CHAINSAWS

When my father-in-law died some 10 years ago, I inherited his brand-new Husqvarna chainsaw, complete with protective salopettes, boots, helmet and tools. Since then. it has seen many good days of service, felling trees, chopping up logs, preparing wood for the stove, and so on.

What is interesting about it is that it is a classic case of learning by doing. I knew absolutely nothing about chainsaws when I got it. But after many hours of fiddling about, I now know quite a lot about what remains a very dangerous piece of machinery. I can clean it, oil it, change the chain, work out why it won't start and so on. I still can't start it by holding it in my hand, but that's because my left hand is weak after my cycling accident.

Today I learned a new thing about it. I thought that the round metal thing that slots inside the cover was to help the flywheel turn more easily, and that it had broken. However it turns out that I had inadvertently put the brake on while I was putting a new chain on it, and this had caused the the metal thing to jam. After a trip to my chain supplier and two minutes education, the problem was sorted and I could go to work again. the first victim of my new chain was an irritating sycamore tree, which had taken a lot of light from my kitchen garden. That has now gone and been chopped up.

Walter Blotscher