Chainsaw vs recip…

[Rand]

if its very dead and you dont feel like messing with a chainsaw 5min and a pruning blade will make short work of upto 3" limbs. 4" limbs are doable but I wouldnt do more than... 1 or 2 while clearing trails(to mow)

It is helped by the fact that the trees that blow over are all junkwood. Rapid growing trash trees.

my 12" dewalt chainsaw is a better option but it leaks oil ALL OVER pours out.. even overnight.. not stored in sun.
I store it in a bucket with a diaper and try not to fill the bar oil more than 1/3.

If its more than clearing a trail while mowing I usually pull out the echo cs-590.

 

[RyanY]

Using a recip saw to cut wood is like using a butter knife to cut steak. It will get the job done, but the process will be painfully slow and inefficient.

I once used a recip saw (12" pruning blade) to fell a 6" diam, 12' tall pine and cut it into 15" pieces. The entire process tool about 45 min and 3 blades. If I had the chainsaw I would have been done in <10 min.

 

[vwmaniaman]

I have one of those Remington saws too with the pole but we had a huge icestorm in 2009 and the saw was my wife's favorite limbing saw. It has never gone back on the pole. It was kinda heavy that way so that is when I bought a Ryobi corded pole saw and a Ryobi cordless pole saw. I keep one saw at each of our 2 homes and use them often.

 

[JHZR2]

I have a sawzall pruning blade on a handle that I use for cutting the end of the Christmas tree. Just did it last night. Not a great experience in fresh cut sappy wood. The blade wants to hang up and bend. That may be less of an issue in a sawzall when you can put the machine up against the cut, but for most work I’d still want a chainsaw.

A good manual saw is good exercise. I cut a lot of firewood that way growing up. Need to buy one…

 

[Dave9]

Using a recip saw to cut wood is like using a butter knife to cut steak. It will get the job done, but the process will be painfully slow and inefficient.

I once used a recip saw (12" pruning blade) to fell a 6" diam, 12' tall pine and cut it into 15" pieces. The entire process tool about 45 min and 3 blades. If I had the chainsaw I would have been done in

Slower on larger diameter, sure, but if you have the chainsaw AND the recip saw, the person with the chainsaw can do the larger pieces while the person with the recip can reduce the smaller branches.

Wait, a mere 12' tall pine? It would take me nowhere near 45 min to do that with a recip saw alone and mine is nothing special, a Ryobi P517. Then again it's no slouch either, full sized brushless that nips at the heels of contractor grade cordless of that era. Regardless I could just about do that in 45min with an axe or hand saw.

I suspect you might be underestimating the tree height as a 12' pine usually isn't as large as 6" diameter except maybe at the very bottom. Doing the math, 12' is 144" and 15" cuts means 9 trunk cuts, except much smaller than 6" towards the top. I can easily make a 6" diameter pine cut with a recip saw in under a minute. Just sayin', something doesn't add up.

 

[Cujet]

I have the Dewalt Atomic 20V recip with Diablo blade. It's pretty lame when it comes to trimming.

 

[RyanY]

Slower on larger diameter, sure, but if you have the chainsaw AND the recip saw, the person with the chainsaw can do the larger pieces while the person with the recip can reduce the smaller branches.

Wait, a mere 12' tall pine? It would take me nowhere near 45 min to do that with a recip saw alone and mine is nothing special, a Ryobi P517. Then again it's no slouch either, full sized brushless that nips at the heels of contractor grade cordless of that era. Regardless I could just about do that in 45min with an axe or hand saw.

I suspect you might be underestimating the tree height as a 12' pine usually isn't as large as 6" diameter except maybe at the very bottom. Doing the math, 12' is 144" and 15" cuts means 9 trunk cuts, except much smaller than 6" towards the top. I can easily make a 6" diameter pine cut with a recip saw in under a minute. Just sayin', something doesn't add up.

Like others mentioned above, the blade sticks/clogs frequently in sappy wood, making each of the thicker trunk cuts take 4-5 min. With the addition of branch cuts, I would argue that the math does add up.

