Saws in the wild... what size of wood are you aiming at being able to handle?

peripatew

peripatew

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Jul 31, 2007
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I'm thinking a lot about getting a new saw, and there have been a few posts these past couple days about them. How do you choose the size of your saw? What size wood are you looking at tackling with a saw? I'm looking at a take down buck saw, or a nice folding saw. I already have a pocket chainsaw, but I'd like to try something different. I'm just interested in what everyone is aiming at with their saw purchases?
 
i just bought a new fiskars 6" slide saw, waiting for it to arrive. i got to play with one a while back and was impressed.

with a 6" blade i could probably handle up to around 8 wood if i really wanted to, but i would have to work. more likely around 3-4 inches is around max with this saw.

the longer blade you have the more efficient your cutting will be, assuming all other variables are equal. fewer strokes=less energry used. long blades=fewer strokes, so long blades=less energy used. of course, you have to decide where the threshold for diminishing returns is; meaning is a bucksaw worth the weight and space in your pack if you are only going to be cutting 3" wood? do you want to hope you can find suitable wood in the 3" range and only bring a 6" saw? and so on...

but so far my max required diameter in the woods (away from the household supply of tools) has been around 4.5". i had my large pruning saw with around a 14" blade that made it fairly easy to take long smooth strokes wich made it pretty easy to section up a hard oak log around 4.5" thick.
 
To me, a saw handles wood when you need a lot of it. That means a fire to stay warm with, with means larger wood. In my area, that is 4-6" or so. It is small enough it does not really need split, you just need a good small fire to get them going. On smaller stuff, a machete is faster, and I don't need to take down anything larger in my area.
 
I'm looking at about 6-8" for large stuff. Like you, I have a pocket chainsaw and (as you know) it will handle even bigger logs. For backpacking I like the Silky Super Accel 210. 6-8" is the about the comfortable limit for the SA210. For rafting, canoeing, horse packing, car camping I often bring a Silky Zubat 330mm (and sometimes a 36" bowsaw). They obviously handle 6-8" logs more easily than the SA210.

DancesWithKnives
 
With the fiskars, 2"-3" is about all I'd tackle. Larger and I'm needing to expend to much energy bucking up the rounds, but if that is necessary because of a lack of choice in wood, the largest diameter log I cut up with mine, varied from 6", to about 9". It took some work, but it did fine.
 
I personally don't go for anything much larger then the thickest part of my forearm but like Longbow, I have used the same Fiskars on ~6inch log.
 
The two saws that I have are a SAK and the pocket Chainsaw. I usually will only cut wood that is about 3-6" thick at most. This is usually because I dont have an axe to split wood with and this size batons well.
 
I have an old aluminum frame saw that takes an 18" blade and does quite nicely on anything up to 8" or so. when taken down it makes a pkg 19.5" x 2" x .75" that weighs about a pound and a half. Dad gave it to me 25 years ago, and I have no idea what brand it is, but have been able to get adequate blades at several places over the intervening years.
 
I take a pocket chainsaw, which can handle some pretty large logs, but 3-4" is pretty much all I mess with in the woods. Anything larger requires a larger fire to start, and I prefer building a small fire and getting close over building a huge fire and staying far away. Not to mention that larger logs require a LOT more work, which I try not to do after several hours of backpacking or whatever else I am doing in the woods.
 
I almost never leave home without my SAK Lumberjack which has a nice saw. But for larger 5"-9" trees I have used a 15" bladed Sven Saw for many years. I even bought an extra blade for it and duct taped it to the red aluminum handle, yet I've never had to change the blade yet:thumbup:
I am planning to get a Silky as I've heard nothing but nice things about them and I feel it would be a good go between my SAK and my Sven:)

Mark:D
 
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I carry more saw than I would usually need since for firewood I don't buck up the fuel. However if I wind up having to build a shelter etc. then I wan't to be able to cut larger material than I can with small saws such as on the SAK. With the pocket chainsaw I can cut material even 9 inches plus in diameter if needed.
 
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