Trailoftears

Re:blade sharpening,I find the brush knife blades much more effective when (reasonably) sharp,this shows when using them on the vertical plane,i e. Up and down in say,knee high brambles.As to mower blades-whether walk behind or ride on tractor blades,when I observe fuzzy/crazed top edges on cut grass,I take that as a hint to sharpen.As to balancing,I check the blade on a steel ruler clamped in a workbench vice-I dont expect perfection but it shouldnt lurch to one side when centered on a ruler.

A can of worms sort of topic this,I use a fair few stihl saws+others.Like the op I use the 261 for various jobs,but also sometimes need bigger saws,so semi-retired my still perfectly functioning 038 for the 441,which imo is a lovely 70cc saw capable of running 3 bar sizes,but then the 460 series guys will shout 'noo'-DONT buy a 441 saw.If you buy a 460 series saw-the 500i owners will shake their heads at you pityingly...Beware-this way lies madness and extra weight!I do agree the 400 looks interesting with a good power to weight ratio.I suspect like the 441 it hasnt sold well,and will shortly disappear from the catalogue.Still,stihl support their products well,so no worries there.

Third year running now-just hitting peak growing season on the traditionally mild,wet west coast of Wales,and BANG,game over,no rain for 25 days,horribly dusty conditions,cant even dig a decent hole whilst planting.Putting young plants out becomes an act of cruelty.Crazy,crazy times and climate.

I've found keeping a battery grinder in the car so useful.Whichever blade you use,so handy to pause on the job and quickly sharpen it up,also the same applies to mower blades.So much easier than going home knackered and having sharpening jobs to do in the shed on a bench grinder.

I looked long and hard at the fs 131 over the 240 c.Which is Much lighter with a (slightly)lower power output+much the same money.But what sold me on the fs 240-c is the almost astonishing throttle response.Hand on heart,its been by far the most responsive 2/ clearing saw/b.cutter machine from stihl its ever been my pleasure to use.Maybe the 4/ fs131 would/could be equally good.But I couldn't afford to drop £600+ just to find was it as good as a proven pro 2/commercial machine.

Lol-I hear what your saying....

I doubt a 1.5kg weight saving is down to 1 rubber rather than 4 tbh!But yes,there is a sacrifice to be made.

As an afterthought too,with the 240-c you get to grease the bevel gear area with your own,hopefully premium grease.As far as Ive seen-the clearing saws are know sealed for life with no option to re-grease,I have heard many complaints (and heard) local authority operatives with worryingly whiny gearheads....

Its true you are sacrificing 4 point vibe for 1 point vibe,also the gearhead is less robust too,also the handlebar mount point is not lifted as high as the 'proper' clearing saws too.But what swayed me-and I've used the last 3 gens of stihl cl.saws-is always using the forwardmost harness point to make the machine as forward heavy as poss (6 ft +),this clearing saw stihl gen Are truly,truly horribly back heavy-this you will know about when you take the strain and lift to clear waist high verges,banks-trust me-they are back-heavy pigs.Ironically,with the 240-cyou can slide the harness point along the shaft to EXACTLY where it suits each individual precisely.Not a huge fan of this generation of engine-its a badly balanced back-heavy lump.Tge old fs400 were far superior balance wise.I expect a change on any new versions of these saws.Also the shut lines on the engine areas/covers and cowls are the worst/biggest I've ever seen on Stihl high end cl.saws tbh.

Just a different take on your needs, I've not used the mulching blades-they look pretty 'spitty' and nasty to me!Over the years I've generally gone with whatever the current stihl 40cc was,and recently 'downgraded' to the 240-c.Identical power output to the 361 but a weight saving of 1.5kg-not insignificant.But whatever m/c I'm using I find the brushcut knife 3-pointed blade a really good all rounder-nettles/docks/brambles up to your waist-even young samplings/gorse up to and over 1cm are dealt with easily.

A thought provoking topic.I'm no oil expert.But if you look at cars we have moved from mineral to semi synth,now fully synth oils.No modern car's service schedule would spec mineral oils I assume?Again,I assume fully synth oils flow/warm quicker due to their lower viscosity?So minimise start up/cold engine wear due to better initial warm-up/ early movement thru the engine.Which sounds logical....

Here's a mad thought/interesting experiment-buy your 5 litres of standard E10 petrol+add your chosen mineral/semi synth 2/oil,Then mix in a litre of moto on top!?That way,you are hedging your bets re:different 2/oils+diluting the ethanol content+making your moto go 5 times further too!Dont thank me,I can hear the applause from here 😄

Also,no way could I even consider using the motomix cans regularly,even as a one man band,its not unusual to to use 20 litres of 2/+4/ a month.But if I buy a high-end 2/ machine-or 2 at the same time-I may buy a 5 litre can of moto just to treat/break them in-whether there is any sense/logic in that,I couldn't honestly say!

