We seem to have lost our original poster. I was initially considering not posting on this topic because it had the flavour of something put together to court controversy, the ford vs Holden type debates. However, the weird thing is I was given one of these larger capacity Stihl “landowner” range saws.
A relative whom I was close to passed away and, a little later, his widow decided to sell their property and we were all invited back to the old place to say goodbye to a spot that held strong memories. There were a few things earmarked for certain people, among them this saw that had maybe been used twice. In her words “I asked him what he wanted a new saw for at his age and he said he had a couple of jobs but it was really for you, so please take it”. Embarrassed, I initially tried to leave it behind but when I came back later after running some errands she repeated her instruction and gave me one of those looks that said I wasn’t to argue.
I took the saw home and as we’d had a few big stringybarks and peppermints come down in a storm I thought I’d use it for the cleanup job. A sort of “memorial cleanup”, exactly the sort of thing the bloke who’d bought the saw would have thought it’d be used for. These were decent sized trees, I measured one at just over 30metres, and there were enough of them that it was going to take some time. The saw performed without fault. A day and a half cutting a mix of dry and green eucalypt, hardly the easiest of work, it did a great job.
This, however, is partly where my comment about the contrast with a professional saw comes from. On that second day it started to spit a bit of rain and working on the slope I was conscious that my pace was slower and that I’d been working pretty hard. Around lunchtime I went back up to the house and grabbed one of my professional saws and used that to finish the job.
I’ve used professional saws from Husqvarna and Stihl for the great majority of my cutting over recent years. It’s been mostly Stihl, initially because my grandfather, who worked in the timber industry for more than 60 years and my father had Stihl saws. However, my local Stihl dealer has been as solid and dependable as anyone could hope for and that’s why I’ve kept going back.
The saw I was given didn’t do anything wrong, far from it, and if I’d not had a list of other jobs as long as my arm I would have continued using it. However, I knew that there was a lighter, more powerful saw sitting there. That saw let me get the rest of the work done in a day. When, if I’d kept going with the other saw, it would have been at least an extra half day on top of that. As important as the time saving was the reduced fatigue. Working on steep slopes and with hung up trees can be tough work, you really need to keep your wits about you or you can end up in a real pickle.
Anyhow, maybe this saw I have is from a different batch or something but there’s certainly nothing wrong with it. I was thinking that for someone like me it’d be ideal as a saw on a secondary property, so you didn’t have to cart your main saws to and fro unless you had a big job on. For the moment it’s sitting with my other saws.
