The best chainsaws and tree cutting tools

By Daniel Griffiths

Published: Monday, 07 February 2022 at 12:00 am

There comes a time when only a chainsaw can ‘cut it’ in your garden. For tree-felling there’s no other (sensible) option and unenviable tasks such as the heavyweight taming of hawthorn become a breeze when there’s sufficient power at play.

Likewise more mundane tasks such as chopping logs or even trimming and shaping trees become a boon with the right tool on the job.

And today’s chainsaws aren’t necessarily the dangerous, petrol-swilling, limb-threatening beasts of old. While there’s still plenty of cordless petrol power to ‘enjoy’, today’s electric saws are lighter, more manageable and priced keenly enough to consider adding one to your arsenal.

And they come in multiple distinct flavours depending on the job in hand.

Choosing a chainsaw – petrol versus electric

Firstly there’s your choice of power source. Petrol chainsaws deliver maximum power and lifespan so larger cutters still like to run on gas. They are however heavy, noisy and not exactly environmentally sound.

Electric chainsaws are by and large smaller, less powerful but much lighter and easier to use. They come in corded and uncorded varieties with corded usually being cheaper by avoiding the need for battery tech. So if you need all day running time and have access to a three pin plug, go for corded.

Your biggest consideration in picking a chainsaw is the length of the blade. The bigger the blade the broader the branch it can cut. Watch out also for caps at the end of the blade. A capped blade – with a piece of metal over the sharp tips of the blade at its furthest extremity – is – in theory – safter than an uncapped one, elminating the possiblity of ‘kickback’ as the blade bites in jumps in the hands of the user. However a ‘tip’ or ‘cap’ on the blade means that you can’t push into larger pieces of wood and thereby limits the depth of possible cuts.

With a capped blade you can’t – for example – cut halfway through a wider log then attack it from the other side to meet in the middle. The upside is that it is much harder to do yourself or someone else a mischief if you were to mis-handle it…

Chainsaws versus chainpoles

Do consider chainpoles too. Chainpoles magically bring together the power of a chainsaw (albeit slightly miniaturised) with an extendable ‘pruner’-type pole. Just the job for taking out branches from unruly trees without resorting to leaving the ground.

Some even offer the best of all worlds being detachable from the pole for close-up work and re-attachable when you need the reach.

Here’s our pick of what’s out there.

Makita UC3541A/2

This Makita is a good balance of weight, noise, power and price. It’s corded so there’s no batteries or chargers to pay for and with a 35cm blade it’s certainly up the most heavyweight gardening jobs such as chopping logs or felling small trees and bushes.

There’s hand guards for protection and the chain is self-oiling and easy to remove without additional tools when you need to sharpen it up. And with 1800W of power it’ll soon slice through whatever you throw at it.