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A chainsaw kickback in Boise taught me why I stopped cutting above shoulder height
I was limbing a downed cottonwood on a job near Boise last fall and got complacent with a 20 inch bar, and the kickback clipped my chaps right at the knee. The ER doc said if I had been two inches higher it would have hit my femoral artery, so now I bring a pole saw for anything above chest level. Anyone else got a close call that permanently changed how you run a saw?
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blair_green867d ago
A pole saw for everything above chest level is just trading one risk for another, lmao. Pole saws are way more likely to bind and kick back because you have zero control at the end of all that reach, plus you're often on a ladder or reaching out over your head to get the cut. Half the bad accidents I've heard about on trail crews were guys running pole saws one handed or stretched out on their toes, cutting stuff they couldn't even see. If your form is dialed in and you keep both hands on the saw, cutting at shoulder height with a sharp chain and a proper stance is not the boogeyman people make it out to be. Sounds like the real issue that day was getting complacent, not the height of the cut.
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