safety; top handle saws - risks and incidents.

[will.morris]

Would love to see the true statistics for how many tree surgeons use top handles on the ground and/or one handed.

 

In college obviously its a no no.

 

In the real world when you have a small limb to bash off before the branch will go through the chipper, your boss is up the tree with the 362 and your on the ground with a 441 and a toppy ... I know which saw I'd pick up.

[3dogs]

Would love to see the true statistics for how many tree surgeons use top handles on the ground and/or one handed.

 

In college obviously its a no no.

 

In the real world when you have a small limb to bash off before the branch will go through the chipper, your boss is up the tree with the 362 and your on the ground with a 441 and a toppy ... I know which saw I'd pick up.

 

and the true statistics of how many injuries go unreported:sneaky2:

[L200LOG]

It is so tempting to use the top handled saw on the ground, I personally do not use these saws on the ground, im not saying i have not but due to the temptation to hold the wood in one hand and cut it is so easy to see why opertators get injured. I have seen this one lad where he had used a top handled saw on the ground and with a flick of the bar it left him with a rather nasty zig zag cut up his left arm.

If you rev the saw up and hold in one hand and with a little sideways movement the saw can become very uncontrolable with the centrafugal force of the clutch causing wobbles.

With operators being injured with saws there is no independent body in place to record chainsaw related injurys, so for example Jo Bloggs down the street buys a B&Q special saw cuts his foot then this would go down as a national stats but he is not qualified!!!

If a Contractor is injured on the ground whilst using a top handled saw then i would imagine they would be prosectued under the 1998 PUWER Regs from the Health and safety at work act , i think because the puwer regs say that all equipment should be in a full safe and servicable condition and be used as what it has been designed for, and with the top handled saw being designed for use in the tree. [Aerial]

But then an argument would lie with the one handed use of the saw in the tree [CS39] where a normal work postion cannot be achieved or at the extremities of a tree when one hand is need to balance and maitain postion, my personal view USE A HAND SAW]

 

VIEWS??????

[Pedroski]

99% of the cuts I've seen have been using silkys

I think small/light means you don't give the tool the respect it requires

 

33% of the work related cuts I have seen have been due to a numpty being careless with a Silky. 33% were due to careless use of a pair of Ames secateurs, and the final one was due to work mate gashing his head on a hook on side of truck. Not seen a single chainsaw cut.

[Dog Tag]

Two hands are better than one.

[rossy]

A climber at my work swears its safer to use his top handled saw on the ground rather than an 026 because its sharper! Or should I say the only saw he will sharpen, climbers don't sharpen ground saws you know, that's a groundie job. Yet I tell him everyday as he's swinging it around one handed sometimes two that it'll bite him in the end. I wonder where the insurance company would stand on this say there was an accident? It's not illegal just not best practice I believe.

 

 

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[rossy]

As above the temptation on the ground is especially with smaller bits of wood is to hold the wood with one hand and cut with the other!

 

After all how many of us steady the odd bit with our foot while we're cutting?

 

 

So rather than make a complicated rule it's just 'don't use on the ground'.

 

Totally agree!

 

 

 

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[Rich2484]

In my book its a huge no no.

 

It's not designed for every day use on ground. And the only selling to cs39 operators is purely a husky stihl thing. It's not actual law. I hate seeing them being used on the ground and I'm waiting for one to bite......

 

This is why they have the rear handle 200 out. If you want a light saw on the ground buy one of those. Or should I say the rear handle 201.

 

Plus I REALLY wouldn't want a modded 200t kicking back on the ground. If you look at the design of the top handle the chain break handle is a lot smaller and closer to the handle so it will engage a lot sooner than a standard rear handle but it is still not good practise to use one on the ground.

[agrimog]

a top handle saw is just another tool in a toolbox full of dangerous, sharp and pointy things, if you dont know how to use it, or are stupid with it, it will bite you, comes back to the age old argument when did they stop teaching common sense?, a lot of times I will reach for my top handle for ground jobs, why, because it is the best tool for the job, perfect balanced for one handed use, allows you to securely hold the bit your cutting, would it be cleverer to use a rear handle and try somehow to pin down that branch with a foot and end up falling about the place, COMMON SENSE must be used, and, if like a lot of posters on here judging from there attitude, you dont have it, dont use them, leave them to people who know what there doing, and as for trying to ban, or restrict them, get a life, who do you think you are trying to dictate what a person can or cannot do, there are already enough wa***rs in politics trying to do this already.....rant over, thank you

[Ty Korrigan]

I must have been on arbtalk way too long cos this is the 3rd fourth time this subjects gone round the mangel! and for that reason im out!

 

However my Fungal friend...

Remember that Firemen need to practice every week should they become stale and young men need to also 'practice' to keep the knowledge stiff and not become flaccid in the mornings.

Tree surgeons are like both, need to take the subject in hand on a weekly basis and rag it over till it flops...

Then pour water over it...hhhh!

Ty