The LivWild saw has highly visible straps and a cutting tooth on every link.
It’s my father’s fault. For years, during my summer vacations from grade school he’d load our station wagon, a 1956 Ford Ranch Wagon, with a 42″ one-man crosscut saw, a splitting maul, and a half-dozen wedges, and we’d head for the beach. Back then, rafts of logs were towed by tugs up and down Washington State’s Puget Sound, and a lot of logs got loose. The beaches were thick with driftwood that never made it to the sawmill. Dad and I went after the red cedar, sawing it to length and splitting it for fence rails and slats. After a few summers, the whole lot around our home was surrounded by red cedar, over 150 yards of it.So, I picked up an unshakable habit of combing beaches for useful driftwood. I gather red cedar, yellow cedar, Port Orford cedar, Douglas-fir, and spruce, and use it in my boatbuilding and making everything from musical instruments to Shaker boxes. I have my father’s crosscut saw, but it’s not practical to carry aboard a small boat. That’s when I take a pocket chainsaw. It’s compact enough to carry even when I’m out kayaking—if I find something good, I’ll tow it. I once sawed an 8′ length of yellow cedar from an especially fine-grained log, and towed it 1-1/2 miles by kayak back to the launch site.
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Oiling the chains would certainly help maintain them. I don’t recall ever oiling the Pocket ChainSaw or the Saber Cut. In the photos of those two saws you can see some discoloration caused by rust, which I could have prevented by using a bit of oil. Both of those saws still work and none of the links have seized up. I don’t recall exactly when I acquired these two saws, but I believe I’ve had the Saber Cut for close to 10 years and the Pocket ChainSaw for about 20. The chains may have held up as well as the have because I primarily use the saws on dry driftwood and usually carry in my pocket where they quickly warm and dry.
1. You don’t rate the cutting ability of the Justech against the others. The accessories are an irrelevance
2. Do any of your tested items NOT jam in green wood eg pruning trees?
3. Please supply contact details of makers eg to show whether they are USA products or imports from China
I bought the Justech saw to confirm that it would be an equivalent to the LivWild saw and indeed it was. Its performance is just as good. The accessories didn’t seem to add to the cost of the Justech and may be of interest to some. I’ve kept the ferro-rod fire starter for my camping kit. The bracelets are tight on my wrists, but they’d be useful to kids, even if only for the whistle.
My interest in the saws is for their utility in camping and salvaging driftwood, so I don’t cut much green wood. For pruning, the LivWild/Justech saws would do well, as I mentioned, in branches up to 3″ in diameter. It was just the beaver-downed cedar’s trunk that quickly stopped the LivWild.
The Pocket Chainsaw in the can is the only one that provided manufacturing information: it’s made in the USA. The LiveWild, Justech, and Saber-Cut have no markings and I found no country of origin on the web.
Photographs and video by the author
Good article. Very helpful. I assume a can of 3-in-1 oil is a necessary accessory to keep the saw from rusting into a useless lump?
Oiling the chains would certainly help maintain them. I don’t recall ever oiling the Pocket ChainSaw or the Saber Cut. In the photos of those two saws you can see some discoloration caused by rust, which I could have prevented by using a bit of oil. Both of those saws still work and none of the links have seized up. I don’t recall exactly when I acquired these two saws, but I believe I’ve had the Saber Cut for close to 10 years and the Pocket ChainSaw for about 20. The chains may have held up as well as the have because I primarily use the saws on dry driftwood and usually carry in my pocket where they quickly warm and dry.
1. You don’t rate the cutting ability of the Justech against the others. The accessories are an irrelevance
2. Do any of your tested items NOT jam in green wood eg pruning trees?
3. Please supply contact details of makers eg to show whether they are USA products or imports from China
I bought the Justech saw to confirm that it would be an equivalent to the LivWild saw and indeed it was. Its performance is just as good. The accessories didn’t seem to add to the cost of the Justech and may be of interest to some. I’ve kept the ferro-rod fire starter for my camping kit. The bracelets are tight on my wrists, but they’d be useful to kids, even if only for the whistle.
My interest in the saws is for their utility in camping and salvaging driftwood, so I don’t cut much green wood. For pruning, the LivWild/Justech saws would do well, as I mentioned, in branches up to 3″ in diameter. It was just the beaver-downed cedar’s trunk that quickly stopped the LivWild.
The Pocket Chainsaw in the can is the only one that provided manufacturing information: it’s made in the USA. The LiveWild, Justech, and Saber-Cut have no markings and I found no country of origin on the web.
I found that the Pocket Chain Saw would rust badly if stored in the can. Might do okay with a shot of WD-40, though.