But yes, sharing the work with a second person would make things go much faster.

 

[Dave9]

I don't have issues with the blade sticking unless the wood isn't supported properly so it puts pressure on the blade after a certain point through the cut, and no clogs using a pruning blade. It's never taken over a minute to cut anything I've tried. If it did, I'd have switched to using the chain saw.

What recip make and model? Maybe it's just a weak product or battery in it? I always use the 4Ah battery in mine. At the same time, the larger the cut, the more difference a chainsaw makes. I don't mean to imply otherwise.

 

[RyanY]

@Dave9 My recip is the standard Ryobi 18v with 4Ah battery and Diablo 3TPI pruning blades. It has plenty of power for the smaller jobs but the blades just didn't seem up to the task of sappy pine trees. At the time, my chain saw was on loan to a friend, and I was hopeful that the recip would be sufficient for two small trees. As it turns out, I was able to finish (after several hours total) but will use a chain saw for all but the thin stuff in the future.

Regardless, my point is that a recip will not replace a chainsaw, at least for sappy pines - even small ones. This maybor may not apply to other trees.

 

[dlundblad]

Pruning blades for a reciprocating saw sounds nice as long as they don’t shake the tree around too much. Lol.

 

[Dave9]

^ If it's a small enough branch to move around too much, you hold it still. Since the small branches cut fast, it's not a big deal to hold the recip saw with one hand/arm for the cut. They're great for pruning, anything large enough diameter that you wouldn't prefer to use hand loppers, or where you can't get the hand lopper in and open enough to make the cut.

Ryobi makes multiple recip saws, there is no one "standard" performance level, with some a lot weaker than others. Obviously their ~$40 models are not as good as the ~$120 model, and every new generation, their upper tier price point model gets more powerful. Same as any other brand, and likewise a contractor grade brand costing ~twice as much, will typically be even more powerful, fast cutting.

 

[Cujet]

My 20V Dewalt has plenty of power, and the Diablo blade rips. But what I find is that the branch often oscillates with the blade, reducing the cutting speed to nil. Anything this saw can tackle easily is a job for shears. And anything too big for it is a job for a chainsaw.

 

[Carmudgeon]

As a hack DIYer, haven't tried the recip/pruning blade combo on branches, but it does work on roots in the ground.

Not gonna try to stick a chainsaw into the ground to cut errant roots.

 

[HangFire]

my 12" dewalt chainsaw is a better option but it leaks oil ALL OVER pours out.. even overnight.. not stored in sun.
I store it in a bucket with a diaper and try not to fill the bar oil more than 1/3.

Cookie sheets are my go-to for chainsaw storage on shelves. I can pour the bar oil back in, if it's not too old and dusty. Dollar store has small ones for... well it's $1.25 now, one per saw. Large ones from yard sales I get for pennies, can take two smaller chainsaws pointing in opposite directions.

 

[Pablo]

Cookie sheets are my go-to for chainsaw storage on shelves. I can pour the bar oil back in, if it's not too old and dusty. Dollar store has small ones for... well it's $1.25 now, one per saw. Large ones from yard sales I get for pennies, can take two smaller chainsaws pointing in opposite directions.

I like that.

My shelves for that 2T and E OPE are 2x4's now, so I just was letting the oil soak in!

 

[totegoat]

I use the Sawzall for light pruning, doesn't replace a chainsaw.

 

[IndyIan]

I also have a japanese Silky Zubat 13" arborist hand saw, that's lived on the atv for 10 years now and when I'm out on our trails I can always trim what ever whacked me in the face, or cut up a small tree across the trail. 1" branches near the trunk are often 1 pull cuts, and it cuts clean if its a tree you want to heal up fast. For up to 4" limbs its pretty fast. I can also stand on the front or back rack of the atv to cut, which I won't do with a chainsaw.
I like the sawzall idea for roots, with cheap disposable blades, but for branches not covered with dirt, its either loppers or the Zubat, small chainsaw, then big chainsaw. If I'm making a new mtb trail in small softwoods I'll just use the small chainsaw and run it down the trunk to cut low 12 branches real quick.