Agree with ac tc, a shorter bar will make your work more efficiently. Unless you freqently cut firewood thicker than 15", I would definitely go with a 13-15" bar. Long bars makes you work harder, the saw work harder besides reducing your safety.
Real lumbering professionals use the shortest, strongest, lightest saws for the task. Rather get a really heavy (70cc-) felling saw with a long bar for old oak or redwood and do all other felling and limbing with a snappy 13-15" 45-55cc.
A 20"- bar will not really do well on saws under 55cc, but if you sometimes need to take on heavy trees, get a longer bar and chain for those occasions only.
I think that bar lenght is just something "measurable" in marketing terms, 18" sounds "more value" than 14"... For most purposes it is just as useful as advertising "heavy", "Wow you now get a bicycle with 10 lbs added weight!" Good, really good...
And, regardless, a razor sharp chain is what you -really- need. Get a file/file dog, a couple of extra chains. That will make the cc a smaller problem.
Real lumbering professionals use the shortest, strongest, lightest saws for the task. Rather get a really heavy (70cc-) felling saw with a long bar for old oak or redwood and do all other felling and limbing with a snappy 13-15" 45-55cc.
A 20"- bar will not really do well on saws under 55cc, but if you sometimes need to take on heavy trees, get a longer bar and chain for those occasions only.
I think that bar lenght is just something "measurable" in marketing terms, 18" sounds "more value" than 14"... For most purposes it is just as useful as advertising "heavy", "Wow you now get a bicycle with 10 lbs added weight!" Good, really good...
And, regardless, a razor sharp chain is what you -really- need. Get a file/file dog, a couple of extra chains. That will make the cc a smaller problem.
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