Rant: I finally get why my mentor in Portland was obsessed with cleaning sap off his saw

For years I thought spending 20 minutes scrubbing pitch off my chainsaw after every job was overkill, but after my bar seized up mid-cut on a big Douglas fir last Tuesday I had to spend $80 on a new one. That sticky mess built up so bad it locked the chain solid and I nearly dropped the whole rig from 15 feet up. Anyone else had a near-miss like this that finally made you change your ways?

3 comments

3 Comments

murphy.linda1mo agoMost Upvoted

That cedar sap story sounds almost exactly like what happened to me on a hemlock job up near Astoria last fall - I was the guy standing in a muddy driveway at midnight scrubbing pitch with a toothbrush. Now I keep a can of Gunk degreaser and an old paintbrush in my truck at all times.

lucashart1mo ago

My buddy Jake out in Bellingham learned this the hard way about two years ago. He was cutting up a big cedar that had been dripping sap for weeks and he just kept wiping the bar with a rag instead of actually cleaning it right. Halfway through a cut the chain started smoking and then just stopped moving completely, bar was so gummed up it looked like it had been dipped in honey and left in the sun. He had to borrow my spare saw to finish the job and spent the next three hours in his driveway with solvent and a wire brush. Ever since then he keeps a little spray bottle of kerosene in his truck and hits the bar between every tank of gas.

robinj291mo ago

Yeah @lucashart, but did his bar get seized up mid-air? That's a whole different kind of adrenaline rush. Kerosenes good but I've found WD-40 in a pinch works too, just takes more scrubbing.