Used to fight a Bradford pear with a handsaw for an hour. Now I bring a chainsaw.

Back in 2019 I swore I'd never drag a gas saw into tight residential yards, so I'd spend 60 minutes hacking through that soft junk wood by hand. Last month I bought a lightweight electric top-handle and cleared the same size tree in 12 minutes flat. Anyone else switch tools way later than they should have?

3 comments

3 Comments

cole_mitchell85d ago

Wait, are you sure that tree you cleared was actually a Bradford pear? Those things are notorious for falling apart so fast that a handsaw should tear through them in like 15 minutes tops if you know what you're doing. I remember my first Bradford pear job back in 2017, I used a folding saw and had the whole thing cut up in under 20 minutes because the wood is so soft and brittle. You might have been fighting a different type of pear or maybe an old callery pear that was way past its prime and got rock hard. Either way yeah, I waited way too long to switch from my old gas saw to a battery powered one too, but mostly because I didn't want to drop the money on new batteries. Now I never look back though, those electric saws are game changers for quick residential work.

betty_shah4d ago

Cole, that 2017 job you did with a folding saw in 20 minutes...was the wood dry or still green? Because I've hit Bradford pears that felt like wet cardboard and some that were like concrete.

christopher_singh924d ago

Bradford pears got a PhD in breaking hearts and chainsaws apparently...