Chainsaw training when physically disabled

[talismanfisher]

I remember an old boy who had issues with lower legs/ankles (don't know what tho) so he looped the strap of a long felling lever over his left wrist and used the saw as his other stick to get to the tree, placed left shoulder against tree to do gob cut then down on one knee for the back cut, then away on the lever n saw! Anything is possible! Good luck and good on ya!

[CJM]

If it's just small stuff what about a pole pruner with an easy lift harness. Just trying to think outside the box

[ccharlie]

Wow, thanks guys for the amazing replies!! And so quickly too!

 

I'll read them all again properly tomorrow. Just wanted to say that I currently live in London but am in Bristol and Salisbury a lot.

 

The woodland in question is in Devon, just SW of Exeter (but I won't be based down there for a while yet!).

[Macpherson]

I`m sure you`ll enjoy it no matter what way you decide to go about it, all the best.

[Ukulian]

It's an interesting question!

I've inquired locally about doing a CS30, as I physically am not able to do a CS31. It turns out that nobody locally does 'just' a CS30 but all the courses are combined ones!

And because I don't have the ability to go wandering around in the woods, I would never need a CS31 anyway.

 

I've not been too worried about it (I did a full week's 'Chainsaw and Brushcutter' course back in early 1988 after three months of clearing trees for the local council!! Then they decided we needed training! ) Now, 25+ years on, I need a piece of paper to satisfy certain requirements but it is proving fairly difficult to obtain!

 

This is of no help to the OP as I don't have muscular disabilities, but I too would be happy to hear of any specialised educators catering for slightly different needs.

[ccharlie]

It's an interesting question!

I've inquired locally about doing a CS30, as I physically am not able to do a CS31. It turns out that nobody locally does 'just' a CS30 but all the courses are combined ones!

There are loads of places around the country offer just CS30 training... I see that you're in Kent. Hadlow College run a course: Award in Chainsaw Maintenance & Cross Cutting (002003) | | Hadlow College, The outstanding land based college

 

Expensive though at £410 but that does include the assessment, which I believe is the more costly bit.

 

[Ukulian]

The assessment part is £125! Thing is, I don't actually need the training, just the assessment and am reluctant to pay that sort of cost just for a piece of paper!

[the village idiot]

One consideration might be what you are using the woodland for.

 

If it's small diameter coppice (e.g. hazel) then you are likely to need to need to work on you knees anyway, and each individual branch will be small enough not to move out of the way when it's cut free. Alternatively, if it's amenity then you may not need to do much felling. Woodland grown trees also tend to be tall and straight with little or no crown, so less of an issue breaking them down as once felled and the top removed they are less likely to roll.

 

If you are cutting up for firewood, you can probably break down into sections you can extract, but you will need to take into account the handling issues.

 

If it's big stuff and you want to try chainsaw milling, I always end up doing this on my knees anyway! With a winch set-up, you would be at very little disadvantage, although a second pair of hands to help extract boards and beams would be very useful (which is no different to anyone else doing it).

 

Working alone in the woods isn't advisable anyway (although quite a few people do it, myself included) so in practice if you work with someone else, either a friend, paid help or for a share in the extracted product, that should take care of the few jobs you can't do.

 

Worth noting that, for your own site as a hobby, you don't formally need training. That's not to say it's not a very good idea to ensure that you know what you are doing, and training is often the best way to achieve this, both for using and maintaining a saw, but you don't need to get tickets. This means you could go down the route of either a formal course, or equally something less formal, either with a recognised trainer or with someone suitably experienced.

 

Alec

 

 

Thoroughly excellent post:thumbup:

[ccharlie]

I remember an old boy who had issues with lower legs/ankles (don't know what tho) so he looped the strap of a long felling lever over his left wrist and used the saw as his other stick to get to the tree, placed left shoulder against tree to do gob cut then down on one knee for the back cut, then away on the lever n saw! Anything is possible! Good luck and good on ya!

Loving the sound of that ingenuity!!

[jrose]

If you fancy having a go I'm not that far from Bristol, just off J11 m5, you're welcome to come round one weekend and have a go at cutting a few logs to see how you get on...