budding new carver

[cameronj]

Hi

 

I have made several wood carvings to date using an electric chain saw but now wish to "move up a league' and would appreciate any advice on the best type of petrol chain saw for a still fairly fresh beginner

 

It would not be heavily used in terms of volume of cutting and am obviously looking for VFM

 

any advice or thoughts appreciated

 

jim cameron

[Daniël Bos]

Stihl ms192 seems to be the favourite, but hard to find.

 

Maybe one left here?

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/chainsaw-carving-forum/35345-4-x-ms192c-new-sale-wales-uk.html

[jrose]

Any of the small homeowner class saws - MS170 or MS171, Husky 236 (I think that's the right model), or I use an Efco MT3500. Personally I'd advise against the Stihl from personal experience, but other people will sing their praises... one thing the Stihl does have going for it is a narrower chain gauge than any of the others as standard, and possibly easier to fit a carving bar at a later date as Stihl manufacture these themselves, and the sprockets etc to go with it.

 

Any of these will be nice and cheap for a first saw, and they all have slightly tapered bars as standard, go for a 14" bar. Not as good for detail as a carving bar, but will let you get sufficient detail while at the same time giving you 14" of usable length for blocking out the bigger bits. If you decide to get a bigger saw for blocking, you can fit the smaller saw with a carving bar at this point.

[Rob D]

I have the Stihl 192 - a cracking little saw and far far superior to the MS170, MS180 and MS211 and all the rest of those domesticy type saws.

[robbo 110]

if your just starting out i would look for a decent second hand stihl, 192 as said but the 017- ms170 or 018- ms180 will work fine, all depends what you need to do thou, im only at the beginning stage but i block things out with a bigger saw then use the carving saw for the detail work!

[cameronj]

Many thanks for those who were good enough to offer comment and advice and apologies for the delay in responding

 

I have now a MS192 which will be put to good use over the next months

 

advice was appreciated and look forward to future forum items

[sawdusty surfer]

Husky 357XP, my standard saw. Perfect in every way!