When the folks from my favorite chainsaw bar and chain company asked whether I would be interested in testing their 40V Max cordless chainsaw this winter, I jumped at the chance. While I was somewhat skeptical of the utility of a machine such as the Oregon 40V Max cordless chainsaw, I am always interested in discovering just how far battery-powered technology has come. I will say from the get-go that the Oregon 40V Max cordless chainsaw is impressive. My saw is a Model CS250-E6, which essentially means that it is the 40V cordless, 14-inch bar saw with the 2.4 amp-hour lithium battery and charger. In fact, my kit came with a pair of batteries, which makes the tool even more useful -- the extra battery is not included with the retail kit, however.  I would not hesitate to add a cordless saw like the 40V Max to my collection of gas powered saws (Husqvarna and Echo) and with an MSRP of  $499 with the higher capacity battery, the price is completely in line with the Oregon quality and serviceability that we expect from the brand.

On my first outing with the saw, I went to work on a pile of black walnut, Osage orange and maple trees that were downed about three years ago. The wood was pretty dry, but not cured in the way that shorter billets might have been. Over eager to begin cutting, I took the 40V cordless saw out with a single battery and left the other on the charger. I figured I'd get a couple of armloads of wood cut to stove length (18-inches) before the thing ran out of juice. I filled the bar oil reservoir with oil, tensioned the chain with the included screwdriver (a large wing nut tightens the bar making the traditional chainsaw tool largely obsolete with this machine) and lit the the 40V up. Well, I didn't really light it up -- I simply depressed the trigger lock and squeezed the trigger and the saw came to life. The 40V Max is quiet -- no ringing ears, even without hearing protection -- and it made short work of several walnut and maple limbs in the 4 to 11-inch diameter range. I next moved on to some 6 - 9-inch diameter Osage orange limbs -- one of the most dense woods in North America (it makes my gas chainsaw chains spark on occasion) -- and noticed that the saw was laboring and making smaller chips. Time to take a break to sharpen the chain, or to install a fresh one, right? Nope! The 40V Max comes standard with Oregon's very effective, built-in PowerSharp sharping system. Again the skeptic that I am didn't expect that simply running the saw without load and pulling back on the sharpening lever would make much of a difference, but I gave it a shot. Suffice it to say that the saw motored through a couple more Osage Orange cuts before the battery was out of juice.

In the final tally, the saw made about 25 cuts total on the single battery that first time out. That amounted to about 3/4 of a 6-foot-wide tractor loader bucket full of wood that when split yielded a bit more than 1/6 of a cord of firewood. Obviously 24-inch lengths would have yielded even more firewood with the same number of cuts, but my stove likes 18-inch billets well enough. In the hour that it took me to cut, haul, split and stack that wood, the second battery was fully charged and I repeated the entire process. It turns out that the battery I first charged was not fully discharged because it took about 2.5 hours to recharge the battery that I drained by using the saw. In subsequent uses, I've noticed that it takes between 2 and 2.5 hours to recharge the battery.

The 40V Max cordless chainsaw isn't the saw you want to bring to the woods for a day of heavy cutting -- even if you have a truckload of charged batteries. It is a perfect saw for those lighter cutting and trimming duties and as I've come to learn, it is an almost ideal saw for relatively short firewood cutting sessions. I can totally imagine spending an hour or two a day or every other day using the 40V Max with an extra battery to create all of the firewood we need by adopting the slow and steady approach to the process. With two batteries I can cut and split a bit more than a third of a cord in around an hour and 45 minutes. that leaves plenty of time to do the other chores and work on other projects as daily life demands. The fact that the saw starts instantly in any weather, is relatively quiet and produces zero in the way of gasoline or exhaust fumes, and that it is so easy to keep sharp makes it tough to beat for short and sweet sawing sessions.

I plan to put the Oregon 40V Max Cordless Saw through additional testing through spring. I will let you know how I like it after a few months of living with it. In the meantime, if you are in the market for a good chainsaw for those spontaneous trimming or smaller cutting jobs, waiting for batteries to charge is a small tradeoff for a machine that performs and is ready to go the instant you need it. Stay tuned.

