Nothing competes with skill, experience and American “know how”. Awesome. Must have been done in a conservative county, guessing no one went to jail.
9
I’m the proud owner of a Stihl O90 chainsaw. It’s the most powerful one-man chainsaw Stihl has ever made. It is a beast. They were outlawed in America many years ago for several reasons. One reason is the lack of pollution control devices and the fact that it doesn’t have a chain break/anti kickback feature built in to it. The thing that makes mine so unique is that it had a large bow saw instead of a typical bar. Bow saws were used for a very specialized kind of work. Bow saws were completely outlawed in the US because they were deemed so dangerous. I used it for years and got very good with it but you have to be super careful and take extra safety measures. They have been known to disembowel men who got careless with them. I know a guy who watched a man walk out of the woods holding his guts in his hands who had been using one. Two years ago, I decided to retire the bow saw and I put a 36 inch bar on my O90. Stihl rated the O90 to run with a bar up to 72 inches long but 36 inches is all I should ever need. I can convert it back to the bow saw if I want to. The Stihl O90 was known as the King of the Forest back in the day and was mostly used in the Pacific Northwest and Canada and for the redwoods when they were being harvested. They are also used in the jungles of South America to harvest very large trees there. After Hurricane Rita, I lost several very large red oak trees on my property. When the power company linemen came weeks later to put the power lines back up in our subdivision, they were working like dogs with a couple of chainsaws to clear the trees off of the power lines in my yard. I asked them if I could speed things up for them by using my saw and they kind of laughed and said sure. When I put that O90 to work they couldn’t believe their eyes. They had never seen a saw like that and marveled at the stream of wood shavings shooting through the air and the speed which the saw went through the logs. I saved them several hours of work. I don’t use it very often now as it is such a heavy monster and I’m getting too old to be throwing my back out. YouTube “Stihl O90” for a look at what they can do. It’s pretty amazing.
28
Hey Hambone – Back in 1972 (damn, I’m gettin’ old) we had a good many pine trees that the pine beetles had infested and killed on my dad’s land (about 80 acres or trees and pasture in the family for about 100 years by then). I was 10 years old and my brother was 12, so we were somewhat decent labor for doing this family project of clearing the dead pines before the wind could carry the beetles into the healthy pines (although we had to cut a few healthy pines too).
My dad bought a Poulan, bow-blade chainsaw (24 inch if I remember correctly) on the recommendation of several people he knew that cut pulpwood and they told him a bow blade could be dangerous, but was a better choice if he learned how to use it properly.
We cut pine trees for about 1.5 years after school (after my dad got off of work at his regular job as a “loom fixer” in a textile mill) and on weekends clearing the dead ones closest to the live, green ones first. We were able to save most of the trees for later use (they are still there today and need harvesting) We still have the saw although it isn’t in running condition these days. But my dad sawed down probably a couple of hundred or more large lob-lolly and yellow pine trees with that old saw. It took a real man to run it back in those days – it was heavy and had a tendency to “buck” if you didn’t watch what you were doing.
My brother and I pulled brush away, helped push the trees in the right direction to fall (with “push poles”), stacked pulpwood and helped load it onto trucks by hand. At 12 years old I could load anything one of the “regulars” (adults) could that normally loaded the trucks. It was hard work, but made a “man” out of me earlier than most of my peers (physically at least).
By the time my dad sold the wood (lighter than it would have been because the trees were damaged and dead from the pine beetles), he lost a couple of hundred dollars on the deal counting the cost of the chainsaw, the trips to the property and the oil and gas. But he gave me and my brother $100 each for our work. I still have the single shot, shot gun and the pellet rifle I purchased with the money (and had a few dollars left). Plus the memories of working hard with my dad which is worth more than any amount of money to me now.
That old saw was pretty heavy and powerful too. It would make a lot of difference in America if more kids these days had to do that kind of work at some point in their lives.
