Chain Saw

Getting Close to a Chain Saw

An overrated item popularly used in noir themed movie killings, the chain saw is perhaps the most popular breed of power tool, familiar to any household in the world.

In a nutshell, a chain saw is basically a motorized saw.

It’s most common utilization can be found in logging activities, where bucking and felling trees and branches are needed. Due to its “portable” nature, chain saws aren’t exactly limited for loggers’ use only. Fire fighters are known to use chain saws, especially in controlling forest fires, and cutting firebreaks. In the arena of do-it-yourself repairs, simple households have also come to see the benefits of a chain saw, especially for precise wood cutting needs.

Though not exactly a power tool for “detailed” woodworking projects, a chain saw greatly aids in cutting up major chunks of wood, preparing wood pieces for more detailed operations. When talking about woodworking, one could say a chain saw is similar to that of a roller brush, which is used to put a primer on a wall, before smaller brushes are utilized in completing a mural.

There are two major types of chain saws. There are types that use a two-stroke gasoline powered engine, as well as types that utilize an electric motor. Riveted metal portions are joined together in the similar fashion a bicycle chain is fabricated. This make up the “chain” part in a chain saw, and pretty much defines the successful operation of the item. Sharp blades, individually called a tooth, are mounted on each link, as the tool’s motor cycles it, thus cutting whatever surface it’s directed to cut.

Chain saw variations can be determined through gap positions of the tooth. A skip tooth chain saw has a tooth mounted on ever second link, reducing the clogging risk of the chain saw when it comes to cutting soft wood. Recent variations include an alternation between right and left handed teeth, making cuts made by a chain saw more even.

It is believed that the first chain saw came to be by 1830, through the efforts of Bernard Heine a German orthopedist. It wasn’t used to cut wood though. As the proponent’s profession implies, it was used to cut bone. By 1929 Dolmar came out with the first gasoline-powered chain saw. These saws were geared to cut wood this time, and were two-person operated devices. Chain saws by this time were heavy, and often came mounted on wheels.

As improvements in engine design blossomed after World War II, lighter and more compact chain saws were introduced into the market, becoming the “base design” for chain saws as we recognize them nowadays.

These days, chain saws have replaced simple brute-force powered saws, making wood cutting excursions fast, accurate, and easy. Sculpting using chain saws could be easily achieved, using special chain saw teeth.

Coming in a variety of shapes and sizes, chain saws prove to be quite useful when it comes to woodworking projects, and has been acknowledged for such.