Stihl Electric Chainsaw - with cord. Good quality machine for places where electricity is available.

I bought this electric chainsaw from Stihl, today. It's a plug-in model. I'll use it when I'm working in town. It will be used in conjunction with the E-go cordless electric. I will continue to use the E-go whenever I'm on the ladder, or when I'm doing small limbing jobs. After I've cut everything less than eight inches in diameter, with the cordless,  I'll move to the Stihl saw. This will prevent me from over working the cordless electric, since the corded model doesn't have a battery to overheat. It should  improve overall efficiency. The Stihl saw is almost twice as powerful.

 I will use the Stihl model,  whenever I'm ripping fruit wood and other lumber. I am often paid to cut down cedar,  cherry,  apple,  and pear trees. I can  cut a quite accurate slab using a chainsaw. On a three inch slab, I am generally out by less than 1/4 of an inch. Currently,  all of the wood is used as firewood. This is not the highest and best use of high-quality material. After the wood has dried completely,  I'll use a planer to bring my slabs to uniform thickness. I've already tried the cordless for this purpose. It works,  but is a little slow.

Chain removal and adjustment is tool less. It's a very strong mechanism inside.  There are no plastic drive parts. The teeth that grip the log are made of steel. The oil intake,  is in a spot where it's unlikely to be damaged. It's tight when it's exactly straight,  as shown in the photo.

The saw has very clean lines. There's not much to catch on sticks. I was not pleased with the Makita and it's clunky feel.

The body of the saw is made in Germany. The bar and chain are made in the USA. I have complete faith in the Stihl brand. All other tools of that brand that I have owned have been of exceptional quality.

I bought the saw primarily because there was a closeout sale.

I'll report further after giving the saw a good test in a variety of conditions.

Hi Dale; The second photo in the initial post looks like you're going to cut butter!

It does

I'm also going to cut oak, cedar, cherry, apple, plum, yew, walnut, arbutus, chestnut ... Everything will be cut into slabs weighing under 300 lb. so that I can drag or roll the material into my trailer. Most wood will come from my customer's places in the city. That's where most exotic wood is available, and it's where trees usually grow within 100 ft. of an electrical outlet.

I've been planning to utilize this wood for a long time. I cut some slabs with the gas saw. It was a smokey, noisy stinky experience. I have entertained the idea of hauling some sort of mill to jobs. That would be much more expensive and difficult to store when not needed. Most wood is in the back yard, so it would need to be hauled the driveway. Even chainsaw mills would not be as efficient. They require setup and a powerful saw. A less powerful saw can be used when free hand slabbing, because the tip of the bar is used. Instead of crosscuting, and making dust, long shavings are obtained. The roundness of the tip causes the teeth to enter the wood nearly parallel to the grain, when a log is slabbed by dragging the tip down the length of the log many times. One pass per inch of thickness works with a smaller bar.

I gave the saw a good run today. I cut some Hawthorne live edge slabs.

I was cutting with the grain, so it made many long skinny shavings.

 Internal stresses in the wood caused the cuts to close but I was able to muscle through without binding. I am very happy with the power of the saw.

After splitting the logs, I held the bar against the wood and moved it back and forth in a circular motion as a means of planning the wood. A delicate operation.

Some really nice grain.

In the end, they were pretty smooth.

The mask kept my eyes and lungs free from dust.

Other than a short test of this technique with my gas saw, this is my first time ripping through crotches. A planer or belt sander will be used once the slabs dry.

With no straight area to work from, it's important to look from all angles before cutting.

I'm running more ads looking for fruit wood.

When milling small logs,  they tend to roll around. I'm going to try milling some smaller ones while they're still standing.
The millable portion of apple trees and plums is usually less than 10 feet from the ground. With the logs standing vertically,  there should be less problems with the shavings clogging things up.

The gas can is not mine. Everything was done with electric tools.
.......
I cut down two apples trees yesterday. They both produced very poor quality apples,  one being a yellow transparent. Twenty new fruit and nut trees are being planted this weekend.

 The largest log was just thick enough to get two 3 1/2 inch slabs out of it. The smaller tree,  produced one narrower slab.

 My customer has a friend who owns boat yard. After the wood is completely dry,  his friend will run it through a planer and make a table with him. They have every tool imaginable at the boat yard. It took an hour to mill the 3 slabs. I charged $45. There is about 25 board feet of apple wood. Once dry, it should be worth close to $200.
...............
The customers are avid gardeners who will eliminate most grass in favor of fruit and vegetables.

They are my latest converts to hugelkultur. Four customers have opted to avoid clean up costs and utilize the waste for gardening.   All scrap wood is being piled over the flush cut stumps.

  I've directed them to videos on no till potatoes and to this site.

I cut dozens of little burls from the firewood this morning.

The big lump in the first photo was cut into 3 slabs. I used the cordless E-go saw. It's a little slow, but the cut is smooth and accurate.

Stumps get cut flush and sliced deeply. Manure and lime help them rot.

Update.  Some of my slabs dried too quickly and became firewood. Some were sold to people wishing to make live edge items. I still have some, and have done nothing with them.

All of my electric saws are still working. The Stihl,  plugin model is seldom used.  Cordless is just so handy.

Dale Hodgins wrote:Update.  Some of my slabs dried too quickly and became firewood. Some were sold to people wishing to make live edge items. I still have some, and have done nothing with them.

All of my electric saws are still working. The Stihl,  plugin model is seldom used.  Cordless is just so handy.

Would you like to sell it?

Hi Oliver,

Welcome to Permies!

You are responding to a 7 year old post.  Dale has not posted here for some time.