19
Our first house we heated with wood so my wife and I along with my dad and my brother and my uncle who was a logger and a millwright spent our Summers cutting firewood in the forests Of NE Washington and N. Idaho from the late 70’s till 1990 when we moved. We had an old Fisher wood burning stove which is probably outlawed now because it doesn’t meet pollution standards. We got real good at cutting down red firs and tamaracks and other trees for firewood. I was pretty good at cutting down trees but my uncle who really knew what he was doing was far better at it. I miss heating with wood but our house now is heated with natural gas which is more convenient but not as warming as having a wood stove in the house. I admire anyone who can do this kind of hard work and do it well. And it is dangerous but someone needs to do it as well as these older guys do.
8
Essential Craftsmen is an excellent channel. I first found it because Scott is a Blacksmith and is very knowledgeable about a great variety of things. And apparently now, he’s a Lumberjack (and he’s okay!)
5
Hambone, Bubba, Geoff –
Awesome stories, guys!
Nowadays, it’s a computer game or ‘there’s an app for that.’ And the kids show it.
10
Bubba’s Brother, Hambone, geoff the aardvark = Great writing with vivid imagery. Thanks for sharing.
Last year we left living on a mountain in SW Colorado and headed to no-more-snow Florida. Age happens, you know. We dropped some pines and had the power company (no charge) drop those in poor health near the power lines, but we remember the sound of trees falling in the forest as a comforting music whether the trees were ours or a neighbor, the houses would be hot and toasty in winter. I miss the smell of the winter air.
11
I’m incensed by that video.
2
Well now I’m a gonna haf to watch tree-felling videos all day! LOVE this stuff. Don’t really know why. Very addictive.
5
Did anyone read the comments left at the video? Several have said that they wished they never got degrees in college and had entered a trade school instead. I wonder how many people out there wished they had done the same? The tides are turning though, many high school graduates are entering trade schools. We have a lineman school here with lots of young men attending.
4
FYI this is in Oregon.
3
Candy –
SW Colorado to Florida?
That’s gotta be a major culture/nature shock. No ‘gators in Durango and no elk in Florida.
3
Goldenfoxx –
I walked away from college after one year because i couldn’t declare a major. 45 yrs later, i’m still trying to figure out what I want to ‘be’ when I grow up.
The greatest move I ever made.
8
.45-70 LOL! True statement.
5
Been watching Essential Craftsman for years.
If anyone wants to come play with some chainsaws, I have a lot of work to do. I figured it would be fun to cut, split and stack wood.
It’s a lot of work! It needs to be done during winter months and this year I’m getting nothing done.
The ground is frozen 4-5″ however we keep getting warm weather. Just yesterday it was near 60°, unfortunately in the woods, that’s only enough to thaw the top inch of ground. Which is wet because it just thawed and now it’s slippery!
I hate winters like this. Either stay cold, get warm or fack off!
4
I too love this stuff. I spend hours watching saw mills in action.
Youtube Clark Lumber, Oregon Mill Walkthrough. Many more. Absolutely amazing.
2
By the way, I inherited that Stihl O90 chainsaw from my dad. He taught me how to use it safely. He once had a place on the lake that he and my mom would go to and relax. In the cabin next door, a group of youngsters had a party that lasted all night. They were loud and drunk. Very early the next morning, my dad took out his Stihl O90 and went to town cutting up logs very close to their cabin. You can’t imagine what that saw sounds like. It shakes windows in the immediate area. Later that day, they came over and apologized to my parents and promised to never do that again. My dad said they looked like the walking dead.
6
HAMBONE,
Ha Ha
That was you?
Been there. Done that. Twice.
On Both Sides.
Haven’t we all?
Whatta Ride.
4
Check out Hull Oakes Lumber Co. Full video.
2
O_O
Skills Saw User II, Ret
Multi Ply
How much dues the quarters cost?
Nothing more satisfying than firing up your saw after a sharpening session and running it like a hot knife through butter on a big old downed oak.
4
Moe Tom –
** Check out Hull Oakes Lumber **
I just did. Pretty dang cool. But, i just buy my boards at Lowes. 😁
1
I noticed they called the safety line connected to the tree a – straw line or hay wire. So I found this explanation of the phrase – go haywire – interesting.
