disinfecting saws

Regarding chain saws, inasmuch as they'd be hard to sanitize due to the crevices/etc, I wonder what the effect would be of adding 10% bleach to the oil. (Chlorine in oil isn't a new concept; it's used by other industries, BTW.) I would also think that after some use, the bleach/oil mix would build up in the crevices and sanitize those. It'd be interesting to take an old saw and see if the chlorine adversely affects the components.

For that matter, one could use 40/60 bleach and light machine oil instead of water, to reduce blade rusting if you don't get it perfectly dry.

Just a few thoughts...
 
Bleach becomes corrosive around higher temps. Also chlorine evaporates after a few hours if not stored in air tight containers
 
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Bleach becomes corrosive around higher temps. Also chlorine evaporates after a few hours if not stored in air tight containers

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Thought of that; in industrial applications using chlorinated oil, no special materials are needed to ward off corrosion; the oil itself does that. Applications can put the oil upwards of 400 degrees; so nut sure what you mean by high temps? Chlorine evaporates much more slowly out of oil than water, but yes, it would have to remain in a sealed container until ready to use.
 
If it's rated for 400 Deg go for it. I was just going on bleach mixed with hot water, it will eat though a cotton rag pretty fast. I dont have a bottle sitting in front of me but I'm fairly sure there is a corrosion warning on the label.
 
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I'd have to take him off of ignore to do that.

[/ QUOTE ]Wow that sounds risky--opening your ears and eyes might open your mind. Dangerous territory!

shocked.gif
 
Since the handsaw sterilization protocol calls for allowing the saw to remain in the sterilizing solution for 10 minutes before putting it on a different tree, I'm assuming the same would be necessary even if you found a way to incorporate a sterilizing agent into your bar oil. I can pony up for a second handsaw, but I'm not crazy about the choice of either having my chainsaw down for 10 minutes between trees, or having to dedicate 2 chainsaws into a sterilization rotation.
 
I would think, because there's always oil in and on the bar and chain (if the saw is oiling properly) that it would always be in contact with the sterilizing agent; perhaps even more so than a hand saw.
 
I would also have to wonder about any adverse effect of bleach or any other chem.mixed w/the oil on the tree.Although bar oil doesen't seem to bother.I guess the concentrations would be far too low to do anything.
 
Guy, I got that information at a pest & disease lecture that I attended in June of this year, in Sarasota, during The Florida Chap ISA Trees Florida conference. Dr Monica Elliott gave that information verbally in her lecture concerning diseases of palms.

Since I didn't have anything but my notes taken at a lecture for documentation, I made a quick internet search. This website http://www.hawaii.edu/ehso/bio/Hypochlorite.pdf also recommends 10 minutes of contact time for bleach. Other sites showed the same time line for lysol.

It's also interesting to note that surfaces to be cleaned must first be pre cleaned of gross accumulations of dirt, and proteins which otherwise will apparently cause the bleach to be ineffective at sterilization.
 
It looks to be SOP for sterilizing lab equipment and for healthcare applications as well. I think that ten minute standard, along with the requirement to remove most of the crud before you apply bleach, or any other sterilizing agent, is going to make an attempt to sterilize a chainsaw by adding bleach to the bar oil, ineffective. Too bad, it's a creative idea!
 
Removing crud is much more important than time imo and should be default SOP. After all it helps you find the best collar to cut to. And it is part of the job of crown cleaning.

The info on palms and food is good to refer to, but does it translate directly to pruning fireblight-infected pear branches? Fusarium and Erwinia are quite different I think. At any rate time is good to think about; 10 seconds is a lot better than 0.
 
Since we're applying bleach to a steel saw blade, I think that the info relating to sterilization of non porous surfaces has a direct bearing. Why would it require 10 minutes to sterilize a steel countertop, but less time to sterilze a steel saw blade? BTW, the crud I'm talking about removing is on the saw, from the last branch cut on the last tree.
 
I sometimes use alcohol to sterilize both chainsaw and handsaw...

if maybe a sick tree on the property or a very well paying customer with more highly valued trees.

the alchohol drenched over the chainsaw must do some good, come on...

bleach is corrosive to metal parts if I remember correctly, and slower to kill than alcohol.
 
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