pond ice

[bandmiller2]

Is it harmful to cut pond ice with a chainsaw, bar, chain and saw. Of course no bar oil in the saw. I was always told hitting ice with a chainsaw would damage the chain. whats the whole story.?? Thanks Frank C.

[HolmenTree]

One of the things I used my 60" b/c for was to cut lake ice. When I had the cottage some winters I had to cut though 4 to 5 feet of ice to get at the footvalve of my water line if it lost prime. Chain never got damaged or even dull for that matter.

[Mn woodchuck]

Many 1000s of fishing holes cut in Minnesota every winter with a chainsaw    Just oil it up afterwards !!

[pabst79]

Soooo, full chisel then  ??? ??? 

[HolmenTree]

Yep used chisel chain cutting ice ......stayed sharp no problem.

[pabst79]

 Amazing the things you learn on FF, I always seen guys cutting ice with saws at events and figured it was some special carbide set up, now I know.  8)

[sablatnic]

Way back when we used to have winters, many harbours used chainsaws to cut up the ice to prevent damage to the harbour. No damage to chain and bar, but since it was salt water the saws would corrode away in a few years! 

[JohnG28]

I've used a couple to cut holes in the lake ice up at our camp. No problem at all. Definitely drain the oil though. You could use canola oil if you still wanted some without any ill effects I think, long as the saw stays warm.

[John Mc]

If you use the veggie oil based chainsaw oil (or even just put canola oil in), you'll have chain lubrication without polluting the pond.

[HolmenTree]

I turned the  saws oiler off. The ice and water cooled and lubricated the b/c and sprocket.

Make sure when you're done turn oiler back on and run oil back through the b/c to prevent corrosion and freezing.

[lumberjack48]

  Cutting ice with a chainsaw goes back as far as i can remember, that would be in the fifties. My grandfather was a commercial fisherman. On the chipper chain, the trick was to file the rakers off. I cut a lot of ice with a full chisel, i saw no reason to file the rakers off. Cutting fish house holes, hoop net holes, retrieving four pickups out of a lake, cutting ice does no harm to a chainsaw or the bar and chain.

[bandmiller2]

Leave it to our northern neighbors to know, thanks, now we all know. An old chainsaw is cheaper than those ice fishing drills. Frank C.

[Maine logger88]

LJ48 retrieving 4 pickups out of a lake? That sounds like an interesting story there!

[HolmenTree]

I wish I had pictures of the 20,000 lb Clarke skidder  I helped pull of out 30 feet of water after it broke through lake ice on a cold winter day in 1987.
We had to hire a diver to hook up the winch line pullied onto a tripod through a hole in the ice.
Lots of chainsaw work during 2 days of -30 to -40 below

[John Mc]

Ouch... and I thought I had a tough job pulling my riding mower/snowblower out of the pond when it fell through as I was snow blowing a skating rink a couple of years ago.

I thought I had done everything right - looked up how thick the ice needed to be to support the weight, chopped a hole to measure thickness. I'd done it dozens of times before in previous years. It all was working great as I spiraled from the outside into the middle, bowing the snow off the pond. At least it was great until I noticed the ice change color as I got within about 15 ft of the center. That reminded me I'd had the bubbler running to keep it open up until a few weeks previous. I just had time to THINK about turning out and heading for shore when it started to go... It ended up hanging off the ice by the snow blower with the rest of it hanging vertically under water. I was fortunate: I was over a 15 foot deep section, but the snow blower saved it from sinking to the bottom.  I now refer to it as the S.S. Craftsman amphibious snowblower. (My wife got pictures of the recovery effort.)