Blow Out Cracks Before the Open Surface
Clearing paver joints and cracks with a leaf blower before the open surface, so cleared debris has nowhere left to blow back into.
Free a Pinched Chainsaw Bar With a Plastic Wedge Instead of Pulling on the Saw
Don't yank or shake the power head — that's what bends bars. Shut the saw off, drive a plastic felling wedge into the kerf behind the bar, and the wedge opens the cut enough to release the pinch so the bar slides straight out.
chainsaw stuck in log, bar pinched in a cut, kerf closing on the saw, bent chainsaw bar, log settling on the blade
The Problem
A log settles as you cut it, and the kerf closes on the bar. Now the saw is trapped, and the instinct is to pull — yank the power head, rock it side to side, work it back and forth until something gives. What gives is usually the bar: a chainsaw bar is a thin steel plate, and levering the whole weight of the power head against a bar clamped in a log is exactly how it ends up bent. A bent bar doesn't cut straight afterwards and it chews the chain.
The saw isn't stuck because it's jammed on something. It's stuck because the wood either side of the cut is squeezing it.
The Technique
- Shut the saw off. Not idling — off. The next few steps put your hands near the chain.
- Take a plastic felling wedge and set it in the kerf behind the bar — on the side of the cut nearer you, away from the far end of the log.
- Drive the wedge in with the flat of an axe head or a hammer. As it goes, it forces the two faces of the kerf apart.
- Pull the saw out once the pressure comes off. It should slide free with no fight — if you're still pulling hard, drive the wedge further rather than pulling harder.
- Knock the wedge out sideways once the bar is clear.
Pro tip: The cheapest version of this is not getting pinched. A kerf closes when the log is supported at both ends and sagging in the middle, so read which way the wood wants to move before the cut and put the wedge in early — a wedge tapped into a kerf you are still cutting keeps it open the whole way through. Wedges cost a few dollars each; a bar costs many times that.
Safety note: Use a plastic or aluminium felling wedge, never a steel splitting wedge — a chain that touches steel throws fragments and destroys the chain. Have the saw off before the wedge goes anywhere near the kerf, and watch what the log does as the wedge opens the cut: a log under tension can roll or spring once the pressure releases.
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