L
IKE BOB DYLAN in
Newport, the chainsaw
has gone electric. The
advent of high-capacity
lithium-ion storage
cells, improved brush-
less motors, and smart
designs has produced
something amazing: a quiet,
clean-cutting, well-balanced, and
productive chainsaw that runs on
a battery.
For tree felling and hardcore
wood cutting, the high power
of a gas saw remains ideal—
notching, bore cuts, and bucking
on large-diameter hardwood
demand the speed and torque
they deliver. But the convenience,
low weight, and ease of operation
make electric options a better
choice for most homeowners.
You experience those benefits
as soon as you start an electric
saw. There’s no special technique
required as with a pull-start gas
model. No coddling and coaxing
the two-stroke engine, no fuss-
ing with oil mixture. Just drop
in a charged battery, release
the chain brake, press the safety,
and pull the trigger. Simple,
on-demand power that’s as easyTools
// BY ROY BERENDSOHN
& BRAD FORD //With yard-based
applications in mind,
we gathered eight
heavy-duty cordless
saws and put them to
work. We looked at
each saw’s power and
its endurance on one
battery charge, and
paid special attention
to vibration, which is
not only fatiguing to
the user but can also
shorten the saw’s
lifespan.
We sawed through
a truckload of white
oak from a sawmill
in Pennsylvania, cut-
ting test discs, also
known as cookies.
We hooked the saw’s
timber spike into thelog to evaluate how
it pivots through the
cut. Saws with suffi-
cient motor torque,
a rigid chassis, and a
well-designed chain
drive performed well.
We noted any stalls,
hesitancy, and lack
of trigger response.
Our winner made
more than 100 cuts;
other saws made less
than 30.
Finally, we mea-
sured the cookies.
Using a sample group
from each saw, we
arrived at a mean
diameter and sur-
face area, and then
multiplied that by the
number of cookies,
giving us the total cut
surface area. And it
helped to even the
score where a slightly
smaller log diameter
may have resulted in
more cuts per charge.Your
Next
Saw
Will Be
Electric
as turning on your TV.
And the noise. Cranking out
about 105 decibels or more, gas-
engine saws are among the loud-
est homeowner machines, even
more boisterous than lawnmow-
ers. An electric chainsaw is about
5 to 10 decibels quieter. That may
not seem significant, but it sounds
half as loud.
While electric saws weigh
about the same as gas options,
there are other reasons to con-
sider a cordless model: battery
gauges you can see at a glance,
wraparound front handles, and
comfortable trigger switches. A
few saws even have tool-free chain
tensioning.
Most of the ones we tested cut
smoothly, with a lack of vibration.
For pruning, landscaping, and
recreational firewood cutting,
cordless chainsaws make the work
easier, especially heavy-duty ver-
sions like the models we tested.How
We
Tested
12
76 September 2019 PHOTOGRAPHY BY TREVOR RAAB