Zenith wrote:I'm about to purchase a new chainsaw ... Now I own a woodland I'm going to go for a more powerful one, possibly a Stihl 261...
Excellent choice! We bought the model that that replaced, the Stihl MS260, and have been very pleased with it. It's built for professional/heavy use but still small and light enough for the beginner or infrequent user. We bought ours with a 13" bar as that's what we'd used when we did our training but I also run an 18" on mine which is within Stihl's specification, though with an 18" bar on it I do find you need to work a bit more slowly as you're asking a lot more of the engine, especially if cutting something like oak to the full bar depth. A nice machine which should give you many years of reliable service if you don't mistreat it.
Zenith wrote:... I could do with some training. I know most of you are fully experienced in using chainsaws, but wondered if you knew of any good training courses, preferably not too far from the West Midlands. I don't intend to climb trees to do any of this and will mainly be using it for cutting up fallen branches and thinning out the odd sapling, so I feel I only really need a basic introductory course
I can't suggest specific courses or trainers in your locality, but I would recommend you take your training from a qualified trainer rather than from someone who may themselves be competent with a chainsaw but not qualified to train. I can also outline what we did. When we started out in 2007, we found our trainer through Sparshalt College and booked privately with him. We did a day's maintenance and cross-cutting followed by three day's felling including dealing with hung-up trees and using a winch etc. It sounds like you perhaps don't want/need to go that far but there's still a lot to understand if you want to be able to work safely and understand where the dangers are.
I know the Small Woods Association (
http://smallwoods.org.uk/) sometimes run courses. Might be worth seeing if they've got anything coming up in your area.
