Chainsaw recommendations?

Zither

Jackmydad wrote: »

The bloke who taught me to use a chainsaw said to not use them for cutting thin stuff or hedges. It can apparently cause the chain to come off, and unsupported thin branches are going to spring unpredictably, and possibly pull you off balance. Be careful.

Interesting - I've never used a chainsaw before so happy to be told I shouldn't be using one for this sort of task. I just thought it would be a good way of taking down 4 feet of hedge in a few passes? You're right about safety tho of course.

Zither

glasgowdan wrote: »

Using a chainsaw to cut privet sounds scary. There are a lot of twigs that could wrap the bar and cause kickback. Kickback is where the chain tries it's best to dig into your neck/arm/thigh. It's one of the most lethal power tools out there.

Plus, if you trim it once a year it's not going to have stems thick enough to need the chainsaw again - just a hedge trimmer. So you may only use this saw once then keep the hedge trim with a standard trimmer..

My vote would be to get a silky pruning hand saw. Or, if you MUST spend some money, an electric pole saw.

I do a lot of this for a living.

Yeah this is a one off kinda thing. The former owner just left the hedge to grow and grow.I can't think of a quicker way to cut through it than using a chainsaw? I'd love to spend time using a electric saw but it's toooo thick. I was thinking if I just went along slowly, a little bit at a time, I could cut it back much more quickly than a saw. The electric pole saw looks interesting but i think it would be a heck of a challenge for it on a 4ft wide hedge??

Davesnave

Zither wrote: »

Excellent. The hedge has just been left to grow so it's got lots of long grown out stems/stalks that have shaded the underneath, presumably stopping the hedge from growing like a nice managed tight privet hedge?

Yes. I know what you mean. They benefit from regular management, but no amount of cutting-back at this time of year will hurt them.

At my last house I inherited a privet hedge about 8' thick, which I reduced to half of that,. In the process, I discovered that in times past, two neighbours had used the huge amount of cover to pinch a bit of our garden and make back entrances to their landlocked gardens! That really was a hedge out of control.

Gloomendoom

Zither wrote: »

I was actually looking at this earlier. £60. Not unreasonable if it does the job but the hedge currently is about 4 feet thick. I wondered if the smaller blade area might make cutting back a wider hedge a bit too much of a challenge?

You don't use a chainsaw like a hedgetrimmer. They are designed for cutting solid wood, not springy stuff. I have three and I wouldn't use them for this type of job.

It sounds like a good story-line for Casualty.

Jackmydad

You really don't want to find out what "kickback" is while you're standing off balance reaching into a hedge.
You don't want the chain to come off either.
As said, a chainsaw is a tool for cutting solid wood. I wouldn't use one for anything else.
"A one off" is all well and good, but it doesn't make it any less dangerous. Probably more so.

Geoff1963

Remember what the "S", of MSE stands for.

I'd recommend either :
A "Wolf-Garten REM Multi-Change Pruning Saw", or
A standard 12" hacksaw with a wood blade

The blades are very sharp, good for green wood ; and light enough to have one hand free to hold the branch you are cutting.
I hired a chainsaw to cut a tree into pieces, but for anything less than about 2 inches diameter, the hand saw was easier.

Ash_Mc

I was going to suggest a decent pair of loppers and a saw till I saw it was privet - lots of branches for you to be cutting through there.

A chainsaw will struggle to 'grab,' for the want of a better word, such thin stems. If you're intent on using a chainsaw then I'd suggest taking them down as low as you can and then once they regrow (they 100% will) trim with a hedge trimmer to keep at your desired height.

You can rent a chainsaw cheap enough, if not then any electric one is your budget option. Look into the PPE recommended before you use it though, steel toe cap boots, helmet with visor and chainsaw trousers are the absolute bare minimum imo.

Niv

You need a pruning saw not a chain saw.

glasgowdan

Also, given that most of the stems are in the 1-2" range or smaller, simple loppers would be a much quicker way to get through most of it. Combined with a pruning saw (I use the word "silky" as that brand has become the only thing I'll use!) it'll be a quicker job than you think.

Zither

It's too much work to use loppers and a hand saw in the time/budget I have available - but I do hear your concerns about using a chainsaw. So, are there any other alternatives? Eg can you recommend any heavy duty electric hedge trimmers or similar?

What about soemthing like this? Available in lidl for about £60.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/OKJIm4ly-Yw/hqdefault.jpg


Thanks!