I like skip chains but I quickly learned that if I wanted one in my hometown in Kansas I'd have to special order it.

I was visiting my mother in Kansas when she remarked that it would cost about a thousand dollars to remove a dead tree in her yard. I'm not a logger or professional arborist but I've cut down a lot of trees so I took a gander at the one she pointed out. It didn't appear to be too risky (the city's "No Parking" sign was shaking nervously but there were no power lines, mail boxes or buildings nearby), so I told her that if we could come up with a big enough saw I could take it down.

My Stihl was lounging at home 1600 miles away and renting a saw proved impractical (none were available on short notice) so I did a little checking around. I found a new Poulan Pro with a 20 inch bar that would get the job done. It was priced at $199.99 plus tax. 

I mixed up a gallon of fuel, filled the oil reservoir with bar oil and began cutting. Just to get used to the saw I first cut down a small tree that had died. The saw had a nice feel and cut cleanly and quickly through the wood. Once I had the tree down I began cutting it into stove length. The core of the tree was rotted out and about the third cut I hit a golf ball size chunk of cement that a squirrel (or one of the neighborhood children?) had dropped in the hollow interior. The chain was nearly ruined so I made a trip to the local farm store to purchase another chain. We looked up the number for the manufacturer's recommended chain but they were out of that one so the clerk recommended one that was a little more aggressive. I looked at it then asked if they had any skip chains. He looked at me somewhat surprised and said they'd have to order it. (I guess they don't sell many of those!) Then he said something that surprised me. He remarked that a skip chain was about the only way to get by with a 20 inch bar on a underpowered saw like mine.

Now, aside from insulting my saw (not a cool thing to do if you want to keep your customers coming back) he was a bit out-of-touch with the advantages of skip chains. He was correct in pointing out that under-powered saws use skip chains to make up for their lack of lack of muscle. However, he was incorrect that they wouldn't improve the performance of larger, more powerful saws.

In case you're wondering what a skip chain is look at the two photos below. In the top photo you'll see a "conventional" chain with a cutting tooth on every, other link. The chain in the second photo is a skip chain with a cutting tooth on every third link.  

A skip chain has fewer cutting teeth than a conventional chain which means it won't be dragging as many teeth through the wood you're cutting. Less drag on the chain means less power is needed to cut through the log. That means the motor on your saw runs faster which keeps it in a more efficient power curve. It's the same principle you use when downshifting a transmission in your truck to go up a steep grade. You get more power by increasing the engine speed. 

Most "mini-saws" (small saws with "thinner" chains and bars up to 14 or sometimes 16 inches) come with skip chains so there's seldom any other option for them.

Where a skip chain helps the most is in what I'll call a "homeowner's" saw. These are the brands commonly sold in discount and hardware stores and often come from the factory with a conventional chain installed. Bar lengths usually range between 16 to 20 inches long. I have two Homelite saws with 18 inch bars and one Poulan saw with a 20 inch bar. With these mid-size, "non-professional" (underpowered!?) saws, a skip chain is a no-brainer. Their performance improves dramatically.

Professional saws are where many question the need for a skip chain. These saws (Stihl, Husqvarna, etc.) have lots of power. I've had the privilege of using some large, powerful saws and they are awesome cutting machines. The debate for and against skip chains sometimes rages among professionals and, while the professional saws have adequate power for even the largest logs, one logger I talked to summed it up this way saying, "they just seem to work better with skip chains." 

Another advantage to skip chains is that they are faster to sharpen in the woods. A 100 link conventional chain will have 50 cutting teeth. A 100 link skip chain has only 33. That's 1/3 fewer teeth to file when the chain gets dull. I've been asked if the skip chains need sharpened more frequently and in my experience the answer is "no."  

If you've never tried a skip chain I urge you to give one a shot. You may have to do a little searching. Most discount stores sell only original equipment type chains so go somewhere that professional quality saws are sold. (Even then you may have to have them special ordered!) You may have to overlook a little snobbishness from sales clerks but the performance increase will be worth it in the long run.