Kind neighbor with a Locust?

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lctatlp

Member
Oct 6, 2011
73
North Shore, MA
I cut down possibly the largest tree in my wood cutting days. Looks to be a locust that was 24"to 26" wide at its base. I counted roughly 100 rings at the base of the tree, hard to believe this may be 100 years old. Can someone verify that this is a locust my poor pics? (sorry about the night time pics but I was excited.)
That old Homelite in the pic is a gift from a previous neighbor and man, does that saw rip. I know it's old and not the safest saw out there but it does the job, that's a 24"bar on it. That log in the pic is from 20' to 30' feet up the tree, but the stump was huuuge, about 100 rings! The stump logs are still in the woods, I will have to split them there as I can't lift them up.
So much lichen on most of the tree too. It was about 20' up the hill from a wet area.
This tree snapped about 20' to 30' up from the stump during hurricane Sandy up here in Northeast Mass. My neighbor was kind enough to let me have it. Good neighbor. DSC06362.JPGDSC06365.JPGDSC06369.JPG
 
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Yep, that's locust. And if your neighbor gave it to you, yep, he's a kind neighbor indeed!!

Love the ol' Homelite! Looks like an XL-12......damn good saws they were (and apparently still are)!
 
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It is an XL12 with the manual oiler, new bar and chain Somewhat of a pain to keep pushing the oil on the bar with my thumb but my lil 'ol Husky wouldn't "cut it."
 
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lctatlp said:
It is an XL12 with the manual oiler, new bar and chain Somewhat of a pain to keep pushing the oil on the bar with my thumb but my lil 'ol Husky wouldn't "cut it."
Click to expand...
Aside from the lack of a chainbrake, those old Homelites are one bad azz saw. I've rebuilt a couple of them (latest one for my FIL), he used it for logging and firewood harvesting back in the 70's. That saw needed a piston/cylinder, which I found locally for FREE at the local scrapyard. Threw that thing back together and rebuilt the carb, new air filter and fuel filter, and it runs like a banshee again! ....
 
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lctatlp said:
It is an XL12 with the manual oiler, new bar and chain Somewhat of a pain to keep pushing the oil on the bar with my thumb but my lil 'ol Husky wouldn't "cut it."
Click to expand...
It should have an automatic oiler too. The manual oiler, I believe, was to add additional oil to the bar and chain. I may be mistaken, it's been a while since I had one apart....
 
That'd be locust.

Now go put some scratches on that new bar. It don't match
 
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Great pictures.
Allot of BTUs in one tree.
Gonna put out allot of heat when it's burned.
Great score ;)
 
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That's right, there is no chainbreak. Not the safest saw out there right now but I think I know what I'm doing and try to be the safest as possible.
I had the saw tuned up a year ago and the mechanic told me to be very careful with it. Hold with your left hand tightly, with 4 fingers and thumb, not just 4 fingers, hold on tight he said!
I got a spike for it, I believe. (is that a spike in this pic?) But the mechanic said don't even use it, just let the saw do the work, ease the saw in with gravity when I am bucking on the ground.DSC06375.JPGDSC06374.JPG
 
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Yep, that has a spike. The spike is nice for working the saw through harder wood. Once you get used to running it, you'll see the benefits of the spike. I wouldn't want a saw without one.

As for the brake, I look at it this way......safety needs to come from the USER more than from the MACHINE. Not to say that you shouldn't buy or use gadgets with all the safety swag on them, but more to say that you need to be ACCOUNTABLE for what you do. No matter what saw you use, you always want to be 100% FOCUSED on what you are doing at ALL TIMES with a chainsaw. Kickback occurs most often when the top of the bar's nose is bumped into wood or something else when the chain is running. That is where the brake takes some of the human error out of the saw. it'll stop the bar almost instantaniously. Just train yourself to always always ALWAYS watch where the bar is and what you are doing with the saw, and you won't have any problems.....Be careful, that is a great saw, but as with any power tool (especially the older stuff) there is little room for operator error....
 
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The bucking spikes are good to lever the longer bar through a big round.
Not sure how heavy it is in comparision to cast magnesium eastern block german saw.
As long as you have it tuned right the the chain brake is only good on a kickback or snaging something else while swinging and moving around
 
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Saws I grew up using over 30 yrs ago (1 of them still being used in my kit) didnt have chain brakes or 'safety chain'. I was taught total respect what that chain could do & learned to pay attention where it was at ALL times,no matter whether saw was running or not....Granted the old saws werent/arent as high revving as 'modern' ones,but they would still be extremely dangerous in the wrong hands...
 
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This was my first time bucking with a bar more than 18". You guys are right, be focused. A couple of times I didn't realize how long the bar was and I was cutting the leaves and ground, just a bit.
But it sure did do the work on that huge locust, I wasn't sure if it had the power to run a 24" bar, up from its 18" bar, but it did. What great power.
 
Nice score....I have never seen locust with that amount of fungi on it...some extra btus......Locust is plentiful in my parts and I have been lucky enough to score a bunch of it. I see one and I gotta have it.
 
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Scotty Overkill said:
It should have an automatic oiler too. The manual oiler, I believe, was to add additional oil to the bar and chain. I may be mistaken, it's been a while since I had one apart....
Click to expand...

Yup they really make a difference in extra hard,dry or pitchy wood.Can add a pound or so to weight of saw though,depending on saw size.Echo to my knowledge is the last manufacturer to have manual override on any of their saws.The 2 biggest ones I believe. Husky quit doing that in early '90's or so,2100/2101CD/XP had one,last year of production was 1990.
 
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I'll post a few pics tomorrow of the lower 30' of the tree. It is enormous.
The fungi is going crazy over here, there hasn't been too much snow or rain but the dewpoint seems to be near the air temp almost everyday.
As far as I know, the Homelite I have only has a manual oiler. I think it may be an early 70s model?
 
Congrats on that nice clean locust - cool old saw, too.
 
Ah, the old Homelites! They once were at the top of the heap for good saws. Funny reading the talk about the oilers. I remember when I got my first automatic oiler. It seemed to take an extremely long time for me to quit trying to oil the chain. lol Also, I grew up with the old gear driven saws (heavy beasts) and ran a lot of saws with no chain brake. We never thought much about it. Heck I've only seen kickback a couple times and it was not me who had it. Not sure why but perhaps how I was trained but it just always seems odd to me to read about all the talk about kickback. Sure, it can be dangerous but a rare thing. Just be focused.
 
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