A while back, my father in law gave me his chainsaw under the condition that I help him with storm cleanup in the future. Always excited to add another cylinder to my collection I took him up on what turned out to be a 1985 Stihl 028 Wood Boss AV with and 18” bar.
Overall it is in good shape, very little use over its 35 years. It hadn’t been fired up in at least four years and it still had fuel in the tank but after a fresh tank and some pull starting, and some more pull starting, and maybe some starter fluid, followed by some more pull starting it fired right up! Before all of this quarantine excitement I picked up a new chain and a set of bar nuts, since one of those was missing, but have been hesitant to play with something that could cause serious injury if mishandled. Well some other projects have bottle necked around some saw work so this weekend I finally got around to playing with my new-to-me toy.
Back in college I had a six month internship where I ran a saw nearly everyday. The days that I wasn’t running a saw I was carrying a drip torch around and lighting the land on fire for controlled burns, so that was pretty neat. That being said, I have a lot of respect for what can go wrong with a saw so I donned my chaps, gloves and glasses and went to work.
I finished up what needed to be done, plus some smaller stuff to learn the saw before I took on the actual project, and the saw cut like a champ. The 028 is a smaller saw that what I used back in college but as long as you know it’s limitations it’s a damn fine piece of equipment.
It even came with a case!
And a manual!
Future plans include a good tear down and cleaning. It wasn’t used a lot but let’s just say that my father in law is no sawyer so I want to make sure it’s all on the up and up. I’d also like to pick up a 16” bar to really let it rev up for some brush work that I need to do.
I’m just happy to have a saw in my hands again that is mine and not borrowed. May the maintenance and caretaking begin!