Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Saw Size ?

I have an old Stihl, forget the size, but 18 inch bar, needs a new cylinder/piston and rings, will be a backup.

Then have a newer 271 with 18 inch bar.

Also keep a tiny echo for small stuff.

But figuring soon enough will be up there, and probably would be a good idea to have one big saw. Stihl is located in Delta so thats service/parts and so we stay with Stihl. I can buy one here in the meantime.

Question, what bar for a big one? 30 or 36 inch? I'm assuming I can find both sizes. Have not googled yet. And what model or "engine" size.

Would be for 10-12 or so cords a year, IE our winter heat generally, I don't think I"ll be cutting firewood to pay the bills and if we do end up I'd bet we'll have to buy bigger and better saws or at least a couple extras anyway.

Appreciate the input. This will be bought some time this year but in no super big hurry anyway.

Jeff

Get the bar long enough to cut a hole for your spear fishing house.....6' maybe?

Run a Stihl 440, love that thing! Got it with a 32" bar, skip chisel, usually run a 25" bar with full chain. 28 with skip would be pretty handy too..
25 is long enough that yer not always stooping over, short enough that you don't have to worry as much about getting too close to rocks and such, 28 probably be pretty similar..

Classic!

I have an echo 800 saw with the 36" bar. I've only used it a half dozen times and we have some big trees here in MI. I'm thinking of buying a smaller bar for it. . It's just too damn big. I usually just grab my 18" and take my time on bigger wood.

Was planning on spearing in the clearwater so no ice cutting. LOL.

Just realized that my new saw is a 291 not a 271. One chain and cut down 24 inch oak yesterday evening and cut it all up in about 4-5 hours this morning. I'm beat. 99 degrees when we quit. Tired of working in this crap.

Will have to google 440. And probably would think 30 inch bar is the shortest I'd want, since I have 1 working 18 and another 026 that I think I can repair...with an 18.

Thanks, Jeff

My vintage 056 came with a 48" bar and I have a bunch of shorter bars, but 20" is the longest it has seen in over 20 years. It is dropping birches right now in my son's yard. It thinks they are made of butter.

I have 5 chain saws, the biggest being a Stihl 066 with a 36" blade. IMO it's too big and heavy for most work. If I drop a large Oak or Ash, it's nice for cutting it up on the ground where gravity (weight) works in your favor, but 95% of the time I'm using a 20" Husky.

My dad put a short bar on his saw, 15" if I remember correctly. When I asked him why he said our wood furnace wouldn't fit anything longer. Can't remember the size of the saw for the life of me but it was a farm boss model. That thing would never bog down with that short bar on it, and it made it easy to measure out the logs when we cut them to size.

An ms440 or 460 would be a good saw for that size bar. I have an ms461 with a 20” and 28” bar and use the smaller bar 90% of the time

Jeff;
Good afternoon to you sir, I hope all is well with you folks.

While I'm cognizant I'm not in Alaska and we don't have coastal size trees here in the Okanagan, I have been cutting firewood for more than 3 decades in the mountains and in that time tried a few different saws.

For me, I don't really prefer a saw much heavier than a 70-75cc ends up being - they're a young, large man's saw in my view and certainly much trickier to use on steep terrain.

Speaking of terrain, in my experience that makes a huge difference on how long a bar can be before it gets a tad unwieldy. I've used 80cc plus saws with 36" bars and frankly wouldn't take one if it was given to me - well unless I could sell it immediately.

Anyway for me 28" is plenty of bar to control on steep wet conditions - again I'm neither a giant, nor a spring chicken - and I've been running a Husky 372 XPG since '05, so I do practice what I preach for saw size.

Good luck with your move and saw choices, etc whichever way you decide Jeff and all the best to you folks as we head into summer.

Dwayne

Dwayne
Jeff will not be dealing with coastal giants either! You probably see bigger trees than he will ever see in DJ.

But it is a bit rude relying on factors absent conjecture!

Not trying to be a Richard here, but this "---" bar chainsaw cap is stupid and meaningless.

Husky has two bar mount sizes, large and small. The small fits 20ish cc - 60 cc saws. 14" to 20 odd inch bars.
Large fits 60 something to 120cc saws.

I think Still uses the same mount for everything.


The point, bar size is just that.

It really does not tell anything about power head size.

i would think the saws you already have would be adequate for firewood cutting. They will pull a 20" bar pretty well. But if you want a bigger saw, I would look at a new 441 C-M or 461 Magnum, 28-32" light bar.

