92fstech -- I'm not completely certain why the new chain cuts so much faster. It felt almost as if I upgraded the powerhead from a 400 to a 462. I realize the new chain is the true "pro" design, but the old one also was a full-chisel. And as a chain that has been filed a lot, the kerf is narrower & should be more efficient. The new chain just bites deeper into the wood. I didn't have to pressure the saw to cut rock-hard crystalized-sap dead branches. If I used too much pressure while making the felling cuts with the bar fully buried, the chain speed would really bog down. I checked raker depth, and both chains are really close to .025", so no difference there. Mongo like new chain.

ridewv -- We don't have a machine with a grapple. We have an old tractor with forklift attachments for the front bucket, but the tractor isn't on site this winter. A few times we've rented a skid steer and dump trailer to better more the logs. Which means I do a lot of manual labor and grunting.

Over the past few months I've done quite a bit of chainsaw work. Felled quite a few trees, trimmed up messy areas, and cut off old stumps to ground level. I've burned about of half of the considerable stock of pre-mix fuel I accumulated by early winter. Here's a recent big tree -- 33 inches at the knee-high felling cut, and at least 75 feet tall.

This tree died roughly 2 years ago. I wasn't in a super hurry to get it down, as it seemed pretty solid. I knew it required a very precise fall to the SE, to avoid crushing or getting tangled up in nearby trees. I was on that part of the property a few weeks ago and noticed that it developed a pronounced lean to the South, which wasn't a good place to have it naturally fall. The roots were failing on the north side of the tree -- the ground had bulged upwards a few inches. So, the tree had to come down. The before pic. You can see how it leans to the South, towards the truck, and towards some really good trees on the left of the creekbed channel. I wanted to fall the tree more-or-less towards the camera position. I suspected the branches on the skyline would be broken (they were), and I aimed towards a couple of saplings which I was willing to sacrifice.



I changed my normal 20" bar for the 24" bar. It's interesting that the slightly longer bar changed the saw's balance and handling so much. I definitely noticed the additional weight and length while cleaning up the face cut -- aka the "notch". With a near-perfect face cut, I switched to the felling cut -- aka the "back cut". I wanted everything to be as good as possible, as swinging such a big tree 45 degrees counter clockwise of its natural lean sometimes doesn't go as planned. With maybe 4-5 inches of holding wood left, the tree started to creak & pop, and the felling cut opened up noticeably. I decided to let physics take its course, and not cut any more of the hinge. I shut off the saw, stepped away to the north. The tree crackled for a couple of minutes, then went down after a loud pop. Yeehaw, right where I aimed. Trimming and moving the branches took some time.



I was pleased that only a couple of live branches were stripped from nearby trees. No larger trees were damaged to any real extent. As for the 2 little saplings --- they both survived, as you can see in the bottom part of this picture. The trunk fell exactly between them, temporarily bending them to the sides. But once I bucked and removed the trunk logs, both saplings sprang back to their original positions -- not really worse for the wear.



I still have a few big trees to deal with, and a crap ton of old stumps to trim down.

I saw a large collection of sugar maple forks down at a friends house today. I didn’t plan but fit in to cut one load of firewood there, it’s close. There’s about 1/2 a load left, maybe tomorrow.

After these storms & Spring is a great time for firewood. Many are on to other activities. I’m actually almost swamped with wood options right now.

I’m normally a Stihl guy but I’ve been really digging my Echo 590 ‘Timberwolf’. I put on an 18” bar & a straight pipe from fleabay. I wait until at least 9 am to crank it up, sounds like a dirt bike.

quote:

Originally posted by sourdough44:
..a straight pipe...

?

^^ ‘Straight Pipe’ = NO muffler and possibly NO spark arrestor either, so kind of a DIY race saw.

May I suggest 'Timber-Badger' as a more appropriate moniker for that angry beast.

Yes, I can pretty much see the piston.

I'm steadily felling the standing dead trees on our land. There aren't that many left.

A related project is shaving old tree stumps as close as possible to the ground. A few years ago I drove the old pickup into a rock-hard stump that was maybe 8-9 inches tall. The sun was low in the sky, dirty windshield --- bam, snapped the right steering tie rod. For the most part, these are stumps that my ancestors didn't cut very low. Some of them are heavily rotted -- essentially falling apart. Others are comprised of dense pitch-laden wood, that's very dense and very tough. Cutting old stumps so low to the ground is hard on the saw -- chain, bar, clutch, engine. There's almost always sand in the bark, which dulls chains very quickly. Bar & chain get very hot, oil smokes from the cutting kerf. I generally use my older semi-chisel chains, and I often have to resharpen them every half tank of fuel. I've worn out 3 old chains so far in 2026. I'm down to only 1 old chain in my inventory. When the stump is really dirty I'll slap on the carbide-tooth chain, which doesn't cut as quickly, but is less affected by dirt.

I toss the rotten stumps in ravines for erosion control, but I keep the pitchy stumps for future burning. The dense wood burns like is was soaked in gasoline. After splitting into smaller pieces, it's a good fire starter. In some parts of the country they call such small-diameter sticks as "fatwood". Here's the current pile of stumps -- a lot of fatwood.



Bottom line -- it's a lot less hazardous to drive vehicles in our forested areas now. I still have some stumps to shave down, but the worst of the work is behind me.