Goodbye to the Chainsaw Blue-hoo-hoos

Here is my nice new chainsaw. The old one kept losing its chain. Yesterday my son fixed it before going to work (my hero), and I attacked the woodpile. After about an hour the chain came off. I was so frustrated that I decided to fix it myself. It was one of those jobs that require three hands, one of which should be powerful. My hands ached as I tried again and again to hold it all together and get the nut on. At last it was done and triumphantly I tried it out and discovered I’d put the bloody thing on back to front. Nothing for it but to pull it apart and start again.

I got quite a bit more wood cut before the chain came off again. This time I couldn’t fix it because my hands had gone stiff. So I worked in the greenhouse instead, planning a trip to town.

The beauty of this new chainsaw is that when the chain is loose you need only turn the big knob clockwise to tighten it. After 5 logs it needed to be tightened, but could I turn that knob? I reread the instructions. Simply turn the knob clockwise to tighten the chain, it said, but I couldn’t budge it one way or the other. Nothing for it but to wait for my son to finish work.

He came and couldn’t turn it either. After messing about with it for ten minutes he found that before you turn the knob clockwise you have to turn the inner part of the knob anticlockwise. There’s nothing about that in the manual.

My old saw horse is looking rumpty, but is very effective. My son designed and built it so that both ends of the log are supported and they are held down with straps. Cutting across a log is called bucking. So this is my bucking saw horse.