Sitka Deer;
Good almost evening to you Art, I hope all is well with you and your fine family tonight.

One thing I neglected to mention is that I picked up an offshore electric 6½ ton splitter from Canadian Tire about 3 years ago and I absolutely love the thing. If it died tomorrow I'd buy another one in a heartbeat.

Its one of those things that I really should have picked up years ago, but for a multitude of reasons didn't.

Anyway for a guy whose age is closer to 60 than 50, I still split the firewood up enough to load onto the pickup, but then chunk it up with the electric offshore when I get it back to the yard. It's sped up the curing process a whole lot and is much, much easier on the body than the 8lb maul and twist wedge.

Since we brought that up Art, I'm a big fan of the drop forged steel, twisted splitting wedge. Mine is made in France of all places - gotta be 25 years old though Art and I see Husqvarna have a similar one available. Some have aluminum ones and while they might work, I can't see them lasting 25 years like my steel one has - but I could be wrong there too.

All the best to you all as we head into summer Art.

Dwayne

Sheesh, virtually everything that hasn’t been baptized in a silty Alaskan river cuts like butter I’m learning.

I think I prefer silty over salty, at least you can pick the less-silty side to start the cut! But it is the silty and salty that drives me nuts!

Being a fair piece older than you, I can appreciate your points! I will have to look that splitter up, it sounds like a winner.

My ancient, museum-piece Stihl 031AV (49cc) has a 20" bar and I've never wanted more.

It's the perfect size saw for 99% of our trees, IMO.

Good words, keep it up, not sure I want a twin of the 291 right now, but then again there might be more merit in that.

Our trunks down here can be a bit large, worst I generally deal with is around 40 inches or so.

After a day of cutting oak in the heat, cutting birch would have been nice. LOL.

First birch I ever cut, I almost cut my leg as it cut so quickly.. LOL

Sitka;
Top of the morning sir, hope the week treats you well.

Here's a video of a guy testing one that looks more or less like mine and is splitting wood identical to what we've got here. Actually I think the Wranglerstar chap is just south of us in Washington.



I see that there's a few out there that are variations on the theme, but the idea seems to work out - or at least on our stringy Doug Fir and sappy Tamarack.

Lastly, I've painted mine blaze orange and can't tell you how many times I've been happy I did so!

All the best to you and yours this week again.

Dwayne

I now live in NE Washington. I'm a city boy learning the rural life. Around here we have trees to 36" dia and a bit over 100'. There are several species to select from including: birch, doug fir, lodge pole pine, ponderosa pine, western larch (tamarack) and some others. Larch, fir and birch are the preferred wood burners. I have a MS 271 with. 20" bar. This saw has worked flawlessly for close to 3 years. I keep it sharp, use fresh clean gas and synthetic bar oil. It is a 50cc saw. This said and knowing more about saws when I get another saw it will be from a professional line and probably a 60cc size. I do like the 20" bar as I select the larger trees. There is enough dead standing stuff that I usually dont cut live trees. Birch is the exception and I wont touch it unless I know it is solid and punk free. I currently use a splitting ax for splitting (fiskars with a 36" handle') I will continue to hand split until I can't then - will get an electric splitter as they are clean and quiet.

Dwayne as always thanks for the input. Those squirrely wedges do NOTHING on our oak. Tried a couple and gave up on em. Have to use the normal wedges and a sledge hammer. Sometimes takes 3-4 wedges to get a round to split into pieces wife and I can move around to under the splitter on the tractor. Used to be able to handle the bigger ones but no longer. Age taking a toll I suppose.

Looking forward a lot I think to the softer trees up north. But I know some of those trees are even pretty tough, will be interesting to see how they compare to our oak.

I don't even recall what I split a bunch of in Kimberely many years ago for our relatives, but it was a pure joy with an axe and he had some contraption of a splitting axe with "wings" that flipped out or some such, I laughed as it would be stuck in our oak, but it sure went through the piles he had fairly easily.

Still deciding saw wise... I think that might be a tough decision...maybe a second MS271 for a backup and have a bigger spare bar... I got tired of making cuts from both sides on big oaks, but oaks it takes minutes and minutes for the saw to cut through one direction, then you start over on the other side and it gets old.

