There is the B & D Alligator saw, which seems a lot safer, but I haven't met anyone who has got one.
We have a large garden that had been left to go rather wild, lots of holly, laurel & yew as well as nice trees that needed work.
A friend suggested that an Alligator saw might be useful and I bought one. That was well over a decade ago, back then the batteries were
not Li-ion, so they did not keep their charge if left unused. Also they seemed to run out of juice quite quickly. So I bought a cordless drill set as that included two batteries and it was cheaper than buying the batteries separately!
I used it a lot and it was very effective. The downsides:
- Battery life was poor, that may be better now the batteries are Li-ion.
- The jaws, obviously, don't open very far, so there is a limit on how thick a branch you can cut.
- It does not have a proper oil reservoir, see the last photo here
There is, AFAIUI, a short length of pipe that you fill with oil and this drains onto the chain, but you cannot see how much oil there is in there.
Eventually the batteries died and I could not get any more (clearly they saw there was an issue) and the tool was only available as a corded item. Since then they must have reintroduced it with different batteries. Li-ion batteries can be much better, see below.
By then I had bought a petrol powered chainsaw so this tool being U/S was not an issue for me. With that chainsaw I also bought PPE; kevlar gloves, ear defenders, face mask, etc.
At some stage I bought a
reciprocating saw and when using it to cut branches I uses these
The former are 5TPI and the latter 3TPI.
Somewhere, maybe on this site, I read that
bow saws come with a peg tooth blade that is not that good for cutting wood and that a better option is a raker tooth blade like this
Shop Jack Saw Blade 610/25 Coarse. Free delivery on eligible orders of £20 or more.
www.amazon.co.uk
The difference really is chalk & cheese.
As the batteries for my cordless drill died (see above) I bought a new drill, battery & charger from Lidl. I have bought a few other tools in their range including a battery
chainsaw. I know that you saw that don't want one of these. My point is that the Li-ion batteries from Lidl last longer on the chainsaw than the B&D batteries did on the Alligator saw.
Any recommendations for chopping branches up to 100 milli?
I would say it depends on the context. Working up a ladder (securely tied on) I use a pruning saw or bow saw with the raker tooth blade.
Cutting down a tree - but this would be more than 100mm - I would use a chainsaw.
Cutting something in an awkward location (including cutting roots in the ground) I would use a reciprocating saw.
Cutting up wood on a saw horse I normally start with a bow saw as I can use it one handed and so don't have to clamp the wood. If there is a lot to do or it is too thick for a bow saw then I would use a reciprocating saw.
