How young before we put the kids to work cutting? ;)

[Ozarkian]

Pics of my kids pretending to help out!  Chainsaw isn't really turned on, but they wanted to act like they were cutting!!! 

How old before you let your children fire up a chainsaw for the first time?





My kids posing with me on a really cool ERC rocking chair on my birthday at a local Flea Market.



Gotta love it when the kids try to help out!

[mad murdock]

My dad put us on a bucksaw when we were 6-8 yrs old.  I started running a saw at 13. Prolly against the law in most states now.  Safety is most important. Dad said a chainsaw was like fire, you used it to help get your work done and ALWAYS showed utmost respect and care, because if control was lost, it will kill you, or maime you at best.
Great looking crew,BTW!

[shelbycharger400]

i can just see somehow someone callin in social services on that picture..  :D
i think i started running a chain saw around 18,  but i worked on them and sharpened them before that.
i was always the grunt of the operation.. dragin chains, cables, fetchin saws, gas and oil cans and whatnot, and dragin the limbs off out of the way.
i get my girls to help stack every now and then and they are 6 and 7, they only can pick up the pole wood.

[Cutting Edge]

Nice Pic!!! Kids look awful happy hangin w/ Dad

I was 13 or so when I started running saw...didn't get chaps till i was 16...shoulda been the other way around.  I started helping with wood as soon as I could hold the door open for everyone else   ;D   then worked up from there...if thats whatcha call a promotion   :D   I have the same question as you though....my daughter wants to help SO bad...and shes not even 4 yet!  I can only imagine what the future holds...part of the fun and worry

[islandlogger]

Good pics and nice looking kids there, I like the work shirt your boys wearing  8)

I think I was 9 when I finely talked my dad into lettin me run a saw, he had of all things a Mac Eager Beaver he had bought on sale at K-Mart or some such place, he was using it to cut up firewood at the saw buck and let me have a few tries at it, well that just let to more pestering on my part, he was terrified to let me use them of course but new I had to learn and could tell I was keen on it and picked things up fast, so he kept me to bucking small wood on the saw buck for a year or so...that ol Eager Beaver of course didn't last long, I think it's still in a box somewhere all dismantled and put away to "rest". Dad got his hands on a old Pioneer after that, it was big and heavy and he wouldnt let me use it quite as much, I can still feel the weight of that thing and how numb my fingers and hands were after using it. It was to much saw for my age but lucky for me dad up graded to a Stihl 0-28 Super which was a hot seller of the day and to this day one of my favorite smaller saws! Bit by bit he let me run it more and more, always under his direct super vision and never for to long and always just at the saw buck. Then came the day he took me with him to fall a Cedar that was taking up sun light from the Orchard, now my dad is by no means a logger, just a "chore" cutter, but he took the time to show me what he knew, I think I was around 11 by then and goin out to fall trees with the old man sure was exciting for me espec since I new there was a chance he might let me get my mitts on the saw and applicate it some where other then that saw buck which had got to be quite boring by that time. After he had felled the tree he gave me a lesson on limbing and the new dangers that it involved, he handed the saw to me and watched me closely for a bit and then to my ut most pleasure he excused him self saying he had some things to do at the house and he would be back in 45 mins to see how I had done. I wanted to make him proud and now I know how scared he was that day turning me loose with a saw, but that some times dads got to do that, kind of like when your kids first get their drivers licence and you hand them the keys for the first time and send them on their way. Little did I know dad had only gone out of my eye sight and observed me  :D but it started me on my road and was and am always grateful he learned me young and took the time to show me what HE knew....yes they are HELL for dangerous, but I would rather teach a youngster then a cocky teen ager, just take all the precautions and start on the VERY easy stuff!!

Bring on the next generation of cutters!! We need 'em!!

islandlogger

[lumberjack48]

I started working with my father at 6 yrs old, feeding and watering the horse, carrying measure pole, gassing up the saw, finding the next marked tree, peeling pulp, Balsam, Aspen, Jack pine, and Birch. I was 9 before i ran my first saw, it was my Grandfathers saw a 33 MuCulloch gear drive. Now theres a hand full, it was a miracle i didn't cut myself. I could cut more wood with the bow saw. 
My boys started running saw at 8 and 10, i had a couple 44's that i let them learn on. They'd come out to the job on Sat and Sunday, we sawed wood up on the landing, pulpwood and firewood, worked on felling, saw maintance and sharping, they loved it. Now my girls didn't want to run saw, they peeled many rail car loads of pulpwood, they learned how to make a dollar. The boys learned how to run the skidder at the same time. Their legs weren't long enough to run the C5. The 8 yr old could run the S8, he'd stand up to drive it, put it in gear, hang on to the steering wheel and step on the throttle and your gone. The only thing he got mad about is he couldn't hook more than 2,3 trees, the rigging was to heavy.

