How young to use chainsaw?

[Hogwildz]

9 yrs old? Are you F'IN serious?
Sure and afterwards give him a smoke to light up & a beer.
Fire up the lawn mower too and let him mess with that thing.
9 yr olds have no common sense for f--ks sakes. He's a kid, let him be a kid.
Why do adults want their kids to become so responsible and grown up so fast?
If it can cut wood or logs, it can cut your son!

 

[sl7vk]

9 yrs old? Are you F'IN serious?
Sure and afterwards give him a smoke to light up & a beer.
Fire up the lawn mower too and let him mess with that thing.
9 yr olds have no common sense for f--ks sakes. He's a kid, let him be a kid.
Why do adults want their kids to become so responsible and grown up so fast?
If it can cut wood or logs, it can cut your son!

LOL.

I hardly trust myself with the Dolmar........ I'm ultra careful but when I get tired I get careless......

I can't imagine a running chain in the hands of a 9 year old. I'd be more likely to let him run a 12" compound miter saw or even a circular saw before putting a running chain near him....

And there is no way PPE comes that small, unless there is some kind of midget gear out there....

 

[Jags]

I was driving pickup trucks and tractors at age 9. Had my first gun at age 11. I was never allowed to run a chainsaw that young.

 

[Chardler]

I think if you feel the need to ask that question...you already know the answer to it (it's no, by the way).

 

[ManiacPD]

I'm 31 years old and my 66-year old father still tells me he's concerned about me using a saw! He's helped me saw on the pile and still offers suggestions followed by a " please be careful." He's been cut many times in his life, but mostly in his younger years by saws without kickback protection.

The job of the 9 year old is to haul the brush away and clear away the stovelength wood so I can keep cutting.

If he really wants to cut wood give him a buck saw or bow saw and let him sweat a little. He'll learn how to cut and avoid getting the blade (bar on a chainsaw) pinched by branches that are sprung, etc. Then in a few years when he gets his first saw he'll really appreciate it, and likewise learn to respect it.

As parents we all know our primary job and you'd feel like sh*t if he got hurt. If nothing else he'd probably be scared of chainsaws for years, and rightfully so, and that could prove difficult to overcome in the future.

 

[xrayman]

I'm in the same boat as you I have a 10 yr old who for the last 3 yrs has been on me to let him use one of the saws. I don't even have to think about it, it's a NO!!. I told him once he can learn the proper care for a saw and can handle my monster a old Mac with a 30" bar he can start cutting with it. He can't hardly pick it up. So for now he's the clean up guy.

 

[Hogwildz]

Bottom line is let kids be kids. If ya wanna lettem wittle away with a hand saw cool. But ya can't expect a kid to be responsible enough to run power equipment. I know enough adults that are scary with them.
Don't be in a hurry for your kids to be grown up & responsible etc. Cause when they are you may find yourself missing the sheet out of them when they were little.
I was allowed to be a kid, I allowed my son to be a kid. These days, folks treat & talk to kids like they are adults, and they are not.
Don't rob them of the much needed "kid" days of their lives. Lord knows its hard enough when your an adult and missing those easier days.

 

[FatttFire]

just stop and think about it......... if she is anything like my GF, if your son gets a sliver, you will never hear the end of it!

So is it worth it?

 

[Adios Pantalones]

My dad had me reaching into the hay bailer to unclog stuff when I was seven. I got my first Skil saw at 5 . I had my shih tzus running a backhoe when they were 9 months each. My gourami redid the electrical in my shed when he was just a fry so now I get 240 V out there so that my neighbor's 3 year old can run his bandsaw mill.

Don't get him a saw- get him a flame thrower. Much cooler.

 

[smokinj]

That roybi is not good for much more than teaching a young kid how to run a real chain saw, what ever age you decide to let him start.
good concept saw for teaching and thats about it with that so called saw!

