Why the big saws

[CX3]

Guys I have been using a chainsaw to make a living everyday of my life for the past 10 years.  I have cut some big timber.  I very rarely need more than a 20 inch bar for anything we do.  I carry a 25 inch bar and it stays rusty in the toolbox along with its chain.  I hear of these huge saws and 60 inch bars.  I understand in a few very remote parts of the world a saw like that would barely get through the bark, but what in the world are these saws being used for?  I can imagine Ian is cutting some big stuff, along with you guys in Canada and around Oregon...etc.  I guess the question is this, if you have a giant saw that weighs 50 pounds and it takes longer than than 10 minutes to sharpen it, lets see some pics of what you put on the ground with it. 

[Cut4fun]

I sold a woods ported 084 to a guy to run a 50" bar buried ripping hardwoods. He burned up 2 stock MS660's with 42" last year and wanted something that could run a bigger bar buried.

[chevytaHOE5674]

When i was working in the woods every saw I used was at least a 24/25" bar more often than not a 28". When your cutting lots of 20"+ trees it makes sense to have a longer bar. You don't have to fiddle with cutting from both sides, makes bucking easier, also makes delimbing easier on the back as you don't have to hunch over constantly. Also with skip tooth chain long bars don't have many more teeth to sharpen than your 20" bar with full comp chain.

[Mad Professor]

50" trees come to mind.

[Ianab]

50" trees come to mind.

Like this one?
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,22582.0.html

Took that down with a 28" bar though, but it's not one of the "BIG" ones.
Not sure how I would have got on bore cutting on the side of a hill with a 60" bar though  :-\

Right tools for the job. If you spend all day cutting 18" trees, and might find an occasional 30" one, then the 20"bar is the right tool for the job, and hauling a bigger saw around is just making your arms longer.

Most guys with those big saws just being em out for those special jobs when they NEED them. Although to do a good job bucking up big ugly firewood logs into chunks. You can just rest the saw on the log and let the weight feed it though  :D

Ian

[nhlogga]

I use 24" bars so I don't have to hunch over too much. Easier on the back.

[Dale Hatfield]

 I would love to see a patch of 50 inchers in Ohio. Im in the hardwood Capital of Ohio and them days
are gone.

[Dave Shepard]

I'm not so much of a big bar person as a big saw person. I run a 394 with an 8 pin sprocket and a 20" bar most of the time. With a chain that is properly prepared for the cutting at hand, it is very fast. I don't like waiting. If I'm in bigger wood I will run the 32" bar. Yeah, we all know we can cut more than double the bar length, but sometimes it's just faster to use a longer bar. As mentioned, a full skip 32" has 35 cutters, and a full comp 20" has 36.

[tyb525]

Ripping logs and slabbing come to mind

Plus, it's easier to fell a tree IMO with a bar that stick our of the tree a bit, than having to cut from both sides with a shorter bar.

Not that I've used any real long bar, longest I have is 28". For me, it comes down to what I have. If I had only the 28", I probably wouldn't pay to get a shorter bar (which means buying more chains, too).

[barbender]

I don't cut many trees over 20", but once I tried a 24" in bar it became my go to unit. I am 6'5" and find that the extra weight of the bar is offset by me not having to hunch over all day. I really notice the difference in my back if I have to throw my 20" bar on for a day. I just put a 20" bar on my Husky 346, I'm liking that too. Not something you would bury in a cut all the time, but the extra reach is nice. I run skiptooth chain, I got skiptooth to try on my 346 too. It seems to cut just fine.

[bandmiller2]

CX3,I hear what your saying I use a 20" most of the time,if I can't slice and dice with a 20 I don't mess with the tree.I have up to 28" bars but thats for those big butt road trees.A bar longer than diameter makes aiming a large tree a little easier and the point about keeping you back straight has merit.I've cut alot of pine years ago with a 16" because thats all I had and never felt undergunned.Frank C.

[Ed]

There are still some big hardwoods in my area, enough for me to warrant a keeping a big saw on the shelf.
This was a White Oak I took down a couple of years ago on our property. It had taken a pretty good lightening strike and was slowly dieing, took it down before it became a real hazard.

Saw is an 084, 60" bar.

