Chain Saw Safety Tips for Cutting Your Own Wood

You've decided you want to live the life of a mountain man. You've looked for a good piece of land with lots of trees for your own personal use. You've checked into what it would cost to build your own house or cabin and live in the back country away from the noise of the city. You bought a chain saw, and you're ready to go.

Just one problem: You can't afford the land or to build a home. Your family doesn't want to live in the back country away from the city and their friends. You may have bought the chain saw, but you aren't quite sure how to use the darn thing. So you settle and stay in your beautiful little city home, but you add a woodstove or fireplace to help cut heating cost in the winter.

Good. Start slow and learn how to use your chain saw, where to find the wood and most importantly how to use it safely and not cut off your own foot! There is nothing wrong with starting slow. The woodstove or fireplace was a great idea and you know it ate a bit of your savings so you're going to be cutting a lot of wood to offset the cost.

First where do your find wood when you live in the city? Check with the local ranchers. Many are happy to make a little extra cash and not have to do the work. It's worth it to pay a little and have the wood you need in an easy place to cut and retrieve. Also check with your local forestry department. The forestry service will give out permits to a limited number of person wishing to cut firewood. It helps to clear trails and back roads and lessening the chance of wild fire. You will be given a certain area to stay within and you can have all the wood you can haul!

First make sure you are wearing the proper clothing. Long jeans or heavy pants. Chips are going to be flying from the cutting and it can get hot next to a chain saw. Also depending on the part of the country you are in you will encounter everything from rattlesnakes to poison oak and you want to protect your skin and your health.

Wear heavy boots. No tennis shoes or sandals! Boots will protect your feet better and you will have a better stance while cutting. Any other shoe is too light weight and you could slip causing you to redirect the running chain saw onto a leg or foot. This is going to ruin your day and cost a lot more than high heating in winter time.

Wear good gloves that fit well and are not too loose to protect your hands. Wear goggles to protect your eyes from flying chips while cutting and flying insects interfering with your vision while the saw is running. If you have one available or can get one then I suggest a hard hat of some kind. You never know where you are going to saw a limb and be distracted enough to let it fall on top of you. Accidents happen so protect yourself as much as possible while working.

Make sure your chain saw is sharp before you cut. If it's not sharp it can cause the saw to jump when cutting into a harder part of the trunk or a crack in the wood. This will cause you to lose control of a very heavy, fast moving, sharp blade. Again, you could lose a limb on your body rather than the tree next to you, so always think safety first with your equipment.

A sharp blade will protect your saw from wearing. The motor does not have to work as hard and neither do you. If you let the blade dull it will not work as efficiently when cutting and will slow your progress. You will return home with less firewood then you would have if the blade had been sharp.

Check your weather conditions. If it is raining the ground and trees will be too slippery for safety. You can slide a foot the wrong direction and bring the running saw down on top of you. You can slide your truck off a dirt road or down into a canyon. Don't cut wood if it's raining.

If it is too windy do not cut wood. Wind can easily change the direction of a falling tree. If a tree is falling your direction and you have time then run out of the way. Run sideways from the tree so you have the least chance of being hit by the trunk or thicker limbs.

Be sure to park you truck far enough away from the trees. A falling limb, flying chip or chunk or a falling tree slamming into your truck is just going to ruin your whole day. Take a cell phone with you incase you drop a tree through the front window or puncture a tire from a sliding limb. The cell phone can save your life, but it can also save you a very long walk to the main road!

Always let someone know where you are going and what time you will return. Try to take another person along with you to help with the wood. If you get hurt you will have a better chance if there is someone else with you. They can at least stop the bleeding or drag you to the truck, throw you in the back and fly down the mountain to the hospital. Don't do more damage to an already injured person by trying to drive too fast out dirt roads. You can cause them and yourself to need a cast to go along with the stitches they needed for the cut on their arm!

Paint your tools a bright color that will not blend with your surroundings. Count your tools are you remove them from the truck and count them when you are done at the end of the day to make sure you have everything you came with.

Check your tree. If there are dead limbs in the tree caught by the limbs above then do not cut this tree. It is the widow maker! Your sawing can shake loose dead limbs from above while you are watching the saw below. Remember the hard hat? This is one good reason to have one.

Check the tree where you are going to be cutting. Was it ever used as a portion of a fence? Is there barbed wire or a nail in it? If you hit one of these items with your running blade it can cause harm to your saw and can cause injury to you. Broken wrist are not uncommon from kick back. Be careful and watch your safety cuts.

Check your escape route in case the tree falls the wrong direction. You don't want to step in a hole, trip over an old tree trunk or get tangles in limbs or fence wire. Be extra sure you aren't going to run over the side of a cliff! Many people new at cutting and logging won't watch for a future danger until it happens. By then it's too late and you are hurt badly. Watch where you are going or could be going in a hurry!

Never ever carry your saw from one tree to the next or from one place to the next while it is running. It should only be running while in use. Once you are finished with that limb then turn it off. This is for safety for yourself, your family and anything that may get in the way.

All right, you have cut the wood in the right size to get it home. Now all you have to do is load it in the truck. Did you cut it small enough to lift each piece? This is a common mistake. Cut the pieces small enough to load. Pack the wood tight and do not over load for the weight your truck can safely carry. You are going to be leaving on the same dirt and pot holed road you came in on. You don't want to break an axle by carrying too much weight.

You are now ready to have a great, warm winter. The wood has warmed you twice. Once during the cutting and second in the woodstove. Enjoy you first fire of winter and enjoy the last wood of the season. You'll have a lot more experience by the time the season rolls around again!