On Treeline Trail, between Lumberjack Lane and Tall Timber Cove, I made my debut as a lumberjack. Or maybe that's lumberjill.
Feeling it was my duty to get the full experience of the annual trade show, I signed up without hesitation for the Husqvarna women's amateur chain saw competition yesterday, the last day of the Paul Bunyan Show at Hocking College in Nelsonville.
John McIntire, a third-generation logger, was able to give me, more novice than amateur, some much-needed advice.
Just keep your RPMs up and don't try to force nothing. Just let the saw do its job
he said. They use poplar wood so it's luck of the draw. Sometimes you hit soft spots sometimes you hit hard spots.
Armed with those words of wisdom and little else but a sense of adventure, I returned to the Arborist Arena at 1 p.m. Show time.
I lined up with approximately 20 other women to hear the rules (there were none) and figure out how this whole chain saw thing worked.
To be fair, some of my competition knew precisely how it all worked, but as Cary -the Husqvarna representative and host -repeatedly assured us, most of the women participating knew nothing at all about chain saws and had never used one in their life. At least I was in good company.
Before the competition started, Cary explained the basics of using a chain saw. He told us to cut up close to the body of the saw and to avoid using the tip. Mainly this is a safety tip as it prevents kickback, the first of three forces that make this task harder than it looks. The other two are a result of the direction the chain moves: when cutting down, the saw grabs hold of the wood and pulls away from you and when cutting upwards, the opposite is true and it pushes back.
Other helpful tips from Cary: assume a boxer's stance, left foot forward, legs slightly bent. Take the chain brake off, otherwise, the engine is running but the chain isn't moving.
I donned protective nylon chaps, shaded safety glasses, and a stylish set of ear protectors and prepared for the preliminary heat, to determine where we would compete during the first round.
When my name was called, I walked forward to take my turn, feeling a little unsure of myself and trying to remember all of the last minute advice.
For anyone who has never held a chain saw, they are heavier than they look. They handed me the saw, already running, and showed me how to take off the chain break. Remembering the advice about RPMs, I revved the saw to full throttle and dug in.
To my surprise, I did better than I expected. I placed fourth during the preliminary round with a time of 4.49 seconds.
My beginner's luck was short-lived and I was eliminated in the first round, but I had fun and according to the woman who won third place, that's all that matters. I'm not sure what I would have done with a brand new Husqvarna chain saw anyway.
-Schwerin is a first-year graduate student. Though she didn't win, she got a cool Husqvarna/NASCAR hat out of the deal. Send her an e-mail at lisa.schwerin@ohiou.edu.
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Lisa Schwerin
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Lisa Schwerin, a writer for The Post, uses a chain saw alongside instructor Brian Lowe during a competition that took place yesterday as part of Paul Bunyan Day at Hocking College. Lowe has been in this profession for about 23 years, whereas this event ma
