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Why does nobody warn new climbers about dull handsaws until they're 40 feet up?
Last Tuesday I was deadwooding a big silver maple in Rochester and my Silky saw was pulling instead of cutting, so I muscled it and nearly lost my balance on the spar. Turns out the teeth were shot after maybe 3 weeks of steady work and I never noticed because I kept telling myself it was still biting. A dull handsaw on a removal is not just slow, it makes you push harder, and pushing hard in a tree is how you slip. I watched a guy on our crew last spring do the same thing and he gaffed out about 12 feet, broke his wrist and wrecked his shoulder. Now I swap blades or sharpen every Friday, no matter how good it feels, and I keep a spare in my kit. The difference on a 10 inch cut is maybe 4 seconds with a fresh tooth vs 15 with a smoked one, and over a whole day that adds up to a lot of tired arms. Does anyone else have a set schedule for saw maintenance, or do you just wait until you feel it dragging?
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elliot548d ago
Tbh swapping every Friday seems like overkill if you're just doing deadwooding, a decent Silky should hold an edge way longer than a week unless you're cutting dirty bark or hitting grit all day. Sharpening on a fixed schedule sounds good in theory but most guys I know just carry two saws and switch when one starts pulling, then touch them up on rainy days. The real fix is learning what a dull saw feels like before it fights you, not a calendar.
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