Chainsaw

[Beau]

Rather hastily cut a couple of pieces of chestnut. Some pics to show noodling and two potential blanks but these will probably end up in the logs pile being chestnut. Splitting the ring in half like this will greatly reduce tension during drying lessening the risk of cracks. I would then seal all exposed faces with watered down PVA and leave until dry.

 

[duncanh]

I tend to leave my logs whole until I need them, at which point I generally make a couple of cross cuts to remove the end and cut a length and then use a couple of noodling cut as described by Beau (that's a perfect term for it that I hadn't heard before) to cut a slab. Or just one noodling cut to split the log in half.
I've had a quick search and a few people suggest a different chain for noodling but most seem to suggest a regular chain is fine. The 261's at work noodle just fine so I suspect it's just down to my 180's smaller engine.

Our planking saw does indeed have a ripping chain (or at least a chain that was supplied when we requested a ripping chain from the dealer). I had a quick look at it today and other than the being ground to 10 degrees the teeth seemed very similar to the 261's