A Chainsaw Training Session

In Japan, forestry is still the deadliest where the population density of killed-workers is the highest in all the business in Japan. It has been so for centuries, and it includes the incidences involving chainsaws. After the World War II, the Americans who occupied Japan for a while introduced a massive usage of chainsaws to deal with the reconstruction activities. Forestry that had the highest death rate as an occupation added to its to-do list to tackle the hazard arising from chainsaws. Our grandpas thought there must have been something institutional to deal with it. It is one of such arrangement for us using chainsaws attending a training session governmentally recognized in order to obtain legally endorsed certificate as a proof of completing the training.

We are studying. 

Chainsaws are powerful machine. Ferrari F142VS has 9000rpm maximum engine speed. A small chainsaw operates with an engine of 12000rpm, and we have to hold it with our arms. Inevitably, it could cause health problems. The wave length of a vibration a motor of a chainsaw can destroy human blood vessel when we use the machine for a sustained length of time. Say, a busy forester operated his chainsaw 8 hours a day. He would surely (1) be exhausted, which could end up a fatal incident with a saw, and (2) have strangely white hands at the end of the day. It’s called a vibration syndrome, caused by the destruction of numerous blood vessels of hands. If a blood vessel was cut off in the middle, oxygen and nutrition cannot reach to the parts beyond the torn-down point. The cells are practically suffocated due to the damage in blood circulation, and stay with the trauma for the rest of one’s life. Japanese legal arrangement limits hours of operation with chainsaws mainly this hazard in mind. For a person to receive any governmental support due to injuries involving chainsaws, s/he must have the certificate to prove the attendance of the training course informing this vibration syndrome and the other aspects of activities with chainsaws. Well, this is a free country. No Big Brother watches us in remote and deep mountain forests. But at least if a person carries a document for operating a chainsaw, s/he must have received a sufficient training to know such dangers. A grown-up rational adult won’t do stupid things with a chainsaw, if the person knows the thing. That’s the thought.

Our lecture was done indoors,

under a spectacularly fine weather (Jeez …)

and the views of Mt. Fuji and Hakone … 

Hence, there is an officially endorsed training course for people who operate chainsaws and expect to receive medical cares with national health insurances and the other welfare benefits in case an accident happens. The curriculum of the course is also legally defined as 2 days’ session at minimum. Those lecturers are certified people who can inform the trainees medical pitfalls the machine can bring, the methodology of safe forestry with chainsaws, and the mechanics of the machine. Why mechanics? You may think. In order to operate 12000rpm engine by our hands, the tool must be treated in a proper way as its engineering design requires. To avoid incidences, we should hold the handles in an optimal way, and know when such-a-such button to be pushed. Moreover, mechanical knowledge of a machine can be used for appropriate maintenance. After one operation of cutting trees, the saw is covered by wood chips inside out. The teeth are also worn off. Without setting the order again, next time we start the engine, the saw can even catch fire. Faded teeth force the operator to handle the machine in a wrong way that can cause serious, or fatal, incident. Informing users the mechanics of chainsaws is very important.

Mechanisms explained 

How to sharpen the teeth 

2 day training session was consisted of lectures about the health issues in the usage of the machine, the safe procedures of cutting trees, like how to create sockets, back cuts, etc., the mechanics of chainsaws, AND detailed stories of serious incidences, normally death, involving chainsaws. “This veteran cut corners of safe operation. Then he lost the control of the chainsaw for just a second. The teeth cut the artery run through his left leg. He died before an ambulance arrived ...” A story among many horrors. We then had practice sessions of sharpening the teeth, cleaning a machine, and actual cutting of logs about 50cm of diameter. I’ve already did activities with chainsaws in Niiharu so that this part was OK for me. Though, the lecturer said, “Relax! You don’t have to strain your arms’ muscle that much. (Big grin)” … OK, I was nervous, I guess.

Model demonstrations for holding a chainsaw 

This is an advanced technique!

Could you see the lecturer does this

without a kickback of the saw?

Don’t try unless you are a seasoned pro. 

New things for me were about the laws and institutional background for chainsaw usage, and health issues, horror stories included. My take is, (1) after the 2nd operation that created 8 holes in my wrist bone, I must have a mini-break with the chainsaw. I have to wait my bone grows to fill the cavity and can sustain itself with the vibration of the machine. Patient! And (2) Be careful regardless in a forest. Yeah. By the training, I now have a governmentally endorsed official certificate to operate a chainsaw. BUT, it’s far better not to meet the opportunity for the documentation to be useful. Breaking a tiny bone alone is such a fuss. Receiving injury with chainsaw? That’s the world of “Friday the 13th.” I think I could regard now the activities in a forest from another angle, with a concrete image of danger. Come to think of it, that is the point why there are laws and training sessions for chainsaw operators in Japan. Naomi is a good citizen. 😇 

Please be careful in a forest with a chainsaw that can cut off your leg and bring death to you. Safe forest life, yeah.

I’ve learned

when we hold the machine at the right point of a handle,

creating a socket is far easier.

Hmmmmmmmmm. 

If you find an environmental issues in Kanagawa Prefecture, please make a contact with Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター

657 Nanasawa, Atsugi City, 243-0121 〒243－0121　厚木市七沢657
Phone: 046-248-0323

You can send an enquiry to them by clicking the bottom line of their homepage at http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/div/1644/