Reader Elmo asked about the chain saw with a huge bar, so this morning I digitized some old pictures of it. The year is 1980.
Here I am all dirty but happy and making money, while using one of the coolest tools imaginable while working in the woods
Guy I was working with - his job, actually - balancing the saw on the tip to show what a beast it was.
Somehow the handle of the sledge broke, and when you are hours out in the sticks, you can't really just run to the hardware store to get another one. So, make do with what you can hunt up.
So what do you use a chainsaw with a four foot bar to do? Well, you buck up big oak rounds to split, that's what.
Bonus picture. This is an old inclined grade from the top of the ridge down into the Merced River Canyon below Yosemite. This is the same river you see in glamour pictures of the valley, but here far downstream in the canyon. Supposedly they winched RR cars with logs down to the bottom, where they would move on to the mill somewhere. I still have a rusty old railroad spike I picked up there.
Another view. The little shack was probably for someone to observe the system and spot trouble.
Kick-ass memories for sure!
ReplyDeleteI had a little Craftsman chainsaw with 14" bar I used to cut many trees up to 30" dia on my property. And cut 10 to 12 cords of firewood every year for 10 years.
ReplyDeleteThanks, CW! That old Mac looks like it's one of the biggest ones, if not the biggest, that they made. It's been so long I can't remember the model numbers they used.
ReplyDeleteHere's a short video of the incline you were standing at the top of.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9--XxD-B_k
Here's a long version, with a view of where you were standing, just below where the winch house was, at minute 19, and the details of the 'lookout shack' at 23:35. He even mentions the name of the man who was the lookout at that time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4_mJuS9WWc&list=PLMc47xwYMpCEE_BdhKTLDJsehloWgM0Yc&index=2
Informational Comment of the Month winner right here, Elmo. Thank you for these links.
DeleteYou're welcome! Glad you like the videos.
DeleteThe story of the inclines has always fascinated me. Amazing engineering.
Elmo, I sent the link you provided to the other guy in the pictures I posted. I'll bet he'll like them.
DeleteGreat! That's neat that you're still in touch with each other.
DeleteDid you get to that site going through Bootjack?
ReplyDeleteTuolumne
DeleteIf you ever get a chance to see "Sometimes a Great Notion", you'll see a long bar chainsaw put to good use.
ReplyDeleteback when i was young and stupid I ran a Homelite Super Whiz 80 with a 6 foot bar.
ReplyDeletecutting hardwood in KY, trees regularly ruined loggin chains of big cat operators when they tried to drag them up hill. Saw had a 80 cc engine and was super loud and heavy, just carrying gas and oil plus the saw was a work out.
might be the reason i suffer from ICHS. I cant hear shit these days.
Ditto, cutting tabletop flitches using a Stihl 090 on a chainsaw mill hasn't left my eardrums in good shape either
ReplyDeleteStihl 090. The Harley Davidson of chainsaws.
DeleteI am such a klutz when it comes to power equipment. I owned a really nice Stihl chainsaw that I would have to go to my neighbor's home to have him pull start it. Once it was going, I was "Paul Bunyan" but if it ever stopped, I would have to go over to his house to restart it. If it does not have an electric motor start, I am useless.
ReplyDeleteIn the first picture it appears that the chain has been put on backwards. The up close blurry image of the cutter does indeed look to be facing in the wrong direction.
ReplyDeleteThe sledge handle broke "somehow", good one.
ReplyDelete