[OAP]

My dad never let me use his saws when I was a kid and my grandfather was the only person allowed to file the chains. I got to pull branches out of the way or split timber with a mall or hatchet.
My oldest boy is now 16 and I let him run a 395xp for an hour or two last year after showing him the danger and it was a long two hours.
He feels 10 years older but I do too.

[Woodwalker]

You got to start them young;



 

[trapper]

My father had a bad hip and couldn't get out to our woods.  When I was 14 he bought me a used super33 MuCulloch gear drive.  Was a lot easier than the swede saw.  local name for a bow saw

[Dave VH]

my boys are 7 and 9.  They both have hand saws that they use alot.  They have both cut themselves with them (minor scracthes), thus learning respect for a sharp blade.  They work with me all of the time moving branches, and firewood, or in the shop sanding or whatever.  My 9 year old and uses a sawsall on occasion, he is bigger and stronger than the average 9 yearold (muscular 100lb).  My 7 year old is on the smaller side, it will be a while before he can handle a power tool of any kind.  They both have there own firearms and shoot with me frequently, (after years of practice with fake guns that we treated real).  I think that it will still be a couple of years before my 9 yearold uses my little saw (stihl 025).  I don't think that he could hold on to it if it kicked on him.  Normal cutting, he could do now, but after a couple of hours of normal, they are going to want to try something, thats when the trouble starts.

[WildDog]

I let my oldest son Tim use my 372xp for supervised cross cutting when he was 16yrs and only on logs where there was minimal risk, he is as strong as an ox and evaluates situations better than me but I know how quick accidents can happen. He's 19yrs now and has his cross cut and falling tickets.



 

Young Angus on the other hand cleaned this Box tree off the fence while I was getting the tractor. ;)

[SwampDonkey]

Late teens here, and dad did all the falling. We only cut our own woods and it never was a see how much wood we can cut today or to set records. I'm not interested in that type of cutting to this day. But I can tell ya it don't take me 3 days to take down a maple and make firewood from it like it does the neighbors. There's work and then there's just play. ;)

[Roxie]

This is why God gave children two parents.  If it was up to their Mom's, children wouldn't use knives at the table, much less power tools. 

Having said that, I did teach them both to use an axe and a chainsaw when they were twelve.  They didn't use the chainsaw outside my vision until they were sixteen. 

[Norm]

I was probably 12 when we got our first chain saw. Spent most of the time trying to keep it running.  :D

Roxie that's so true. I remember the first time my son took my airplane out solo. He flew over the house and there's Patty tears streaming down her face sure that he'd crash and wondering what the heck I was thinking letting him do so. Of course without her they'd still be wiping their hands on their pants at the dinner table.  :D

[thecfarm]

I was in my late teens before sawing. My Father was VERY fussy with his saw. That saw would cut like butter. He did not want someone to run it into the ground. Safety equipment is hard to find for the small ones. I've only been to Labonville. Was looking for a hard hat to fit the Grandson,he's 12. I just had to buy him an adult one and adjust it as small as I could. He's dieing to get on my big tractor and run the chainsaw. If he was my son,no problem. But he's only around me cutting wood once a month. No where's near the time to learn and respect all that stuff. But he does know what to cut and why. I'm just thinning out the dead and no good wood. We went into an area and told him to pick out 5 trees to cut and he did and than I asked why. Gave me just about the same answer I did. I guess he's learning.

[Corley5]

I was almost 14 when I first ran the old 65 Husky.

[Weekend_Sawyer]

Dad had us bucking and splitting with an ax as far back as I can remember, I don't know when I first picked up a chainsaw but it mush have been mid teans. I remember Mom was always worried when we ran the saws or tractors but Dad used to just brush it off saying that's why they had so many!

