Hand Powered Chainsaw
by Matthew Sparkes, London, UK on 07.23.07
We've written before about electric chainsaws, but this is even greener. The hand-powered chainsaw doesn't use any fuel, will never run out of batteries, and is easy to carry. Of course, it's not going to be suitable for clear-cutting hundreds of acres of rain forest, but if you're doing that then you're not worried about the environment anyway.
A small weight allows you to throw one end of the rope over the branch, but it might take some maneuvering to cut the branch without standing underneath it - a fine idea until you cut through that last little section and gravity stops being your friend.
One Boing Boing reader, Dan, has pointed out that these have been around a while, "I have had one of those 'new' chain-on-a-rope saws for almost twenty years. Exactly the same as pictured - yellow rope, red throwing bag, metal plate hanging off one end of the chain. It works, but it is by no means 'effortless'." OK, so maybe it isn't new, but it's still a great idea. ::Hand Powered Chainsaw via ::Boing Boing
The chainsaw does use energy - human energy. So don't fill your 'tank' at McDonalds.
You don't have to stand under the tree limb. Hook the other end to a good strong spring and stake it at an angle so that the tension doesn't yank the stake out of the ground. Then you can stand away from beneath the tree *and* you can use both arms to power the downstroke, while the spring takes care of the uostroke. You don't have 180 degrees of contact with the tree limb, but you won't have to worry about being conked on the head either.
I have one of these and have had mixed success with it. Personally, chainsaws scare the heck out of me. I've seen and heard of too many accidents - even by professionals. Anyway, I got one of these a few years ago and used it to prune some trees around my house. I would say it was about 50% successful. Smaller branches were virtually no problem. However, once you move to larger limbs you can run into a few snags. The biggest being the chain getting bound up in the limb once you reach a certain point where the limb starts to pinch. This required me to get out my climbing gear and scale the tree (I have lineman's belts and strap-on steps) just to get the chain free. Overall, it's a great idea and with some practice and restraint (limit yourself to small/medium limbs) it works pretty well.
Funny how a site called 'Treehugger' has an article about a chainsaw! haha.
I have found them in Sears or Home Depot listed as a 'High Limb Cutter'.
Good for removing dangerous branches that you can't get to.
vk
yep, I had to seek out one of these also to get some limbs about 20ft up. Too high for the polesaw.
It seemed to work great on small limbs. The clip holding the bag isn't durable enought to handle pulling the bag over limbs that you mistakenly snagged.
Anything thinner that 4 inches is pretty easy. Craftsman makes one.
Sadly this is a tool that will result in potential personal injury and practically guarantees bad cut on trees, a living organism !
Pruning correctly demands 3 cuts, the first is an undercut, 2nd is just down from this, which will result in the branch falling with a relatively clean cut. The final cut is behind these and slightly above the branch collar. This technique will result in the tree having the ability to compartmentalize the wound to avoid, reduce the ingress of viruses, bacteria and insect in order to leave a strong healthy tree.
If you can not do this please employ a credible arborist. You'd take your dog to the vet, you'd take yourself to a doctor why would you not get a professional person to care for your tree!!!
It is usually about the money ????!!!!!!!!!!!
That would take an eternity to get through a good sized limb. I can see how it would be useful when cutting a thick limb thats up high. Your certainly going to be feeling that one the morning after though.