Was this cutter fired as a result of this incident?
Nope. These guys have been in business a very long time, I don't think they're going to change their habits. All I know is the cutter was leaning out of the bucket, one-handing the saw and it caught in the cut and jerked the saw out of his hand and flipped it over the limb. It came down tumbling. Nobody was hurt. I don't think it was intentional, but one-handing it in the first place may have been some sort of protest behavior.
I'm guilty as hell of one-handing tophandle saws. I can honestly say that I've never one-handed a rear-handle saw. I'm not sure I could! Certainly not a big one.
One thing about these new, small pruning tophandle saws... you can easily leverage the blade in the cut (twist it slightly) and stop the blade dead in its tracks. I haven't experienced anything close to unmanageable kickback with them. I think there's a bit of safety built into a saw this small, in that there's just enough power to do the job, without a lot of overkill... a monster engine wouldn't make sense from either a practical or a safety standpoint... even if you
could make one light enough. Just my opinion. I have been trying to force myself to keep two hands on the saw whenever I can, especially cutting on the ground. And I now wear chainsaw pants on the jobsites, if we're cutting. Didn't like it at first, but it's like anything else... after a couple or three days of doing it, you don't even notice them anymore. Once your brain decides that this is the new 'normal' it stops being a nuisance.
I noticed this odd thing... chainsaw pants are expensive... instinctively, I worry about hitting them with the saw, so I watch that alot. Now, an amputated leg is a hell of a lot more expensive than any chainsaw pants... so why am I suddenly being extra careful about the stupid pants? I mean, it makes no sense. I suspect that it has something to do with the way we are tuned into our own bodies, for position, weight, etc. all the time. If this stuff had to be monitored closely, we'd get nothing done. So it becomes "second nature" quickly. Throw in some new variable, like the weight and padding of chainsaw pants, and we suddenly become more aware. Anyway, the things do give a sense of increased safety after you get used to them. That, for me, is a good thing. They are not very fashionable, but it's tree work, not bar hopping.