[Meadows Miller]

Gday

About 12yo docking and on a CSM but was not allowed to fall a tree till 14yo here Dad was a Logging Contractor & Pro Faller and I spent my whole life watching and learning from him as he started taking me to  logging jobs at 18 months old and parking the ute on the landing  so I could watch him work and so he could keep an eye on me  ;) I had my first axe off my own at about 5yo then he said learn how to us that well first and ill let you use the saw then once I did that he changed the tone again and said well Ill let you use one when you can afford to buy one off your own so cleaning out the sawmill barking posts with an axe running the csm and learning how to dock and look after a saw  and peeling house logs for dad got Me my first new saw a 2055 Jonsered turbo one off the first to come to Australia and worth a whopping $800 back then ;) and I stilll got it now even though I have been meaning to contact chainsawr to track down a new handle assy as thats the only thing wrong with it it still runs like a clock  ;)  ;D ;D ;D ;D 8) 8) 8) 8)

The first trees I felled was that week and dad n i got to the ironbark thinning job ( directional falling )we where doing about 40 trees 14 to 18" at the butt  and dad says can i use your saw and I said hell no im doing some falling so dad said you will be fine ill just pull you up if your doing it the wrong way he grabbed his axe to do the debarking and away we went we got that job done in and all the trees down docked and barked ready to go in a day  ;) one of the govt falling instuctor's who was also our local forestor came out to stm an measure what we had cut came later in the day and dad said you just got your instuctor licence grade me on my falling not telling him I was my handy work he gave 9s and 10s out off all the trees I had felled  as we went though the block when he finnished grading he said to dad I would not expect anything less from you Joe thats when dad said the boys a good faller then as those where al christophers handy work  ;) Pat replied that it was supprising as I had done an awesome job Made me feel 10' tall  ;) ;D ;D 8) thats one thing I have love about my parents is they have always shown a complete faith in me and my capability to do anything I wanted to turn my hand to and have let me do alot of things at a lot younger age than anyone else  ;) ;D ;D 8)

With me it all depends on the kid I think if they show maturity and a good understanding of what they have in their hands and how lethal it can be and can show that they know what type of situations can cause it and they have respect for what it is then by all means let them have a go  ;)

Regards Chris

[bull]

I started somewhere between 10 - 12 had to teach my older brother (+3yrs) how to fall a tree with his new homelite super ez, I watched enough old guys to know how to do it the rightway !! kept him from killing himself or anyone else..... by 12 I was selling cord wood to the neighbors, had a monster partner farm boss and a couple old homelites *( The blue ones)*!!

[nmurph]

I started running a Poulan Super 66 at 12 YOA. My 8 YO son has a Dolmar 401 which he has claimed. He is 80 pds of nothing but muscle and can start the saw without a problem. I let him do some bucking with my hands over his. I let him "feel" the saw and what it wants to do, but I am there to keep it from biting him. It will be a few years bf he is turned loose with "his" saw!!

I was raised on a farm where you learned to operate machinery as young as was feasible. You started riding tractors when you were in diapers. You started steering them by 2 years old. I was permanantly attacted to my dad when machinery was involved. When I was 6, I was put on the tractor driving the tobacco picker. I had to keep it in the row to the end of the row, then throw it out of gear, move over and let my dad or brother turn it around, and then do it again. By 10, I was plowing unsupervised. At 12, I was driving a three-speed 66 Chevy over a three mile radius on my side of the county. I was sent to my uncles' houses for whatever was needed. When I was 15, I regularly drove around town. Times were very different then. The po-po knew exactly who was 16 and who wasn't, but as long as you didn't show-out, they left you alone.

[beenthere]

nmurph
Where do you find chaps for the lad?

[clww]

I remember splitting wood around 7 or 8. First supervised running of saw bucking firewood when I was about 14 or so. Falling trees solo when I was 17.
My mom still worries about me climbing, sawing, splitting, chopping......pretty much all the time, and not just in the woods.

[SwampDonkey]

Just being mom. ;)

An old timer whose in his 70's, has a bunch of woods he cuts firewood and pulp on every year. He slashed his face this fall with the chainsaw, kick back from hitting the tip. Made it to a local house or garage where they had to get him to the hospital.

[nmurph]

nmurph
Where do you find chaps for the lad?

Obviously he doesn't have any, that is why we are only making bucking cuts on single logs with the log against the saw and my hands resting on his. If the tip of the saw is clear, the risk of kick-back is nil.

[shortlogger]

I started cutting soon as my dad got a saw small enugh for me to pick up, only let me cut little stuff. Mom didnt like it !! My dad contracted with the USFS to thin replanted pine clear cuts the trees wernt very tall or big around . I got to cut some @ 12 and 13 the summer I turned 14 I got a new pair of chaps and started full time . he said I made him alot of money because the grown men on the crew didnt want to get out worked by a boy ,and I didnt want them to think I couldnt keep up . So we wore our selves out trying not to be out done by one another.