Iight saw for orchard work

[Pinkfoot]

I have around 6,000 apple trees to graft every year for five or so years.

I have also been given the task of preparing them which involves lopping the top off flat . They are only as thick as your arm .

I would like recommendations for a light buy fiesty saw that would make the job quick and more enjoyable.

 

[Retired Climber]

I'd use back handled ms201 for that. 

[Dan Maynard]

Battery saw.

[Rough Hewn]

A stihl msa200 or similar
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[Paddy1000111]

Are the MSA 120's no good then? 200 size seems excessive for anything under 6"?

[AHPP]

A 120 would be a joy because of the lightness but will frustrate on power at 6” (3” would be fine, 4” tolerable). A 200 would be a joy because of the power but only if you’re strong enough to position it for what presumably need to be quite precise cuts. Depends how strong you are and how ergonomic it is to make the cuts. Sixty cuts a hundred times sounds like a lot of cuts to me.

That’s assuming you want battery, which for stop start work I would strongly recommend. If you can walk two paces from cut to cut (so don’t need to be constantly stop starting or having the saw wastefully idling) and want petrol power, 150 backhandle.

 

[Pinkfoot]

9 minutes ago, AHPP said:

A 120 would be a joy because of the lightness but will frustrate on power at 6” (3” would be fine, 4” tolerable). A 200 would be a joy because of the power but only if you’re strong enough to position it for what presumably need to be quite precise cuts. Depends how strong you are and how ergonomic it is to make the cuts. Sixty cuts a hundred times sounds like a lot of cuts to me.

That’s assuming you want battery, which for stop start work I would strongly recommend. If you can walk two paces from cut to cut and want petrol power, 150 backhandle.

Cheers for that.

[Puffingbilly413]

If you don't want the cost of a new battery set up (ie charger and batteries x 2 or 3), then have a look at the small Echos.  The top handle police might have something to say about their ground use of course.  If you can afford a battery set up then the Husky battery saws are great - they will easily cope with what you want and even larger. Ditto re the top handle versions...

[AHPP]

Cheers for that.

And consider Makita equivalents if you already have batteries but you’d probably want to consider moving anything over to 1/4” picco. How fine do the cuts need to be? Curious about the whole process to be honest. Would be delighted if you did a thread on it and other fruit production matters.

 

[slack ma girdle]

6 minutes ago, AHPP said:

And consider Makita equivalents if you already have batteries but you’d probably want to consider moving anything over to 1/4” picco. How fine do the cuts need to be? Curious about the whole process to be honest. Would be delighted if you did a thread on it and other fruit production matters.

 

The makita saws are very good