On 23 Mar, 23:46, "sally H" wrote:
I should like to buy a small chainsaw and should like recommendations
please.
Thanks.

You seem to have opened a can of worms here Sally ;~}
You've decided you have the wood and trees that justify the expense of
the saw, safety kit and training and the significant effort involved
in the training, all you are asking is for saw recommendations.

I can't offer anything on the low end 'occasional user' saws because
I have no experience of them. Most chainsaw work even in large gardens
such as those I worked in can be tackled safely and comfortably with
saws such as those offered by Stihl as 'mid range professional saws'
At the smaller end of that range is their MS260 - the successor to the
026 which has been a favourite of gardeners and tree workers for many
years. It is a 50cc machine with a choice of guide bars from 13" to
18", easy to start, not too heavy, very little vibration, nice clean
burning engine, fast smooth cutting, reliable and backed by good
servicing dealers. We had 2 of the 026s at work where they really did
work and I now own an M260. At work faced with several machines to
choose from I picked up the 026 perhaps 99 times in every 100. Don't
be put off by the catalogue price, you should be able to buy one at a
discount of around 20%, ie. around £400 and you'll never need to buy
another one. With a 15" guide bar and the training provided by the 5
day basic course you'll be able to safely fell trees up to 15" dia.
You could go up to 30" dia with further training though most folks
would prefer to use a bigger saw for those. The saw is small enough
and light enough for general cutting up of fallen trees and for low
level pruning - not above chest height and absolutely not from a
ladder.