Short answer: Both have their place. A battery saw is great for lots of small cuts up a tree, because you're not starting a chainsaw over and over. Bigger battery saws drain the ba

Short answer: If the saw starts to slow down in the cut, the chain is probably dull and needs sharpening. Rocks, dirt and anything that isn't timber dull a chain fast, even a tiny

Short answer: Check your saw's manual first: it gives the fuel mix your saw needs. Phil's crew runs 50 to 1, which is 100 ml of two-stroke oil in 5 litres of fuel. Premix costs mor

Short answer: Phil's advice is to use the bar oil your saw's manufacturer specifies. The saw's oiler system is delicate and is made for oil of the right viscosity. Bar oil also has

Short answer: Look down at the saw from the top: the cutting teeth on top of the bar should face forward, away from you. If the sharp edge of the teeth faces back towards you, the

Short answer: Pull up on the chain with gentle pressure: you should be able to see about three drive links (the bottom part of the chain). Too tight wears out the end of the bar. T

Short answer: Most likely the depth gauges, also called rakers, are set too high. The depth gauge controls how deep each tooth bites, so if it's too high the teeth can't bite into

Short answer: Three things make a chainsaw cut crooked, pull to one side or cut at an angle. Uneven sharpening, where one side of the teeth has been filed more than the other ("cow

Short answer: There are three likely causes. Too much two-stroke oil in your fuel. No oil in your fuel at all, which can destroy the saw. Or depth gauges (rakers) filed too low, so

Short answer: When a chainsaw bogs down under load or when you pull the trigger, it's most commonly an air or a fuel problem. A blocked air filter stops the saw reaching full RPM,

Short answer: Start with the obvious: is there fuel in it, and are you using the correct starting procedure for a cold or a hot saw? If the saw sat all winter with old petrol in it

Clogger Answers, episode 1. We asked Phil, a professional arborist from Invercargill, New Zealand, to answer the chainsaw questions people search for most. Straight answers from