Nothing competes with skill, experience and American “know how”. Awesome. Must have been done in a conservative county, guessing no one went to jail.
I’m the proud owner of a Stihl O90 chainsaw. It’s the most powerful one-man chainsaw Stihl has ever made. It is a beast. They were outlawed in America many years ago for several reasons. One reason is the lack of pollution control devices and the fact that it doesn’t have a chain break/anti kickback feature built in to it. The thing that makes mine so unique is that it had a large bow saw instead of a typical bar. Bow saws were used for a very specialized kind of work. Bow saws were completely outlawed in the US because they were deemed so dangerous. I used it for years and got very good with it but you have to be super careful and take extra safety measures. They have been known to disembowel men who got careless with them. I know a guy who watched a man walk out of the woods holding his guts in his hands who had been using one. Two years ago, I decided to retire the bow saw and I put a 36 inch bar on my O90. Stihl rated the O90 to run with a bar up to 72 inches long but 36 inches is all I should ever need. I can convert it back to the bow saw if I want to. The Stihl O90 was known as the King of the Forest back in the day and was mostly used in the Pacific Northwest and Canada and for the redwoods when they were being harvested. They are also used in the jungles of South America to harvest very large trees there. After Hurricane Rita, I lost several very large red oak trees on my property. When the power company linemen came weeks later to put the power lines back up in our subdivision, they were working like dogs with a couple of chainsaws to clear the trees off of the power lines in my yard. I asked them if I could speed things up for them by using my saw and they kind of laughed and said sure. When I put that O90 to work they couldn’t believe their eyes. They had never seen a saw like that and marveled at the stream of wood shavings shooting through the air and the speed which the saw went through the logs. I saved them several hours of work. I don’t use it very often now as it is such a heavy monster and I’m getting too old to be throwing my back out. YouTube “Stihl O90” for a look at what they can do. It’s pretty amazing.
Hey Hambone – Back in 1972 (damn, I’m gettin’ old) we had a good many pine trees that the pine beetles had infested and killed on my dad’s land (about 80 acres or trees and pasture in the family for about 100 years by then). I was 10 years old and my brother was 12, so we were somewhat decent labor for doing this family project of clearing the dead pines before the wind could carry the beetles into the healthy pines (although we had to cut a few healthy pines too).
My dad bought a Poulan, bow-blade chainsaw (24 inch if I remember correctly) on the recommendation of several people he knew that cut pulpwood and they told him a bow blade could be dangerous, but was a better choice if he learned how to use it properly.
We cut pine trees for about 1.5 years after school (after my dad got off of work at his regular job as a “loom fixer” in a textile mill) and on weekends clearing the dead ones closest to the live, green ones first. We were able to save most of the trees for later use (they are still there today and need harvesting) We still have the saw although it isn’t in running condition these days. But my dad sawed down probably a couple of hundred or more large lob-lolly and yellow pine trees with that old saw. It took a real man to run it back in those days – it was heavy and had a tendency to “buck” if you didn’t watch what you were doing.
My brother and I pulled brush away, helped push the trees in the right direction to fall (with “push poles”), stacked pulpwood and helped load it onto trucks by hand. At 12 years old I could load anything one of the “regulars” (adults) could that normally loaded the trucks. It was hard work, but made a “man” out of me earlier than most of my peers (physically at least).
By the time my dad sold the wood (lighter than it would have been because the trees were damaged and dead from the pine beetles), he lost a couple of hundred dollars on the deal counting the cost of the chainsaw, the trips to the property and the oil and gas. But he gave me and my brother $100 each for our work. I still have the single shot, shot gun and the pellet rifle I purchased with the money (and had a few dollars left). Plus the memories of working hard with my dad which is worth more than any amount of money to me now.
That old saw was pretty heavy and powerful too. It would make a lot of difference in America if more kids these days had to do that kind of work at some point in their lives.