I"m running a Husqy 353 and a Stihl MS311, both with 20" bars and don't really see a need for anything bigger. Now if you're planning on lumberjacking for a living then maybe a bigger saw would be apropos. I've got 3-4 100ft+ black spruce on our cabin property that have been spruce beetle killed this spring and will have to cut them down and either of those 2 saws will get it done. Spruce beetle infestation is bad this year.

Thank you for the video, it is very well done.

Have to say it is funny (pathetic?) Comparing our birch to real firewood. But it splits easily enough!

living in Minnesota all my life and yes had to cut wood and hand split wood for heat to save money dad and grandpa told me ,try spittin elm its the nastiest wood a young lad can deal with. it could be 20 below zero and I would be down too a thin long sleeve shirt , levis,dirty old baseball hat and sweaty yellow gloves trying to get that dang old cut up elm tree split up by hand and still sweatin hard in the cold. oak or ash was a joy and easy compared too elm wood to split by hand. ya the video was fun to watch kinda but the wood they used was just a easy wood too split like a lot of pine type tree wood. thanks for the video but brings back some haunting memories of another hard day.when I had my own family weekends was a time to cut , spilt wood and yes stack wood, during the week l climb poles, sometimes trees for a living,in all weather conditions. so if your a young healthy guy stay in school study hard don`t be a tuff macho dude because by the time your 60 years of age your body will be beat up, get a softer inside job , maybe write a book ? Now back to the saw size most guys on this site can not handle a saw that has a 20 inch bar or bigger with saw that can handle that bar, no way not all day. in my younger years I did use a bigger saw with a 20 inch bar, because that`s all I could afford was one saw. now days give me a sharp 16 inch bar on a smaller saw for a half a day and that's all I can or want to handle !

Perspective man, it’s all about perspective. Out on the coast, on beaches that actually benefit from some river’s drifted wastes, a length of spruce which is yellow yet inside and not sodden is considered premium firewood. (Never mind that a whiff of the ash at clean out time will likely overdo ones sodium intake for a week.) But birch? There’s nearly a 100% chance that its pursuit will be time wasted as virtually all are punky at best, and most often crumbling, by the time they make the trip downriver. (I love the smell of it over the usual bitter smell of damp spruce.)

I think you'll be hard pressed to bury a 20" in anything growing in the interior. You'll probably find this much more useful than a big saw.



And for a general use saw, a good light 50cc pro saw is going to be your friend, husky 555 is the choice of the pros for good reason. I've played the big heavy 80cc saw game, and unless you're dropping and bucking trees that are at least 30" at the but, all you're doing is wearing yourself out.

Save your back or hire out young dumb bucks to break theirs.

ya let the young dudes do it !

Have a fairly new Stihl 441 Magnum with 28" bar, but usually end up using my "hot rodded" Husky 266 with 30" bar, that I have owned for almost 40 yrs, still going strong!

is that savage 99 for sale ? that big Husky saw makes my back hurt just looking at the picture ! that`s one evil saw ,my big old husky has a 20 inch bar on it and now days I think it would make a better go cart engine for my grand kids. just kidded about my big Husky,it will stay as a saw but when I die be at the garage sale it will probably be on it ?

Husky 181 after a rebuild, cylinder gasket delete to bump compression, muffler opened up and ported it to turn it into a cutting mofo. Still didn't make it any lighter or easier on the back.



Husky 288 w/ 30" bar and skip chain. Also a cutting mofo

Sold both as I'm older, wiser and don't have trees to justify a saw of that size, let alone a pair.

So then the answer is looking more and more like just get a twin of what I have and maybe just be fine with a pair that have 18 inch bars then. Since 18 is what I"ve run forever and have chains etc.. or buy one spare longer bar and couple of chains just in case...

Same case for each, just AI one for the long shots!

You can cut up to 36" with an 18" bar on those rare instances. IMHO tough to beat two good mid sized saws with identical bars and chains. I'd much rather have 10 sharp chains and two bars and sharpen the chains at my leisure. Longer bars rob hp from the engine and tire your back sooner.

If you find after moving to Delta you have enough use for a bigger saw then get a 70-80cc power head with a 30" bar. Plenty of places you can order powerheads on line, bars and chains. No need to come up with more saw than you need when it's easy enough to buy one when you need it.

