More tools of the trade

From the time I was 15 and bought my first chain saw, that old gear drive McCulloch for $25 with money I earned trapping, I've probably owned every brand of saw made: Lombard, Stihl, Pioneer, Husky, Sacs Dolmar, Solo-super Rex, Whitehead, yup that was a brand.

It had a West Bend cart engine, 8.2 cubic inch, chrome-lined jug, what power. Ya could really roar the trees off the stump. Once while buck'n tree lengths at a rail siding with it, I found out come suppertime I could hardly hang onto my spoon to eat my soup, say nothing of fork and steak knife. With no anti-vibration it took the toll on your hands. In the morning first thing I'd put my hands on the wall and force my fingers open. But I was hav'n fun don't ya know.

I then mounted three carburetors on it and a full circle crank and took it to logg'n contests. Won a pile of trophies with it until they started to put together homemade saws with Yamaha racing engines. The whole thing got out of hand.

But the best saw I ever owned was a SP81 McCulloch 5 cubic inch chrome jug, rap around handlebars. It could handle up to a 32-inch bar if you had your chain fitted up right. Power to weight ratio there was nothing like it. Then they quit making it and started making those little hobby weekender saws and lost the logging market.

But the beast I remember was a huge Homelight, probably a gear drive, don't remember the model. It belonged to the boss there on Prince of Wales in Alaska. He dragged it out on my strip to cut a 10-foot spruce. It had a 72-inch bar and we had to make a starter cut with my P60 Pioneer 36 inch bar. Then ya kinda wheel barrowed it in and roared away. That there tree had 35,000 board feet and it took days for my hands and shoulders to recover from that thing. Come to think of it, may have loosened some teeth. But these were the tools of the trade.

I thought I wore them all out but now realize they wore me out.