Name: PART I Axe or Chainsaw ? Chapter 2 - The Ax book by D. Cook (1981)
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PART I Axe or Chainsaw ? Chapter 2 - The Ax book by D. Cook (1981)

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Here is the first part of a very interesting and controversial chapter for the modern reader who has never seen a real lumberjack wielding an axe.

Let yourself be surprised and disturbed by this reading!

WATCHING THE MARVELOUS PARADE OF ENERGY SOURCES DEVELOPED SINCE 1895, when wood was cast aside, has more recently seemed like a nightmare game of hide-and seek. One result is already clear. Wood is again an eagerly bid-for fuel. You can buy it or, if you are among the lucky ones, you can cut it.

If you will be able to cut your own firewood, what tool will you use?

Any wood-cutting tool depends upon what you need it for. If you will sharpen a toothpick, take a jackknife. If you work for a paper company that needs a half million cords of wood, maybe you will drive a monster woods harvester that cleaves off trees like jackstraws. If you need firewood for yourself, you will want something in between. Will it be ax or chain saw?

We can settle one thing right away. If you want to be fashionable, buy a chain saw. They are in. The chain saw is the delight of the suburban putterer.

He is much aware that wood is energy and is a precious fuel. Whenever one of his shade trees has a dead limb he will cut it off in two pieces to store in his breezeway before he goes to Florida for the winter. It is pretty tough to beat a chain saw for that. An ax does not make noise enough to inform the neighbors that its owner is in on the energy thing too. To fit with the riding-lawnmower set, you must have a chain saw. To chain-saw salesmen, this the best selling point of all.

If you are serious about heating your home with wood, the easiest way is to buy the wood. But bought wood is expensive, and you will get small satisfaction out of that system. If you cut your own wood, it will probably be with either ax or chain saw. There are other tools, the one and two-man manual saws, for instance. Ordinarily though, these are not used without an ax, but either ax or chain saw can be used alone without the assistance of other tools. Because ax and chain saw are otherwise dissimilar, comparing them is essential to a clear understanding of what they can or cannot do.

If cutting your wood appeals to you from the cost angle, then you will be also interested in what initial investment you must make in tools. Considering only the bare-bones ax or chain saw without auxiliary items, a chain saw currently costs about eight to over thirty times as much as an ax. The variation depends on size and quality, the real bargains often not being the cheaper ones.

Electric chain saws with independent power source for operating in a woodlot would price them out of reasonable comparison. There are essential auxiliary items also. With an ax, you must at least have a hand-sharpening stone. For the chain saw, minimum operating equipment includes at least a gas can, chain adjusting tool, file and file holder, a depth gauge, and a flat file. One ax stone will outlast many saw files.

Maintenance costs are almost entirely one-sided because, barring damage, an ax needs only to be sharpened. A chain saw needs gasoline just as a lawnmower does, and considering how small a chain saw is, surprisingly often. On a routine basis, a chain saw must also have two different oils, two-cycle oil to mix with the gasoline and bar-and-chain oil for the chain lubricant reservoir.

As I write this, gas rationing is not yet a problem for chain-saw users. That is a plus.

Maintenance time is an irritating necessity for any tool. Both ax and chain saw must be kept sharp. Time needed for sharpening might be the same for both ax and chain saw, perhaps fifteen minutes for each day's work. Beyond that, the chain saw must be fueled, filled with oil, and rather often have its chain adjusted. An ax does not.

That is only part of the maintenance story. As anybody who has tended machinery knows, the more complicated the machine, the more "down time" for repairs. And if your source of service or repair parts is not nearby, you can somehow spend a lot of time just going back and forth. With luck, your friendly repairman will have your saw ready for you to use. Though one of the worst aspects of chain-saw repairs is down time, the other is the cost of parts and service. It does not take many repair bills to equal a substantial portion of the original cost of the saw. The need for servicing does not all stem from breakage or abuse either. Some major items, the chain for instance, must be replaced from time to time just because of wear. If you are an attentive mechanic, you will succeed in making your chain saw run better and longer. Not everybody has that kind of ability. To use an ax, you do not need it.