I almost put this whole post in my favorite Backyard Survivin' thread, but these birch trees that needed to come down were in my front yard. Chiral's post is a tough act to follow, but this is the best I got
Also, my yard work really solidified that I just don't like this Silky saw, I LOVE it. It's such a great working tool that is easy to use and is more versatile than I thought.
Last spring I used my cute, little laplander to take down the first sickly birch. Today was time for the other two. Here are my tools for the job. Please notice the totally sexy and functional carbon fiber blade cover made by our very own Dr. Hale.
I was excited to go all lumberjack on the tree with my Fiskars hatchet, but due to equal parts of poor technique and not having the right size tool for the job, it did not go as planned. Bigboy to the rescue!
This was much easier.
Down she goes.
Through all the use there was some considerable loosening of the blade, but my surge fixed the problem with a quarter turn of the screw.
I can't get over how smooth this thing cuts!
Tonight's fire is brought to you by the dried out top third of the mighty birch.
CruForge reporting for fire duty.
Here are some random thoughts on the Silky Bigboy 2000 after an afternoon of tree felling and processing and how it might relate to actually being out in the wild.
In an urban, yard work setting it felt easier and safer to use than the hatchet. I spent some time on a ladder reaching to cut above my head, which was doable with the saw, but not with a small axe. Not only did the 14 inch saw blade give me extra reach, but swinging a hatchet on a ladder would most likely be my last mistake on this earth. Both my girls were running around "helping" and I had to make sure they were in the other part of the yard when I was hatcheting, but the saw was not an issue when they were near. Previously I had thought the teeth size of this Bigboy were too large for finger-sized branches. I found that keeping the branches absolutely still was more important than the diameter. If I held it down securely, the medium teeth worked fine on pinky finger-sized branches.
For those who spend multiple nights in the woods or do more wood work, does an axe have more advantage to a saw other than splitting or hammering? When we're talking about tools that take up a similar amount of space in a pack, the saw gets more work done for me easier and safer and quicker than the hatchet. When I take into account that the Fiskars weighs 1 lb 8.6 oz and the Silky just 14.7 oz I struggle to find a reason to choose the hatchet over the saw......... for my uses and (lack of) skill set.
Size comparison with 4.7 as reference.