What's the weirdest thing you have ever cut through when felling/bucking????

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smokedragon

Minister of Fire
Feb 27, 2014
928
Greensboro, NC
Here are mine:

1 - I cut through a bullet felling a tree for my dad's neighbor. Nice and shiny where the saw went through it, but the chain cut fine, so I kept going.

2 - Years ago, cutting with my grandpa, I hit a lag bolt. Someone had fastened something to the tree, and the tree grew around it. Never saw it coming and broke the chain.

3 - Barbed wire fencing. Was helping a friend clear his fence line, didn't realize that the tree we were bucking used to be the fence line. They had moved the fence line about 20 feet, then this tree fell across it years later. This threw the chain off the bar. Had to clean up about 4 drive links with my flat file, but still have and use the chain to this day.

4 - Tomato cage. I was clearing some thumb sized brush with my chainsaw and didn't realize there was a tomato cage in all of it. That made a few sparks. No major damage, but lots of sparks.

5 - My all time favorite (because it happened to me last week and I am still trying to figure it out)...... CONCRETE. I cut down a poplar at the corner of our back yard and decided to cut the stump off level with the ground. It had a lot of butress roots, but I was just cutting away with a wedge supporting one side. Half way through the stump, the saw just quits cutting.........I said heck with it, I had felled, limbed, and bucked that tree with one saw, it must just be dull. Get my second saw, crank it and try to keep cutting. I go about an inch further, and it quits cutting. It was only then that I thoroughly inspected and found someone had throw a gob of concrete as big as a fist between two roots. It had been there a long time and blended right in with the tree. Busted that up, put on a fresh chain, and voila! Chains sharpened right back up and cut fine.

What have you hit with your saws? Ever break a chain?
 
100 yr old liquified squirrel chit sitting in the bottom of a hollowed out shagbark hickory tree. Mixed with partially decomposed acorns and bug larvae 'worms' that looked like giant tadpoles.
It didnt hurt the chainsaw, it was just tough on the stomach.
It was bad stuff.
 
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Here are mine:

1 - I cut through a bullet felling a tree for my dad's neighbor.

2 - Years ago, cutting with my grandpa, I hit a lag bolt.

3 - Barbed Wire.

4 - Tomato cage.

5 - My all time favorite (because it happened to me last week and I am still trying to figure it out)...... CONCRETE.

What have you hit with your saws? Ever break a chain?

Just last weekend, I hit a RAILROAD SPIKE while hogging through a 30" white oak for a friend's brother. Was over at the friend's place, helping him drop and buck some of the pine that's in my signature. Getting some time in on my new Dolmar (love this saw, BTW). His brother has this monster white oak that the local electrical co-op dropped on their mom's land, and he was a bit nervous about going at it, alone. Long story short; I'm about a third of the way through a cut, when all H€)) breaks loose, and the saw starts trying to vibrate its way out of my hand. Nice new Carlton semi-chisel, RIP.

Now the good news. Was back, yesterday, bucking and splitting some more pine, and the two brothers start talking about how some of those white oaks at the back of the property aught to come down. Said that after last weekend and this, I'd earned them (think the brother was feeling he could share, after last weekends monster oak). End result: my first ever oak scrounge. 2 smallish (10") and two medium (20") white oaks, all about 30-35' tall. Replaced the semi-chisel with some Stihl RSK. My new chain of choice. Eats wood like a termite on crack!

Who's a happy boy?
 
Only hardware I've hit was a fence staple, close to the center. Wrecked the chain. Fortunately it was an older chain and was about down to puppy teeth anyway. Put a new chain on and started a fresh cut as high as I could safely reach.

Strange part was, there was bobwire sticking out both sides of the tree. I thought I was safe cutting under it. Evidently someone had stapled below where the wire was years before.
 
Concrete when cutting into the first log of a stack on a construction site. Had just installed the new chain twenty minutes earlier. Free wood got expensive fast.
 
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the curiousest of cats.
 
Must have been a bow hunter with bad aim hunting my woods before I bought the place. I have hit old broad heads twice this winter. They were deep in the trees and could not be seen on the out side.

Also have to watch out for spikes used as steps but have found them before hitting them.
 
I've hit the usual 3/8" galvanized lag bolt(s), and once a ceramic electrical feed insulator, buried in a big old oak. That insulator threw the chain off my 28" bar at WOT, which really woke me up quick. Seen much more in my time, but always ID'd and avoided it before wrecking a chain.
 
The only thing I have hit were nails. Once with a brand new chisel chain on a 28" bar. That one made my day.
 
weirdest as it was unexpected - a rock in a crotch
I've hit nails, horse fence wire and latest was a huge screwhook ( for a clothesline or a dog run ) in a white oak from the neighbor's back yard.
There's a white oak in my parents' side yard with chains and braided wire embedded in it about 20 feet up. Looks like the tree was used to lift engines out of cars/trucks/tractors or sumpin like that.
(too heavy to be from a swing )
 
.58 cal. slug.
 
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I took fur off a groundhog! He must have been scared by the noise and bolted out of his hole among the roots at just the wrong time...

TE
 
I took fur off a groundhog! He must have been scared by the noise and bolted out of his hole among the roots at just the wrong time...

TE


That probably would have made me jump back by a mile.
 
Dropped a dead locust and there was a nest of baby screech owls just a couple days old. Didn't feel too good about that one for sure.
 
Was out in the back yard yesterday evening, near where they just cleared another acre of woods on the lot behind me, and heard many unhappy fowl. Assuming some of them lost their homes on Saturday, right during nesting time...
 
2 smallish (10") and two medium (20") white oaks, all about 30-35' tall
Nice.....White oak is premium wood. It is the only thing that I can get my hands on around here that I consider better than hickory. Most folks want hickory for their smokers, but will let the white oak be. If it is dry, it burns LONG and HOT.

Sorry about your carlton chain.....bet that was FUN.
 
dropped a tree that had swallowed up a section of wire fence the other day... not wierd, just annoying...i need a new chain after that
Did it break off a tooth?? If not, just file it out or have it ground. I have hit fencing a few times and still have the chain to show for it.
 
Did it break off a tooth?? If not, just file it out or have it ground. I have hit fencing a few times and still have the chain to show for it.

It was such a surprise that I didn't react as fast as I should have. Kinda froze up. Numerous broken/damaged teeth. Just sat there with the saw jangling around in the cut. Guys I was cutting with said I had this Homer Simson look, and all they could do was laugh. Not one of my best showings. ;em

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Sorry, SmokeDragon. The site had your post listed as a reply to my post, and sent me an alert. Don't know how. Just realized you weren't talking to me.
 
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