 

[Gooserider]

I think kids learn responsibilty by EXERCISING responsibility... Some kids have it, some don't and need to grow into it... What other sorts of responsible behaviour requiring things does your kid do, especially ones that have an element of danger to them. - i.e. operating other peices of power equipment? Can he split w/ an axe or sledge and wedge? Do you let him help Mom in the kitchen doing things which involve sharp knives? Do you trust him to ride a pedal bike in serious traffic? If he can handle other tasks that have a risk element, that require significant skills, alertness, coordination, etc. and do them well, then I'd consider it. If he has trouble with them, or has never been allowed to practice them, then a chain saw isn't the place to start...

The second question is how big and strong the kid is - how well is he going to be able to handle a saw just from a physical strength issue? I've seen kids that age that haven't hit their growth button yet and simply wouldn't be big enough to deal with a saw, others are bigger and would have little trouble...

That said, I'm not sure I'd get a quasi-toy saw like a battery powered electric. An underpowered tool gets pushed beyond it's limits, and that can CAUSE accidents... I think it would be better to look at one of the smaller gas saws (say about 20cc?) and put a 10-12" bar on it... Enough for limbing, and semi-serious cutting, but small and light... If that's to big a saw for him to handle, wait till he grows... And I'd agree on the safety gear, at least chaps, boots and head gear - boots might be a problem, I'd think you could probably cut down a pair of adult chaps if you had to, and the headgear seems to be "one-size-fits-most" - again I'd use that as a "gating factor" - if you can't make it fit, then make him wait till he's growed a bit...

Gooserider

 

[CowboyAndy]

Well, I think the answer is pretty clear. Thank you all for your great input. I guess it was just the dad in me wanting him to "be a man" so to speak.

 

[Brian VT]

3 words. Kickback - femoral and juglar.


It only takes a second.

I have one of these saws. It's low speed and I don't think you could make it kick back. It'd be really tough to hurt yourself with it.
I'd let my 11 yr. old daughter use it if she wanted to.
It is a handy tool for when you just need a few cuts and don't want to fire up the gasser. I'll try to post a video.

 

[smokinj]

3 words. Kickback - femoral and juglar.


It only takes a second.

I have one of these saws. It's low speed and I don't think you could make it kick back. It'd be really tough to hurt yourself with it.
I'd let my 11 yr. old daughter use it if she wanted to.
It is a handy tool for when you just need a few cuts and don't want to fire up the gasser. I'll try to post a video.

Thats what i was saying about it! you would have better luck cuttting with a butter knife than the ryobi,I have a 10 and 12 year old girls i would let them cut with that saw but they just dont want to!

 

[Dill]

Thats a tough one. I'm trying to remember when I started to run a saw and I don't think it was before 13 or 14. And I grew up on a farm, running tractors when I was 10 and a dump truck by 12 in the field. I did start to run the splitter pretty young probably 5 but thats only a lever and runs slow enough.

 

[smokinj]

Thats a tough one. I'm trying to remember when I started to run a saw and I don't think it was before 13 or 14. And I grew up on a farm, running tractors when I was 10 and a dump truck by 12 in the field. I did start to run the splitter pretty young probably 5 but thats only a lever and runs slow enough.

This is a 18 volt battery saw

 

[Dill]

I did read it was a little electric saw. But I figured rather than criticize someone else's parenting I would just post up what I knew.
I can tell you that I couldn't wait to run a saw, it finally meant that I wasn't the one stacking or tossing the wood.

 

[Backroads]

Every situation is different and you can't really go by age, more by maturity IMHO.

My son is 8.
Could he handle it, maybe...(or at least I think so)
Do I want to listen to my wife tell me I told you so...NOPE!! :shut:
So he just helps stack for now!

 

[raybonz]

My boy is 9 and I wanted to get him into helping with the actual limbing/bucking of trees. Ryobi sells a 10" 18v saw that I was thinking of getting him for christmas. My wife thinks he is too young. What do you all think? Also, if I were to get it, where could I get child size safety chaps?

Personally I say no way... I couldn't live with myself if anything were to happen... Even a bow saw would be dangerous to a youngster like that..