Our first house we heated with wood so my wife and I along with my dad and my brother and my uncle who was a logger and a millwright spent our Summers cutting firewood in the forests Of NE Washington and N. Idaho from the late 70’s till 1990 when we moved. We had an old Fisher wood burning stove which is probably outlawed now because it doesn’t meet pollution standards. We got real good at cutting down red firs and tamaracks and other trees for firewood. I was pretty good at cutting down trees but my uncle who really knew what he was doing was far better at it. I miss heating with wood but our house now is heated with natural gas which is more convenient but not as warming as having a wood stove in the house. I admire anyone who can do this kind of hard work and do it well. And it is dangerous but someone needs to do it as well as these older guys do.
Essential Craftsmen is an excellent channel. I first found it because Scott is a Blacksmith and is very knowledgeable about a great variety of things. And apparently now, he’s a Lumberjack (and he’s okay!)
Hambone, Bubba, Geoff –
Awesome stories, guys!
Nowadays, it’s a computer game or ‘there’s an app for that.’ And the kids show it.
Bubba’s Brother, Hambone, geoff the aardvark = Great writing with vivid imagery. Thanks for sharing.
Last year we left living on a mountain in SW Colorado and headed to no-more-snow Florida. Age happens, you know. We dropped some pines and had the power company (no charge) drop those in poor health near the power lines, but we remember the sound of trees falling in the forest as a comforting music whether the trees were ours or a neighbor, the houses would be hot and toasty in winter. I miss the smell of the winter air.
I’m incensed by that video.
Well now I’m a gonna haf to watch tree-felling videos all day! LOVE this stuff. Don’t really know why. Very addictive.
Did anyone read the comments left at the video? Several have said that they wished they never got degrees in college and had entered a trade school instead. I wonder how many people out there wished they had done the same? The tides are turning though, many high school graduates are entering trade schools. We have a lineman school here with lots of young men attending.
FYI this is in Oregon.
Candy –
SW Colorado to Florida?
That’s gotta be a major culture/nature shock. No ‘gators in Durango and no elk in Florida.
Goldenfoxx –
I walked away from college after one year because i couldn’t declare a major. 45 yrs later, i’m still trying to figure out what I want to ‘be’ when I grow up.
The greatest move I ever made.
.45-70 LOL! True statement.
Been watching Essential Craftsman for years.
If anyone wants to come play with some chainsaws, I have a lot of work to do. I figured it would be fun to cut, split and stack wood.
It’s a lot of work! It needs to be done during winter months and this year I’m getting nothing done.
The ground is frozen 4-5″ however we keep getting warm weather. Just yesterday it was near 60°, unfortunately in the woods, that’s only enough to thaw the top inch of ground. Which is wet because it just thawed and now it’s slippery!
I hate winters like this. Either stay cold, get warm or fack off!
I too love this stuff. I spend hours watching saw mills in action.
Youtube Clark Lumber, Oregon Mill Walkthrough. Many more. Absolutely amazing.
By the way, I inherited that Stihl O90 chainsaw from my dad. He taught me how to use it safely. He once had a place on the lake that he and my mom would go to and relax. In the cabin next door, a group of youngsters had a party that lasted all night. They were loud and drunk. Very early the next morning, my dad took out his Stihl O90 and went to town cutting up logs very close to their cabin. You can’t imagine what that saw sounds like. It shakes windows in the immediate area. Later that day, they came over and apologized to my parents and promised to never do that again. My dad said they looked like the walking dead.
HAMBONE,
Ha Ha
That was you?
Been there. Done that. Twice.
On Both Sides.
Haven’t we all?
Whatta Ride.
Check out Hull Oakes Lumber Co. Full video.
O_O
Skills Saw User II, Ret
Multi Ply
How much dues the quarters cost?
Nothing more satisfying than firing up your saw after a sharpening session and running it like a hot knife through butter on a big old downed oak.
Moe Tom –
** Check out Hull Oakes Lumber **
I just did. Pretty dang cool. But, i just buy my boards at Lowes. 😁
I noticed they called the safety line connected to the tree a – straw line or hay wire. So I found this explanation of the phrase – go haywire – interesting.
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/go-haywire.html .
However, here’s a real catalog listing for – straw line or hay wire
https://www.westechrigging.com/logging-supplies-strawline—haywire.html .