No particular dog in this race! I've run dozens of 2 stroke small-engined machines over the last 40 odd years-mainly stihl and kawi machines.Often run hot and hard for extended periods commercially.Always used stihl red mineral oil @50:1 with no issues I could discern.Occaisonally had carbon breakaway shorting the s.plug intermittently at full speed on high hour stihl clearing saws-no big deal tho.As machines get more expensive and less tolerant re:E5?Changed to the semi synth stihl super green oil @40:1,again,no great differences noted commercially,I wouldnt use the stihl ultra just on price premium tbh.The super if bought at 5 litre quantity,pretty much compares to the price of a single litre price of the mineral oil anyway,and hopefully is a 'slight'upgrade.

The conifer hedge issue can have a few different causes-overspray from oil tank filling in windy conditions/slightly overdeep cutting/ harsh or salty winds.The most likely issue is dryness at the rootzo es+adelgid/aphid attacks.If it spreads along the hedge-your'e buggered.If it stays static sympathetic trimming around the area when routinely trimming the whole hedge (late Sept) will encourage eventual closure-and shoots coming thru the dead zones are precious.But it can recur/spread/pop up in other areas too.

(Bad piccies) of my pair of coloured bramleys hugely reduced.When I went back,astonished to find the couple who owned the garden had spent close to 2 full days chipping up the HUGE amount of waste with a bosch domestic shredder.V.impressed but also slightly horrified!

The little petrol makita is great,and as little as its displacement is-22.5 cc?It becomes quickly apparent that its a LOT more powerful than the makita duc 254.But both have their roles/strenghts.

Glad you like them but the weight of 2 5amp batteries sucks the joy out of the battery experience for me.One honourable exception is the 36v makita leafblower given how it sucks up/needs the 2 batts,but then, you carry that weight with a vertical extended arm,so the extra weight of 2 batts is ok.Saying that,due to my peevishness with blowing down a 600 metre drive then finding I need fresh batteries (inevitably as far from the car as poss),Has led to me buying a little 4/ mak petrol blower!

Well to be honest I find it hard to love the mak.36v tools whether that be the traditional woodwork tools or the outdoor horti tools.One of the big issues with me is if I go battery over petrol,Is I expect a meaningful weight-saving advantage,which the 2 battery system kills.I've gone down the route of buying 5ah batteries when flush/also copies so just keep about 8 4/5 amp batts in my car when working.I did buy the 36v mak.tree surgery type saw and it dawned on me it was heavier/weaker than stihls cheapo petrol saw,so sold it straight on.For up in a big bramley tho, the little 18v mak duc 254 is perfect for removing the bulk of crowns followed up using the tiny petrol makita petrol to cut your way down logging as you go.But each to their own.I'm no tree surgeon/rope guy thats for sure,but in a big bramley crown as long as I start as high as the initial cut and travel down I'm happy enough.Getting the big top branches down/out is usually the major hassle I find!

I will take some piccies tomoz if poss-follow-up visit to deal with the absolute chaos of a large lawn area left strewn with God knows what volume of large apple tree branches by my good self-more work/time to process/burn the debris than pruning 2 large overgrown trees-aint it always the way!

Its true,so,so many customers just cant be arsed to harvest/use their apples,it does my head in when you arrive to do a half hour lawn cut which turns into an hour job due to apple raking/dodging wasps and going home smelling like a confirmed alky cider drinker!

Being a general landscaper, during the earlier quiet months of the Year I've developed a round of hard fruit tree pruning from the turn of the year up to the end of March.Mostly over large bramley type Apple trees.I tend to cleanly take off the top third or so.No stubs or possible vertical growth areas left.So involving taking out 4-6" main trunks cleanly down to lower arching down branches.This spring the ideal combo strikes me as the 18v makita battery saw (duc254) for swiftly taking off the unwanted heads off the tree for say,up to 3" or so.Then to cleanly remove the main trunk areas,the makita Dcs230T little petrol saw really comes into its own-tiny/light but with patience will cheerfully cut through 5"+ gnarley apple trunks.I find the worst part of jobs like this is getting the major cut branches out of the tree canopy.The lower areas I tend to leave alone as much as possible,apart from the obvious slight shortening/spur reduction/dead/diseased removal etc.Then hopefully you leave behind an accessible reasonably lowish fruit framework for your customer with the easy future job of removing opportunistic basal shoots off while soft.

Yep,I did include stihl as a make with no real issue.But I've seen hedgetrimmers (correctly adjusted re: blade set+idle) for normal/dry conditions suddenly constantly run their blades when wet at a dangerous speed when constantly running in wet conditions.Obviously extremely dangerous.All my kawasaki branded machines will/would certainly do it regularly in wet run state.

One issue with using hedgetrimmers in the rain/on a wet hedge is that the blades will 'run on' after releasing the throttle trigger due to the rain lubrication which is potentially dangerous.Its often a good idea to temporarily tighten up the blade fixing bolts to stop the run on for safety's sake.With stihl models,they are internally spaced so cant be done.