Chainsaws are a serious piece of equipment. Gasoline-driven chainsaws are used for felling trees, cutting logs, trimming branches, and other wood items.
Corded-electric and cordless battery operated chainsaws handle smaller home jobs such as cutting off small branches and trim work around bushes. The corded electric models will require an extension cord matched to the AWG (American Wire Gauge) of the electric chain saw.
To be safe using the three chainsaw types, specific safety gear must be used to protect your entire body.
Let someone know where you are! Have your cell phone with you out in the woods and in a home yard.
- Read your User’s Manual that came with your new chainsaw.
- Always wear a hard hat no matter how small the job seems to be.
- A hard hat with face shield is even better when working in the field preventing wood chips and saw dust from smacking your face and entering your eyes.
- Wear earmuff-style hearing protection.
- Wear safety glasses with side shields.
- Wear ballistic nylon apron-style chaps over your jeans or pants.
- Wear hard-toe high-top work boots for foot and toe protection with good side-to-side stability and bottom traction. Boots with worn over heels can throw you off balance.
- Wear non-slip leather gloves for finger and hand protection.
- Don’t wear loose clothing, scarves, shirts, necklaces or jewelry that can catch in the chainsaw.
- Buy a chainsaw that has a chain catch to stop the chain if it slips off its bar.
- Buy a chainsaw with a spring-loaded kickback guard that will activate a chain brake if the saw kicks back toward you.
- Gasoline engines: Fill the fuel tank with a 2-cycle engine oil and gasoline mixture if it’s a 2-cycle engine at the correct ratio shown in the manual.
- Never forget to fill the lube reservoir with chain oil! It’s a must.
- Set the chainsaw on the ground to start securing the back of the saw.
- Turn on the chainsaw’s ignition switch, pump the primer, and lock on the trigger.
- Pull open the choke, pull the starter rope until the chainsaw fires up; then push in the choke and pull rope until the chainsaw starts. Do not let the pull rope fly back; hold it to go back gently.
- Electric chainsaws: Plug in if corded, turn on the switch, and pump the bar oil control often. Do the same with battery-powered chainsaws.
Be sure the chain is always tight and the blades are sharp. A loose chain can fly off and cause damage and hurt you or others. Sharpen the blades with the correct diameter file stated in the User’s Manual.
- Do not let kids, pets, and others stand around watching.
Artistic people make beautiful tree trunk animals and people with their chainsaws that are poignant, such as the firefighter, and delightful with the frog, bird, and owls.
Chainsaw Basics: How to Safely Use a Chainsaw – How to Cut Firewood in the Woods video.
