"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...
The message
from "H Ryder" contains these words:

How easy are these to use? Someone has lent us one but we are
afraid to
touch it.

Very sensible. Chainsaw maintenance requires sensible precautions
by
their owners (having the right chain fitted correctly and kept
sharp).
For our OWN safety, let alone anyone else's, we would never lend
ours to
an unsupervised novice. An owner who would lend it to you with no
instruction, strongly suggests to me that his attitude to chainsaw
safety and maintenance is very casual, so it may not be safe to
use.

My employer has just told us all we now have to do a 'refresher'
course every 2 years, even though we are all experienced and frequent
users of many years standing and who have held NPTC certificates since
they became obligatory for people who use chainsaws at work.
This is following a case where a county council was fined £200,000
when one of their countryside wardens was killed when he dropped a not
particularly big tree on himself.
You really do need to know what you're doing - many of us elder
brethren taught ourselves to use chainsaws, but only after years of
doing what Janet suggests - that is learning pruning and felling
slowly by hand first.


--
Rod

My real address is rodtheweedygardeneratmyweedyisp
Just remove the weedy bits
and transplant the appropriate symbol at.