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Weird, so the city doesn't allow a gas saw?
Not the OP, but some land management agencies just have weird or incomplete policies. Or just don't have established rules around them. Some people think "battery powered electric" is less dangerous when they are actually much more powerful than comparable size gas powered saws, they just run out of juice much faster.

I've also been in areas where 2 stroke tools were prohibited due to habitat and FS not wanting engine sounds during mating season.
 
Discussion starter · #27 ·
In that case, Gerber makes some good hatchets. I have a mid-size I use for smaller trees.
I just pulled the trigger on a 17" Gerber because the Fiskars were out of stock. I'm looking for something to hammer wedges in more than retrieving my blade though.
I'm going to go with the 17" Gerber as well. It looks like the Gerber and Fiskars hatchets are the same anyway, except that Fiskars doesn't have a 17" chopping hatchet, only a splitting one. I figure the 17" will fit in my pack, isn't too heavy, has a long enough reach to get into a larger log if needed, and even use two handed grip if tired.
 
Discussion starter · #28 ·
Weird, so the city doesn't allow a gas saw?
Technically the policy for all city and county parks here is that volunteers are not allowed to use power tools. However the park managers for the city park I volunteer in the most have ok'ed battery powered tools, mostly because they are quiet and don't draw attention, but also because their worker crew is usually too busy to deal with fallen trees on singletrack and they recognize it's impractical for volunteers to only use hand tools. The county parks do not allow volunteers to use chainsaws at all, and will send workers to cut out fallen trees.
 
The county parks do not allow volunteers to use chainsaws at all, and will send workers to cut out fallen trees.
This is fine so long as they actually... do it. We're dealing with Army Corp here and the local managers don't want us out there doing saw work and don't clear the trails in a timely fashion either. They just closed the trails after the last major event and after a few months, a bunch of rogue crews got it opened back up.
 
Discussion starter · #31 ·
This is fine so long as they actually... do it. We're dealing with Army Corp here and the local managers don't want us out there doing saw work and don't clear the trails in a timely fashion either. They just closed the trails after the last major event and after a few months, a bunch of rogue crews got it opened back up.
Yeah, it used to be more of an issue, but now there are Rangers which will push them on it if not done in a timely fashion. However, the volunteer crews are still allowed to use hand tools to clear fallen trees, so several of them have taken up axe chopping as a hobby. One guy in particular really enjoys chopping out 24" diameter red oaks with an axe and using a come-along to move the pieces.
 
Yeah, it used to be more of an issue, but now there are Rangers which will push them on it if not done in a timely fashion. However, the volunteer crews are still allowed to use hand tools to clear fallen trees, so several of them have taken up axe chopping as a hobby. One guy in particular really enjoys chopping out 24" diameter red oaks with an axe and using a come-along to move the pieces.
The scorpions are a local trail crew and they do a huge amount of clearing with 2 person crosscut saws.
 
So I got that 18" Gerber hatchet and it's A+. We were clearing some pretty good sized logs... well big for me anyhow, they were bigger than the 25" bar on my saw and my blade got stuck... several times actually. I was doing my certification and I've honestly never had much issue with blades getting bound, but Sunday my blade got stuck hard 2-3 times. Don't have a ton of pictures, but this was the first one.

I wound up using the hatchet to pound in wedges to get the saw out the first time. The second one (not pictured) wasn't as deep, but had a crazy twist and the wedges didn't really help so I ended up just chopping the wood out on both sides of the blade until it was freed up.

It's perhaps a bit on the light side for pounding in wedges, but when you are carrying it half a mile in and out, it's always a bit of a compromise. The Gerber is just about the perfect size to fit into my old school HAWG Camelbak along with a couple cans of fuel, my wedges, and a few other odds and ends.

1932103
 
So I got that 18" Gerber hatchet and it's A+. We were clearing some pretty good sized logs... well big for me anyhow, they were bigger than the 25" bar on my saw and my blade got stuck... several times actually. I was doing my certification and I've honestly never had much issue with blades getting bound, but Sunday my blade got stuck hard 2-3 times. Don't have a ton of pictures, but this was the first one.

I wound up using the hatchet to pound in wedges to get the saw out the first time. The second one (not pictured) wasn't as deep, but had a crazy twist and the wedges didn't really help so I ended up just chopping the wood out on both sides of the blade until it was freed up.

It's perhaps a bit on the light side for pounding in wedges, but when you are carrying it half a mile in and out, it's always a bit of a compromise. The Gerber is just about the perfect size to fit into my old school HAWG Camelbak along with a couple cans of fuel, my wedges, and a few other odds and ends.
I am no chainsaw expert, but I stopped getting my bar stuck once I started borecutting any deadfall that looks like it might bind up. It seems to work better than wedges, and it is less hassle. I wouldn't do it when you are getting certified, or supervised, but if you watch some videos about how to do it you can see it can be done safely.
 
I am no chainsaw expert, but I stopped getting my bar stuck once I started borecutting any deadfall that looks like it might bind up. It seems to work better than wedges, and it is less hassle. I wouldn't do it when you are getting certified, or supervised, but if you watch some videos about how to do it you can see it can be done safely.
I was bore cutting the first time I got the blade stuck. It's my preferred way of doing bigger logs.

The second time was too thin to bore cut, it was about half of a 18" log. Just had a ton of energy in a big twist.

Hard to explain in a post without pictures.
 
steel wedges are for splitting firewood rounds. the plastic wedges you can cut thru.
one thing to do is think about the pinch points and where is the weight going to go. sometimes diaganol cuts work better than just straight ones. sometimes you need to cut from the bottom to the top, not just the top, down. it comes in time, and know when to say no. your instructor is right, you don't need wedges all the time, but when you do, you do.
 
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