Ed

[CX3]

Thank You Ed.  Thats what Im talking about that is awesome!

Ian I read the thread about cutting the leaner.  Good job and I like the way you posted the pics and the diagrams.  I can tell you know what the heck is going on

[Cut4fun]

I would love to see a patch of 50 inchers in Ohio. Im in the hardwood Capital of Ohio and them days
are gone.

There a oak take down right down the road from me on a farm that looks like the one in Ed's pic. At list 50"+ I would bet.   Several around here still.
Plus I know of  a dead elm that is 48" across ona farm that I've been helping with and removing 18"-21" limbs from.

[jim king]

I thought with the nice info posted for felling you might like to see the suicide cut method used here.

I cannot watch them.

[weimedog]

There are still some big hardwoods in my area, enough for me to warrant a keeping a big saw on the shelf.
This was a White Oak I took down a couple of years ago on our property. It had taken a pretty good lightening strike and was slowly dieing, took it down before it became a real hazard.

Saw is an 084, 60" bar.

Ed

That's an Awesome picture! I have had to drop a few dieing over mature sugar Maples of the 3-4ft diameter base magnitude. (Have three or four more)....but they were so hollow (*DanG..the confession about to come) I was able to easily drop then with a 28in bar..probably could have with a 20! As the "Wall thickness" in the good spots was only about 15-20inches! Was like ripping into a tin can! Scares me to death thinking back on those two tree's! Had a local chiropractor there to watch in case some of the enormous dead limbs crushed my head ..he's a neighbor. Didn't know what was inside at the time several years ago when I started those jobs do now and going to let nature drop the rest..(I won't go take pics of those as they have been down a while ..might have one around somewhere anyway)

[Fla._Deadheader]

Jim, the official Latino Book of Logging, MUST have the same instructions. They cut that exact same way here. They think I'm crazy to do it the "Traditional" Gringo way. They waste a LOT of wood, leaving those support roots standing.  : :

[barbender]

Ed looks like chainsaw darth vader on top of that white oak ;D Nice pic!

[barbender]

I'also noticed I tend to get in trouble over notching and what when using a shorter bar to cut from both sides. Operator error for sure, but it doesn't happen when I use a bar that cuts all the way across.

[Al_Smith]

I would love to see a patch of 50 inchers in Ohio. Im in the hardwood Capital of Ohio and them days
are gone.

You must be over towards Holmes county perhaps ???

I agree ,on this side of the state very seldom do you see a big oak much over 36" .Rarely though a big one still pops  over 4 feet and a hundred plus high .

That said generally most trees state wide could be easily handled with a 36" bar .

I have one long bar and that a 48" large McCulloch mount hard nose which I think is the largest in this area that I know of .That NOS bar was most likely made in the 50's and as a matter of fact was a flea bay purchase from Ohio .25 plus shipping .In the 7-8 years I've owned it the thing has been used 4 times .It should last for the next 100 years at that rate .

[terrifictimbersllc]

I use a 41" bar mostly for trimming flare off of large logs as I am rolling them onto the mill.   Wherever I see flare I get it while the log is on the ground or on the loading arms.   41" isn't always long enough. I like to reach in from the end rather than standing on the side of the log, in a comfortable position, and just let the bar fall right down through the wood.  In this application it would take a lot more time to try to get around at the back side to make cuts using a shorter bar.  I use a 090AV because I have two of them from a chainsaw mill, and they do the job well.  Probably going to replace these soon with an 880 having whatever the next size larger bar is.

[sawguy21]

Local loggers used the super long bars on big saws for many years but not much call now as they changed felling technique. The big tools are too hard to handle on steep slopes with heavy underbrush. We do get calls for 60" bars from the mills for lift saws, these are used to trim lifts to length for trucks and rail cars

[CX3]

Thanks for all the replies.  I definitely understand the use of huge bars for milling and cutting the ears off the big logs. And for splitting big logs at the mill.  I guess I am just ignorant to the different ways of doing things in the world.  Thanks for the pics too.

Ed i cant get on here without looking at your picture. 

[SwampDonkey]

A 60" odd inch bar might come in handy here.  ;D

[bill m]

I have a 36" bar that I used when I was running my tree service. Now, for logging, I don't use anything bigger than a 20" bar.