How To Chainsaw Like a Boss. This Could Save Your Life.

Chainsaw tips, tricks, and techniques every saw owner should know! This video builds on my previous chainsaw videos that are listed below:

Guide to felling dead trees:
Full Chainsawing playlist:
No Nonsense Guide to Tree Felling:
No Nonsense Guide to Chainsaw Sharpening:
How to Chainsaw Like a Boss:

Recommendations of chainsaw and tree equipment in my Amazon store.
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0:00 Introduction
1:06 Gauging a tree's lean
1:50 Roping & limbing to control fall
2:24 Conventional Wedge & Humboldt Wedge
3:06 Chaps and personal protective equipment
4:20 Cutting a Humboldt wedge
8:21 Sloped back-cuts
10:55 Wedges in back-cut
11:31 Dropping the tree
13:22 Escape route
14:51 Cutting up a dropped tree
16:28 limb cutting technique
19:29 Cutting up the tree
23:55 Kickback and freeing a stuck saw
28:35 Cutting main trunk
32:42 Cant hook demonstration
33:36 Tricky section with tips
35:17 Stump
37:49 Limbing with a pole saw
40:32 Outro

[AceRph]

I had been cutting firewood to help a buddy for 5 or 6 years after retiring. After my brother mentioned using chaps and their benefits, I bought a pair. I didn't have them on for more than an hour when I brushed my leg with a running saw in a moment of inattention. I was a long way from town in a place with no cell service. Maybe a bit overstated, but I'm pretty sure that the chaps were some of the best money I've ever spent.

[KowboyUSA]

Mid-70s and retired now, but logged and fought forest fires for decades. You're certainly right about sawing and felling being dangerous. Not quite as dangerous as being on Alec Baldwin movie set, but close.

[robertgiguere]

I’m a homeowner who cuts down 2 or 3 trees/ year, and need all the help I can get. This is the best video I’ve ever seen to address all the issues I have or cause. Thank you!

[richardwathen]

I am a professional qualified arborist and this is an excellent video for home/garden people. Exactly as NPTC training / assessment (UK qualification) goes. Good job. My only criticsm is full PPE at all times, but very good video

[patrickreinthal]

Regarding escaping from the falling tree: Here in Sweden they teach chainsaw course students to make it a habit to use the chain brake as soon as they stop cutting. If you stumble and fall onto the running saw, nothing dangerous will happen.

[brentboere]

Love the fact that you don't hide your mistakes. You make them, explain them and then offer advice on how to correct them.
I don't cut professionally and only have a couple big, hardwood trees under my belt, so I know nothing about cutting compared to my knowledge of the saw itself.
Just a diyer with a major in mechanics.

Really amazed by and appreciate the knowledge you share for free for guys like me.

[jerrymccormick]

The “best” part of your videos is your willingness to show your mistakes, such as when you were not happy with the results of your first attempt to cut the wedge from the base of the tree. Taking time to explain why you were not happy with those results was actually much more informative than if you had made the first cuts exactly right and then moved on to the next step.

[FreezingToad]

As someone who has only dropped three trees before, the tips in this video help me see where my past issues came from and what not to do in the future. Really appreciate the time and effort you put into this!

[uncledinkum]

Great video. Another tip - I now make sure I have a peice of chalk with me and draw the wedge and the cut before I start cutting. Makes it a LOT easier to see where you need to cut.

[kenlipworth]

I have watched dozens, maybe even hundreds, of chainsaw related videos, and this one is without doubt the best of them all.
The way you demonstrate how things goes wrong e.g, getting the bar pinched, and how to get out of those situations is of immense value to people learning the craft. Your explanations of the physics about tension and compression are perfectly clear and understandable.
You are a generous and natural teacher. Thank you for putting in so much effort.

[lynnkhosla]

As a 65-year-old woman with her first "lady sized" (not 36" bar) chain saw, I've found your instructions to be the clearest and best teaching of any of the many I've watched. I get more comfortable with my saw all the time and am feeling ready to fell my first trees. The info on cutting branches was also very helpful. I have 18 acres on an island in Maine and working with wood - cutting, stacking, and burning it - is my favorite thing to do. Wish I had started a few decades ago ...

[cindynagy]

My husband cut trees for over 20 years. He tried bringing the bottom half of a tree down with wedges. Why? I have no idea. He always cut wedges out first. Tree slid down and came back on him. He was killed instantly. Only 49. Listen to this man. NEVER SHOVE WEDGES IN A TREE TO BRING IT DOWN!! That was 2 1/2 years ago. Feels like yesterday.

[MrTruckerf]

I have been running a saw for 15 years (I am 66) and my dad ran a saw for 51 years. The trick about leaving a stuck bar in the wood and removing the motor is something I never thought about. I usually have 4 or 5 saws of different sizes with me so it is not a problem if I stick one. Thanks for making these videos; they are well done and informative!

[colemcleod]

With this one video alone, you have saved the life of everybody that watches this video about seven different ways, on the ground while felling a tree, or up on a ladder especially. Thank you for this masterclass in the basic do's and dont's.
Your teaching method is outstanding, especially demonstrating doing things wrong deliberately, and then showing us how to get out of it and then conversely, how to do it correctly in the first place. I can think of maybe one other guy on YouTube for teaching as well as you, such valuable lessons in using a chainsaw. Thank you for the life-saving service you provide in teaching intelligent use of Chainsaw. Hopefully there will be no more YouTube disaster videos of men getting smoked by a tree trunk or branch snapping off...

[whataworld]

As a seasoned tree chopper I give this a thumbs up. Only thing you forgot is an important one... always check for wildlife up the tree before you begin. I'm had a large porcupine almost land on me, and once a baby sasquatch which turned into quite the scary ordeal so i always advise looking up and checking best you can !

[KennyC]

Been climbing and cutting trees for 35 years. This was a good refresher on some things and new information on others. Enjoying your videos! Thx!

[Enigma-Sapiens]

From someone with over 40 years of experience around chainsaws and tree felling/removal, excellent advice, and job! When that stump starts to dry out drill some holes in it and soak it occasionally in some diesel/waste oil mix. Then when you burn it, it burns most of the roots along with the stump.

[brucemillar]

An important feature of the Humboldt is that the base of the tree falls off of the stump before the tree lands flat. This produces a much more gentle landing than with the Conventional. Loggers prefer the Humboldt because they get fewer breaks and shakes with it. (A full treatment on notches can be found in "The Fundamentals of General Tree Work" by G.F. Beranek.)

[artk]

I've probably cut down hundreds of trees in my life time. Always used an angled back cut. 2 days ago I cut down 8 trees. One was 24" diameter Oak. The horizontal back cut makes much more sense once you explained it. It worked perfectly. All the other trees came down as expected. Thanks for the education, I'll never use an angled back cut again.

[johnfirth]

You have saved lives by making this video, well done.