Dedicated brush saw

[Lee Haakenson]

All, I am comsidering buying a Stihl Fs460 brush saw. These arent cheap and have never used one. Currently I have an NRCS contract to clear a bunch of young cottonwoods taking over a pine/oak planting. Clearing these with a 18" bar saw is slow and daunting. Are these saws worth it? Most of the stuff im cutting is 2-4" diameter. I would still use a regular saw on the bigger stuff. Thoughts??

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[Redonthehead]

I don't know anything about that model, but have an older brush saw with a 10 inch diameter, 80 tooth blade and its wicked on saplings and should work great. It will zing through a 2" cottonwood like a hot knife thru butter. Assuming you will have a helper spraying the stumps with tordon, don't let them anywhere close to you.

 

[swat1018]

I have an FS76 from about 1992. I run a saw blade on it, and it's great for smaller sapplings, under 1.5" is best.

 

[Boll Weevil]

I've got the FS560 and with a sharp blade can absolutely fly right along...we call it The Zinger. Zinnng...zing, zing, zing, zing just about as fast as you can lay'em down and move to the next.

Note regarding the need to spray stumps: I don't have cottonwoods so can't speak to their shade tolerance as it relates to resprouting but what I learned very much by mistake is that if your keeper pines and oaks are big enough, shade intolerant species never come back. If your crop trees have created any canopy at all, it's a non-issue.

 

[Lee Haakenson]

Yea most of the crop trees are around 20 ft and most of the canopy is closed. Still spraying the bigger stuff with garlon

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[Ben.MN/WI]

All, I am comsidering buying a Stihl Fs460 brush saw. These arent cheap and have never used one. Currently I have an NRCS contract to clear a bunch of young cottonwoods taking over a pine/oak planting. Clearing these with a 18" bar saw is slow and daunting. Are these saws worth it? Most of the stuff im cutting is 2-4" diameter. I would still use a regular saw on the bigger stuff. Thoughts??

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I have the Stihl 460 and it works awesome on stuff up to 2" diameter. It could cut through bigger stuff, but it would be slower than a chain saw. It is a really nice brush saw and I'm glad I have it since bending over cutting brush at ground level with a chain saw is not fun.

 

[Knehrke]

I have a Husqvarna forest clearing saw and it's ridiculous how much easier it is to use that a bar saw on saplings. Just be aware that these machines vibrate and you've got to protect your wrists if you're going to use them all day. Also, since Tordon is soil active I wouldn't use a heap of it around your desirables. Great stuff of intermittent use...I'm more cautious with it though since seeing some collateral damage.

 

[j-bird]

You will have to treat the stumps somehow or be prepared for them to come back. Cottonwood will sprout and sprout and sprout again if given the chance. Smaller ones I simply use a rotary mower and chew them up. Larger ones you will have to cut some how. I typically mow those I can and then go back and cut and treat the stumps of the larger ones.

I will warn you about cottonwood - they make a great whip. I was clearing some one day and caught a small one - right at about 3 feet tall - on the inner edge of my boot while walking and it came free and smacked me right in the boys!:emoji_confounded: I'll never forget that day.....mother nature fought back....and she plays dirty!

 

[jackpine]

I have the FS130, with the stihl 200mm chisel tooth saw blade. The blade can b resharpened, not sure if that's the case with all of them. As the OP said it zips thru anything up to 2" easily. Bigger stuff u need to hit from 2 sides due to the blade diameter. Good investment as long as you have a need to use it regularly. The handlebar models r too much machine for around the house but would probly b useful on a farm. Good to have a helper clearing the cut stuff otherwise that slows you down some.

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[Merle Hawggard]

Alright, the 1.5 glassed just aren't cutting it anymore. I'm not saying what I thought the title to this thread said, just that I thought "WHAT?"

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