What chainsaw?

[RigidRaider]

Okay so I've used chainsaws both petrol and electric over the years without incident, I'm very aware of the dangers and always take care to set up, stand and balance correctly, use correctly, wear the right protection and concentrate on what I'm doing, not allowing myself to be distracted. I always cut on a trestle, never up a tree or ladder.

We are known locally as wood burners so every year we get given bits of tree and right now we've got some of a large mature ash to cut up and stack. After several hours hand-sawing the branches into 9" lengths and splitting I am left with the bits the tree surgeon didn't want; the big (2 ft wide) chunks from the trunk and branch junctions. Clearly he didn't want these because of the effort involved in splitting them!

So I've decided to go for a small chainsaw, which can deal with branches up to 6" diameter, as well as giving me a fighting chance of sorting the bigger chunks. My budget would be around £175.

Any thoughts or recommendations? Would a small petrol Stihl or Makita be capable of cutting the tough bits around branch junctions?

PS: Just read the "Affordable Chainsaw" post about 20 down from this; I can't justify £500 for a 24" or 36" saw and neither would I want one this big. As with that poster I will be cutting on the ground or a trestle only and can go at the big pieces from different directions

 

[kevindgas]

try machinemart they have a good range (got mine from there about 5 years ago still going strong despite the abuse it gets) i do canal restoration so you can imagine the cr*p it has to cut through.

 

[Thermo]

you wil be fine with a14 or 15" bar for what you want to do. A stihl will alst years. easy to look after and easy to fix. Very good level of safety kit. you should be able to get one that suits your needs from a local dealer from that price, or possibly off of the net. Mine get a lot of abuse and just keep goin and going. A couple of decent chains and a sharpening kit is a must as well