Ray

 

[pdboilermaker]

Just bought my son a Stihl ms170 for a Christmas gift, he is 13 and has wanted one for 3 years now. He cuts a lot with me and uses my ms310 to cut off branchs for the past 3 years. All of that crap about they will get hurt is just that uninformed, witch hunt madness. Any kid, having grown up doing what some consider "high risk" activities under the supervision of an adult will be fine. My kids have ridden 4 wheelers since they were 2 years old with me and now at 9 and 13 they race 90cc quads that will put my Polaris 330 to shame in speed and performance. Never an injury because 1. They have grown up with it 2. They respect the machine.

Ask yourself these simple questions:

1. Are more kids injured each year playing with matches than using a chainsaw?
2. Are more kids injured each year playing with other kids than a chainsaw?
3. Are more kids injured each year playing organized sports than using a chainsaw?
4. Are more kids hurt by their parents (usually their moms I might add) by abuse be it physical, mental then using a chainsaw?
(PS keep in mind that while the domestic violence reports are staggering against men that "beat" women. Look who actually kills their kids the most, wont be men hint, hint)
5. Are more kids injured and killed each year riding in cars than using a chainsaw?

If you go strictly by the odds of injuries, your wife would never let them play with matches, not play with other kids, not let them be in organized sports, certianly never spend any alone time with them, and they could never go anywhere in a car.

 

[big_fish]

there is a reason they don't make child size safety gear(chaps cutting boots ect)cause they shouldn't be using it as for the saw I understand it is low torque but just try to pinch the bark on a tree and then try to pinch the skin on your arm or leg if it is designed to cut wood it will cut you now I'm not bashing you my friend I was out there cutting wood with popps when I was a kid but I was the official loader and dragger and have been cutting wood for 30 yrs and just this past month we had a wind storm blow a bunch of trees down on top of each other I was clearing it out and I thought I could read a tree pretty well but you can't read stored energy a branch let loose and threw me to the ground before I could even think about reacting and I landed on my saw (husqvarna 455 rancher)at half throttle cut my leg good and scared the living s@*t out of me this is just something to think about you could be standing right there and not be able to react but you guys could be fine with no problems use good judgment and be careful you can't replace little buddies

 

[sl7vk]

Just bought my son a Stihl ms170 for a Christmas gift, he is 13 and has wanted one for 3 years now. He cuts a lot with me and uses my ms310 to cut off branchs for the past 3 years. All of that crap about they will get hurt is just that uninformed, witch hunt madness. Any kid, having grown up doing what some consider "high risk" activities under the supervision of an adult will be fine. My kids have ridden 4 wheelers since they were 2 years old with me and now at 9 and 13 they race 90cc quads that will put my Polaris 330 to shame in speed and performance. Never an injury because 1. They have grown up with it 2. They respect the machine.

Ask yourself these simple questions:

1. Are more kids injured each year playing with matches than using a chainsaw?
2. Are more kids injured each year playing with other kids than a chainsaw?
3. Are more kids injured each year playing organized sports than using a chainsaw?
4. Are more kids hurt by their parents (usually their moms I might add) by abuse be it physical, mental then using a chainsaw?
(PS keep in mind that while the domestic violence reports are staggering against men that "beat" women. Look who actually kills their kids the most, wont be men hint, hint)
5. Are more kids injured and killed each year riding in cars than using a chainsaw?

If you go strictly by the odds of injuries, your wife would never let them play with matches, not play with other kids, not let them be in organized sports, certianly never spend any alone time with them, and they could never go anywhere in a car.

No to all 5 of your questions.....

....Because most parents aren't stupid enough to let their kids use a chainsaw.

 

[Gooserider]

I think a great deal of our societies problems are due to the way we infantilize our youth, and refuse to allow them to GROW UP. I'm not Jewish, but in the case of the previous couple posts we are talking about a 13 year old... This is about the age a Jewish kid stands up in front of his church congregation and declares that "Today I am a MAN (or woman)" - traditionally this meant that they were ADULTS and expected to participate in the community as such...

In historical times, kids younger than that would be getting apprenticed to some craftsman and started on learning a trade, many of which included use of highly dangerous tools and equipment.

