 450 rancher

 

I goofed up and spun up a chain with 1 loop in it. Was planning on breaking it and respining it but it's funny watching people try and untangle it.

 

Wasn't long ago probably in my early thirties. Neighbor lent me his to take down a smaller oak tree at my old house. Man I didn't have a clue, thinking back the chain was all loose and sloppy, I never sharpened it, etc.. Tree came down and we all survived. Much learned since then but still a novice for sure.

 

Bought my first saw when I was in my early to mid teens. Was working in my neighbors yard doing some cutting with Dads electric saw. When the cord was too short I gave up. Got on my bicycle and rode around 5 miles and bought a Poulan Micro 25 deluxe and spent my allowance to buy my first saw. Still remember riding home with the saw in the plastic hard case resting on the bar ( you guys know the bar , the one your do-dads hit between the seat and the handle bars ) and a 6pack of oil in the old style cardboard cans in my hand. I thought I was Paul Bunyon when I got back home.
Kids today have no clue.

 

I would have failed for sure!

 

Some time in my early teens as I recall. Years before that, my dad got a Homelite XL and had logs delivered during the oil embargo around 1976 ish. We hauled, split and stacked a lot back then. It was probably one of my biggest life lessons on getting by and providing for the family.

 

I started running chainsaws when I was 16 ran Dad's old Mac 250. My friend had a Homelite Super Wiz we cut hedgerows and sold pickup loads of firewood for $20.00.
Those were the days, and I also remember bringing my .22 rifle to school NH mountain man

 

So do you have any of those older huskys of your dads?

 

I do. He bought this one new.

 

Nice! That’s probably the one that you’ll never let go of

 

Dad had an electric Sears saw and when we were teens at sometime he let both my brother and I try it on some small logs on a firewood saw horse.
Pretty sure Mom wasn't home cuz I doubt that would have gone over well. AT that age we mostly were only allowed the axes to chop down trees and a two man saw to buck them up. Something we did for fun mostly, not $. The farm went bust and we tore a lot of the barns down so we had lots and lots of barn boards and beams to cut up and burn. I guess you could say I've burned well seasoned pine of one sort or another all my life. barn borads in my youth , lots of free pallets along the way , and now pine trees. My own saw I paid for with my own moolah is an 026PRO in 91 or so for hurricane cleanup. I wasn't going to borrow my dad's Jonsered because that POS you spent more time re-assembling as the bolts and nuts rattled loose and out than you did cutting. It was supposed to be a decent saw and the first(and last) decent saw he owned. It's still on the shelf where he left it about two decades ago.

 

Was the sears electric saw red and white ? I remember that's what color my dads was right around the same time period.

 

I mostly remember the extension cord being too short and the manual oiler being a PITA.

 

^^^^ This is what made me buy my first saw. ^^^^^

Not the oiler but the cord. I can still picture the manual oiler , a flat black plastic lever about 3/4 inch wide and a couple inches long.

 

Great thread. I think I was in 8th grade when we put in a wood stove and started clearing an acre of trees. I bought a 30 inch bow saw and bucked up wheel barrows of small ash. The next year my dad got an electric chainsaw, a grey craftsman which he still has. That was the first. A year or two later I was using a mcculloch, kinda looks like that 610 someone had posted. Love saws!!!!! Did I say great thread?