I was asking about in use
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Stihl MS 170 chainsaw can be had for less than $200 and will do most any branch trimming a homeowner would need.
I have two MS 180s which are a small step up from the 170. I’ve put many, many hours on each of those saws and they still run like new.
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I have a Worx 16" electric chainsaw, but it’s corded. With a sharp chain it cuts just as well as my husky with no 2stroke smell.
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I’d need a couple thousand feet of cord to use an electric chainsaw here. If your trees are close to home then an electric model makes good sense (I’d assume anyway, no idea about longevity of electric chainsaws vs. gas)
I use one of these. I also have one of these (with battery of course):
https://www.amazon.com/BLACK-DECKER-LLP120B-Lithium-Alligator/dp/B00AZW9ZL8/ref=sr_1_1?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1481775950&sr=1-1&keywords=alligator+lopper+lithium+ion
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A small Stihl MS170 is a no-brainer. You can get them for $179.99 and it will mow through any task piece of wood growing on a fruit tree. Sure, you aren’t going to use it to fell 150 year old oak trees but it will work for anything you’d use it for. Anyone that has trees should own a chain saw.
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And until you have used a small, decent quality chain saw like that you won’t have the comparison that will likely demonstrate why commercial orchardists turn to such a tool for cutting branches and not something designed for carpentry.
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Alan,
I use a tiny saw for tiny branches. My chainsaw does not do a good job with inch and below branches. A reciprocating saw is perfect for small stuff in my opinion.
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For all chainsaw users, how do you disinfect the chain and bar between trees?
I admittedly have never disinfected a chain saw blade. I suppose you could by rubbing it down with alcohol just like any other saw blade. But it would be a pain in the butt. I primarily use my chain saw for cutting up hardwoods for fire wood. When I have used it on fruit trees I’ve just cut and not worried about it.
In all honesty, I’ve never really been one to worry about religiously disinfecting tools . If I’m pruning healthy looking trees I just prune away. I keep a spray bottle of 91% alcohol with me in case I have to prune anything questionable. If I think something has canker or fireblight I always disinfect. But if I’m pruning two neighboring healthy looking apple trees I just move from one tree to the next. Might be careless on my part but it’s a risk that I’ve chosen to take.
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Most chain saws require oil lubrication which might actually disinfect as you go. I’m not really sure if the oil actually disinfects.
I don’t understand the advantage of that to a high quality manual pruning saw, loppers and hand shear for the smaller stuff, but in the end, every person needs to figure out what works best for them. My needs are not going to be the same as someone else- my skill set is different, for one thing- but varied opinions are inevitable even between craftsmen of equal experience.
I can claim someone else doesn’t know how well my tools work, but I wouldn’t even consider using a reciprocating saw as an experiment when small cuts take less than a full pull with a good manual pruning saw, can be kept in a convenient sheaf at your side so you are free to reach for you hand pruner with no loss of time (also in a holster). The loppers are somewhat problematic because they must be set down when not in use (the lopper holsters aren’t convenient for long handled loppers). Maybe I need to design a holster for the loppers that holds them on my back.
Loppers are most useful to me when I’m pruning peaches and other stone fruit- I don’t use them much with apples aside from pruning off excessively low wood or when I need more reach from my ladder.
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For the big pruning jobs, I prune peach trees almost exclusively with loppers and occasionally a good hand saw. I have 3 different brands of hand saws, but like Silky the best. If I need to go through and remove some scaffolds, I use a chain saw.
Once I tried to use a sawzall with a pruning blade, but it’s not any faster than a hand saw on small stuff, and really slow compared to a chain saw on big stuff.
The little bitty 6" long shoots, which don’t grow good peaches, I remove those by tearing them off. So I don’t use hand pruners much at all during the heavy pruning of peach trees. I do carry hand pruners (ARS) when we thin fruitlets, because we are also trimming the ends of shoots, removing poorly placed shoots, and generally thinning a few shoots at the same time.
I don’t know that I’ve ever heard of any commercial growers who disinfect tools between trees, but I’m sure there are some out there. My guess is very very few commercial growers disinfect.
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I never have…it takes oil just like a 2 stroke chainsaw.
Electric is nice because i can saw logs on the kitchen table 
I just bought an electric snowblower…we’ll get to test that tomorrow…6-8 inches in the forecast.
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I don’t claim to be that diligent but I may be if my livelihood depended on it!
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What disease do you fear spreading? A fruit growers livelihood depends on growing fruit efficiently. I’ve never even heard of disinfecting being recommended when you aren’t doing something like cutting out black knot.
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Alan,
I use a reciprocating saw close to the ground on elm sprouts and particularly when there are tons of them. Tordan and a reciprocating saw make short work of all those junk seedlings in fence rows. Every job has a tool. I use hand saws only on my fruit trees and won’t dull them on elm. My pruners are the same wont use them around wire when it can be avoided I get in a hurry and nick my blades. That dewalt slices like butter 5-6 sprouts in a minute and once I’m done I go back and kill the stumps. Chainsaws are dangerous because they jump in those areas. You do a lot more pruning than me so you probably have a better plan. It’s a good amount of work my way. I say this stuff but who knows this weekend I may be doing all the things I need to do and wind up Doing it your way.
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Yeah, I can well understand not wanting to use a pruning saw more than necessary to spare the blades. I spend about $600 a year just on blades from my Silkies. Two of us pruning. Silky charges the most of any maker for their blades- and the ARS blades seem to be just as good, but they don’'t make as nice a handle. I never get a sore wrist from the Silky I use no matter how many consecutive months I prune.
Reducing wear on the blades gets me to go to my truck for my chain saw when there’s big cuts as much as anything else.
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Alan,
Those ARS pruners are real quality so I imagine they make saws out of the same stuff! They keep an edge very well. Nice equipment sure makes things easier! I’m about ready to start spraying the fence rows in the summer to avoid my winter choirs.