Yeah buddy, you should have no issues running your current saws up here unless your starting a lumber mill. lol

I recall a log I cut a few years ago on a local beach.... used my 16” bar and at a diagonal even....then later to discover that that tree, a very high probability that it drifted down the Yukon, had been alive and standing when the Mayflower landed a ‘few’ years previous. Being a tough old bird doesn’t require great size, not does it mean that you’re even a match for a basic Poulan, (though I’m not promoting that color for durable use. 😬)

Far too often I've seen and heard a name brand saw make a bunch of noise and very little progress. If you can't properly sharpen a chain and swap it out when it gets dull, hp won't help you. There's nothing that makes you shake your head in disbelief then hearing the engine making a long drawn out wahhhh sound as fine sawdust and smoke slowly makes it's way out from under the bar and that sound continues on long after the cut should have been finished.

Conversely my little 30cc echo with a 10" bar has effectively cut wood that such a little saw has no business in.



There's much to be said for being an ardent advocate for sharp chains matter.

I just finished a 24 inch oak with the 18 inch bar. All was well. I had just sharpened the chain myself. The oak just died so it was "green". Amazingly I cut the complete tree with a 12 inch echo something, like you show basically, and the 291 and never changed chains on either saw, but did burn up about 1.5 gallons of fuel in the process. I was amazed the chain lasted that long, though the 2nd side cuts on the trunk I finally quit making chips and started heading towards dust and you could finally feel it... of course it didn't help that right before that the bar slipped out the bottom on one before I caugth it and threw up some grass.. we know what that means.... my fault.

Now you have me relaly thinking about another MS291 to go look and see how similar they are today as when I bought the last.

I've found that the 30 to 36 inch bar big saws to be a joy to run though when cutting logs so big in diameter that you had to make 2 cuts for sure and then probably a 3rd quite often... I am thinking won't run into anythign that big that I can't just walk away from in Delta.

Chains. I believe in having a good sharpening wheel. I believe in having plenty and changing as needed, rather than ragging the saw.

For Klik, Poulan is foul language and should be bleeped.

And yes, we have a weedeater with a blade on it too.

Big difference between running a blade on a weedeater and a brush cutter. Weedeaters don't have the hp to run the blade, brush cutters do.

You're not going to have anything like oak to cut, both in size and being a real hardwood.

Well I'll admit I didn't look that closely but for the use of what we need the blade for its been fine.

I'll have to scroll on back up and Google fu. Did not even realize they made a specific one. I know the last time we had one down here it was on the biggest Stihl gas weedeater made at that time. Which is again what we have here at TX home. but no blade for it.

get yourself a 5.5 to 6.5 cube saw and rock out don't worry about bar length

If a 291 fits into your life at all; a 261 CM will run circles around it while weighing considerably less. Catch one of the frequent dealer day sales and it won't cost much more. If you've a mind to, opening up the muffler will seriously wake it up as well. They are specced out with different chains in different countries, here the standard is a .325 23 RS. Mine cuts faster with a 63RS 3/8" Picco chain and bar in the spruce, pine, birch and poplar we cut.

For a bigger saw, consider the 441 CM.


I could be way off on this one; I'm still trying to wrap my brain around 24" trees that take 5 hours and 1 1/2 gallons of gas to cut up.

Not all 24" trees are the same size... Nor do they all come from the same kind of wood...

I do get that.

On the other hand, a perverse part of me remembers an old joke about a couple Texans.

A rancher was telling an old cowboy that he could jump into his truck at the house and drive half a day in any direction and still be on his own land.

The old puncher gave sad sigh; and said "Yep, I had a truck like that once too.........................."

Point accepted.

Laughing!

My son and I just chipped limbs and tops from a bunch of trees he cut out of his yard. We did a couple dump loads of chips... it always amazes me seeing what they will eat without a hiccup. No substitute for power.

I'm kinda partial to the Husqvarna 555 XP running an 20" bar for both felling and blocking, and the Stihl MS 200 for limbing, especially if I'm climbing (that little saw will rip it up.!). Probably won't be doing much climbing here though.

That little Echo is sweet!

A BIG +1.

Went out and weighed mine for [bleep] and giggles... Stihl 440, wrap handle, 25" bar, got some chips and saw dust on it, 20.6 lbs. 32" bar, add a little weight..
Quick peek online, I see 2.3 lbs difference between the 291 and the 441, newer version of my saw.
For tackling bigger trees with more bar, little more power wouldn't be all bad. Less bog, more cut..
Couple spare sharp chains..