a good top handle saw please

[openboater]

Any Echo fans used the current smaller model, the 260? Wonder what it may be like for pollarding 5 year growth on willows?

[chrisj]

I worked full time climbing for 20 years and most of that time I only used back handle saws 242xp mostly , and I could often look at a tree pruned by some one else and could tell if it had been pruned with an 020 just by the cuts and angles etc , using one often ( not always ) encouraged 1 handed use with subsequent lack of control ( often dangerously ) and not bothering to obtain a good work position . I worked at Merrist Wood in the mid 90's and I know this was taught there at that time , Jack Kenyon's input I believe ...however most students just wanted an 020 just as much as a checked shirt and a hi lux ! ( this is meant light heartedly !) Is it not possible to do CS 39 without a top handled saw ?

 

 

One of the lads on my CS39 training and assessment did it with a rear handled saw. He passed without and problems.

[Martyn Amos]

Good for them! Do they use donkeys to take the brash away?

 

no just mountain men

[Mountain man]

Awwww

[Coletti]

Any Echo fans used the current smaller model, the 260? Wonder what it may be like for pollarding 5 year growth on willows?

 

I have been using the 260 for nearly 2 years and it's a great little saw, only had a bigger one for a couple of months so used it for everything before then and it worked very well. I got a 1/4 pitch sprocket for it and modded a bar from the ms150t for it and it's a different saw altogether now, it's surprising what it can handle and the you don't even know it's on your harness. For the price it's well worth the investment

[RichieR]

Thanks for all your advice. I been having a go with the 200 and I have been looking on e bay but I once bought a husky 350 and what a pile of crap! So I learnt that if it's good you keep it and if it's clapped out then it's for sale. But the echo 360 is looking interesting as a new one is only a few quid more than second hand 200's on e bay

[Old Mill Tree Care]

I have the Echo for and it works very well.

The chain brake lever is slightly annoying and the on/off switch is the opposite way round to a Stihl but you get used to it.

The handle ergonomics are excellent.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Arbtalk mobile app.

[treequip]

Yep I just about to do my 39 course and I got a lot of climbing work for my boss this winter. They cost around 600 and I got to buy the saw myself and it's a minefield when you look at the reviews. And one says their saw is great and another says they are crap

 

So are you self employed?

[openboater]

I have been using the 260 for nearly 2 years and it's a great little saw, only had a bigger one for a couple of months so used it for everything before then and it worked very well. I got a 1/4 pitch sprocket for it and modded a bar from the ms150t for it and it's a different saw altogether now, it's surprising what it can handle and the you don't even know it's on your harness. For the price it's well worth the investment

 

Is the 1/4 sprocket an Echo part? If it's not I maybe wouldn't make any mods until the warranty has run its course. Are you using a Stihl bar because of the shape, or some other reason?

I have a 12" Cannon carving bar with Dime tip that has 1/4 chain on a Husky 141. What length is the Stihl bar that you have modded? Ta.

[RichieR]

No I employed. I run a holiday park. The owners have got a load of trees to come down then in the close season I can do some freelance work