TODAY the kids in Amish and other traditional agricultural communities are expected to pull their weight on the farm and use those tools that are allowed at a young age. (and there have been legal battles over them allowing youngsters to operate power tools in wood shops and such...)

It is only since the 1900's or so, and the rise of the unions that we have started punishing our young people with "Child protection laws" that tell us we aren't allowed to let kids work, touch potentially hazardous tools and so forth - if you peel back the warm fuzzy "for the children" rhetoric and look at the REAL motivation for these laws you find that the actual motive was to cut off entry into the trades by unskilled workers in order to limit the supply of potential employees that an employer could hire, thus forcing him to pay more to the priviledged few... (Sort of like the hidden racism behind most "gun control" legislation)

A lot of this is also reflected in our language - you hear the word "child" or "kid" and we mostly think of a youngster somewheres in the 5-10 year old range - post potty training, but pre-puberty - yet our government uses the term for anyone under 21, and in some cases under 25, and distorts it's statistics accordingly (amazing how many "child molestation" cases involve 15-17 year olds in "voluntary" relationships - or things like the recent flaps about kids sending naked cell phone pictures of themselves to each other....)

Would I hand most youngsters these days a chain saw? HELL NO! But not because I think they shouldn't, rather because we (and I put a lot of the blame for this right on the parents!) have never allowed these kids to LEARN how to behave responsibility by letting them have any opportunity to exercise it... (example - girls used to start babysitting around 12-13, mostly for short times w/ older kids, then working up to more challenging assignments - now we are told it's "child abandonment" to have a kid under 16 babysitting...)

OTOH, a kid raised like pdboilermaker describes his, where they have been taught to exercise responsibility by having oportunity to exercise it, no problem assuming that the kid is physically big / strong enough to handle the saw in question, there is reasonable adult supervision, and some provision is made for safety gear (part of the "big enough" equation is being able to get stuff that fits - 13 is a marginal age depending on just when he hit the big growth spurt...)

Gooserider

 

[Dill]

You make a very valid point. I asked my father about this over the weekend I was 13 when he gave me the partner 500.
Probably would have done it sooner but it freaked my mom out.
That being said I did lose a good friend in High school (he was 15) when he was cutting wood after an ice storm, in an improper way.
So if you let your kids saw give him the gear and make sure he knows what's going on. Also look into a chainsaw class, 4-H has some if you can find it, or "The game of logging". Kids, like husbands and wives sometimes learn better when its a stranger teaching them.

 

[Gooserider]

You make a very valid point. I asked my father about this over the weekend I was 13 when he gave me the partner 500.
Probably would have done it sooner but it freaked my mom out.
That being said I did lose a good friend in High school (he was 15) when he was cutting wood after an ice storm, in an improper way.
So if you let your kids saw give him the gear and make sure he knows what's going on. Also look into a chainsaw class, 4-H has some if you can find it, or "The game of logging". Kids, like husbands and wives sometimes learn better when its a stranger teaching them.

Agreed both on the training suggestion, and the notion of getting it from a stranger - I used to be certified as a Motorcycle Safety Instructor, and one of the things we were taught in our instructor prep classes was to never try to teach close friends / family members, and even that if it was at all possible to keep relatives from taking the course together. We didn't even want "significant others" watching when a student was on the range...

It really helps when the instructor is a stranger, because then the student knows that any criticism isn't personal. Getting rid of the relatives helps by letting the student keep focused on the course material instead of worrying about putting on a good show (or not making a fool out of him/herself) in front of the important other... At the same time, we try to get the relative into a different course, as it saves battles when the new grad tells the allegedly more experienced partner about all the stuff the partner is doing "wrong" (And the student is probably right - most riders DO NOT ride either as safely or as well as they think they do... One of my classmates in the instructor prep was a 20 year veteran Boston motorcycle cop - his post course evaluation was "I *THOUGHT* I knew how to ride a motorcycle, I was *WRONG*, I just learned how to ride this past week...")

Gooserider