Dan Rosenberger: Hi! I am Dan with Echo Incorporated with the video series on how to use and maintain your gas chainsaw. So today we're outside and I'm going to show you the proper techniques on using your chainsaw. But before we do that, there's a couple of things we need to do. First, we need to clean our area of any debris or logs, that -- the log may fall on when we're doing our cutting. So we'll need to remove any obstructions on the log that we're going to cut and then clear away just the general debris around our cutting side.

So, I've got my safety apparel on, my chaps, my gloves, my helmet with my hearing protection and eye protection. I'm going to start my chainsaw, clear my area and then we're ready to cut the firewood. Now that we have our area cleared and we're ready to cut. Let's talk a little bit about your stance and position that you will need to know while making your cut. First of all we want to make sure that no one's around our working site, children, pets, everybody's away safely, clear away from our work spot. Next thing we want to look at is our chainsaw. Do we have the right chainsaw for the right application? Depending on what size firewood you want to cut will depend on what size stove that you have. So anywhere between 14 and 18 inches is a typical wood stove. So, our stance is going to be an athletic stance with your left foot a little bit forward than your right. The chainsaw, your left hand is going to be on your front handle easily accessible to activate the brake. Your right hand will be on the rear handle which controls your throttle. So before you start your cut, you want to throttle up the chainsaw, place it lightly on the wood and have solid pressure all the way through the cut. Once you're done with the cut you want to activate the brake again and place yourself firmly on the ground. So now that we've talked about proper techniques to use your chainsaw let's get started. So I'm going to activate my chain brake, put it firmly on the ground. I want to make sure that I have my hearing protection on, my safety glasses, helmet and shield. Now let's start our chainsaw. Rear foot on the rear handle, left hand on the front handle, we're going to pull straight up and the chainsaw should fire on the first or second pull. Now that we've finished our cut and I've removed the log away from our cutting area. Next, we're going to talk about long term maintenance and storage of your gas chainsaw.