The Ten Minutes Before You Start a Chainsaw After a Storm

Quick answer: Put on UL-labeled chaps ($70 to $150), safety glasses and hearing protection. Drain last year's fuel, set chain tension cold, clean the air filter and test the chain brake before the first cut. Leave anything leaning on a house or touching a power line to a pro.

It's 7 a.m. A limb the size of a canoe is lying across your driveway, your wife needs the car by nine, and the saw hasn't run since last October. That's how most chainsaw injuries start. Not with a lumberjack. With a homeowner, a deadline and a tool that's been sitting in the garage for eleven months.

So before you yank the cord twenty times and start muttering, spend ten minutes on the stuff below. It's faster than the alternative.

Chaps first, because they work

Chainsaw chaps aren't armor. They're layers of long, tough fibers (Kevlar or similar) under a nylon shell. When a moving chain hits them, it tears the shell and drags those fibers into the sprocket, which jams the chain in a fraction of a second. You still get a bruise. You keep the leg.

Look for a label saying they meet ASTM F1897 and carry the UL mark. Forester chaps run around $70 and meet that standard. Husqvarna's Technical apron chaps, Stihl's Function and Pro chaps, and Labonville's sit closer to $100 to $150. They all have to pass the same test. The extra money buys a better fit, less weight and a shell that won't make you sweat through your jeans in August. If you'll cut a few hours a year, the cheap pair is fine. If you heat with wood, spend the money, because chaps you hate wearing end up on a hook.

Two things the hangtag won't tell you. First, once chaps have stopped a chain, they're done. Don't patch them and don't keep wearing them. Second, they're tested against gas saws. Some makers warn they may not stop a high-torque battery saw as quickly, since an electric motor doesn't bog down the same way. Wear them anyway. Just don't treat them as permission to get sloppy.

Then the rest:

• Safety glasses under any mesh face screen. Mesh stops chips but it isn't rated eye protection.
• Earmuffs or plugs. A gas saw is loud enough to damage your hearing in one morning.
• A helmet if anything's overhead. A forestry helmet with a built-in screen and muffs runs about $50 to $90 from Husqvarna or Stihl.
• Leather gloves and leather boots, steel toe if you have them. No sneakers. Ever.

The fuel is probably why it won't start

Pump gas with ethanol goes stale in a month or two, and premix that sat all winter gums up a carburetor fast. If the saw cranks and won't catch, or catches and dies, this is your first suspect.

Drain the tank into an approved container and refill. For a saw you run twice a year, canned premix like Stihl MotoMix, Husqvarna XP+ or TruFuel costs a lot more per gallon than mixing your own. It's still the right call. It's ethanol-free, already mixed at 50:1, and stays good in a sealed can for a long time. Mixing your own for occasional use is how people end up with a carburetor rebuild.

Top off the bar oil while you're at it. It's a different reservoir, and a dry bar will smoke and ruin a chain in minutes.

Set chain tension cold, and do it in this order

A loose chain can jump the bar. A tight one wears the bar and the sprocket and makes the saw work harder. You want snug.

1. Saw off, chain brake on, gloves on.
2. Loosen the bar nuts a turn. Just enough for the bar to move.
3. Lift the nose of the bar and hold it up. Most people skip this step. If you don't hold it up, the tension disappears as soon as you tighten the nuts.
4. Turn the tensioning screw until the chain sits snug against the underside of the bar.
5. Still holding the nose up, tighten the bar nuts.
6. Check it. Release the brake and pull the chain around the bar by hand. It should move smoothly. Grab a link mid-bar on the bottom and pull. The drive links should lift just to the edge of the groove without coming all the way out.

A new chain stretches fast. Check it after the first few cuts and again after the first tank.

And watch this one. If you tighten a chain that's hot from cutting, loosen it a little before you put the saw away. Chain shrinks as it cools, and a hot-tensioned chain left overnight can tighten hard enough to damage the bar and the bearings behind it.

The air filter nobody checks

A clogged filter starves the engine of air. The saw runs rich, loses power, smokes more and gets hard to start. Plenty of people buy a new saw because of a problem a two-minute cleaning would've fixed.

Brush the sawdust off the top cover before you open it, so the junk doesn't fall straight into the carburetor. Pop the filter out. Tap it on your palm and brush it off. Felt and mesh filters can usually be washed in warm soapy water and dried completely. Some paper-type filters can't, so read the manual or the filter itself. If you use compressed air, blow gently from the inside out. Replace a filter that's torn or caked solid. They're cheap.

Do this every few hours of cutting. More in dry, dusty wood.

A sharp chain is a safe chain

This part sounds backward. A dull chain is more dangerous than a sharp one. You push harder, the saw bounces, you get tired and your grip gets sloppy right when you need it most.

The tell is simple. A sharp chain throws chips. A dull one makes fine dust and you find yourself leaning on it. A chain that pulls hard to one side has been sharpened unevenly or has hit a rock.

You don't need a grinder. Stihl's 2-in-1 Easy File, around $50, sharpens the cutters and takes down the depth gauges in the same stroke, and it's the easiest way to learn. Oregon's file guide kits cost less and work fine once you get the angle down. The file size is in your manual and often on the chain packaging. Get it right, because the wrong size ruins the cutters. A few strokes per tooth, same count on every one. Clamp the bar in a vise or on a stump so it doesn't wander.

While the chain's off, flip the bar so it wears evenly. Clean the groove with a screwdriver and clear the little oil hole. Then run the saw over a piece of cardboard for a few seconds. You should see a line of oil thrown off the tip. No line, no cutting.

Test the brake, then respect the tip

Start the saw on the ground. Never drop-start it. Engage the chain brake by pushing the front hand guard forward. The chain should stop dead. If it doesn't, the saw goes nowhere near wood.

Kickback comes from the upper quarter of the bar's nose touching wood. The saw throws itself back toward your face before you can react. Keep that tip clear of logs and branches, cut below shoulder height, keep both hands on the saw with your left thumb wrapped under the front handle, and stand to the side of the bar's path rather than behind it.

The cuts you say no to

Some jobs aren't yours. Anything leaning on a house. A tree hung up in another tree. A limb bent under tension like a drawn bow, which can snap back with enough force to break bones. And anything near a power line. That's the utility company's call, and they'll come out for it.

Your neighbor will ask you to help with his. Help with the driveway, stack the wood, bring coffee. But if it's leaning on his roof, the kind answer is "call a tree service," and you hold that line even if he's disappointed. For jobs that come up once, it's also worth knowing which tools to rent and which to buy.

If you borrowed the saw

Give it back better than you got it. Sharp chain, tension set, fresh premix and full bar oil, clean air filter, sawdust blown off the cover. If it came to you dull, it goes home sharp. That's how you get to borrow it again.

If it's your saw, store it the same way. Drain or run the tank dry if it'll sit for months, put the scabbard on the bar and hang it where it actually lives. Toss the chaps, glasses and file kit in the same bin. If you keep the saw in the truck through storm season, the truck bed setup piece covers how to secure a fuel can so it doesn't slide around.

Before every start:

• Chaps, glasses, ears, gloves, boots
• Fresh fuel, full bar oil
• Tension set cold, nose held up
• Air filter clean
• Chain sharp, oiler throwing a line
• Brake stops the chain dead

Next year's storm will come at the worst possible time. Make sure the saw is the one thing that's ready.