`Anyone ever seen it happen? I have not. My cousin recently had 1 break (at a rivet) and it came back & hit him in the chaps. I'm not sure what caused it. My dad has done more chainsawing in his life than most anyone I know & (knock on wood) has never seen it happen.

I've seen it a few times

Yes i have , had one spit it about 15 feet out threw the woods one time, just revved up and touched the tree and it went .

I had a friend who nearly severed his jugular vein by a broken chain.

that is why you wear chaps , hard hat and safety glasses

eventually your luck runs out on something if you saw long enough


I had a limb come out of a tree behind me and crack me on the head and pin me to the ground , wasn't even the one I was cutting on

firm believer in the hard hat

if no hard hat they would have been sewing my scalp back on

with hard hat I went to work a couple hours later with bruised shoulders and back.

I cut timber for a living, it happens more than you'd think.

Yes just barely missing my danger zone, whipped me pretty good above the zipper, wait until the bar tip sprocket dismantles sometimes they come out like a kung fu star.

Like others, I have seen it happen and it is usually the master link that fails.

I cut wood for years without a helmet. The kids got me one for Christmas one year. Had the ear phones and face screen on it. A couple days after Christmas I went to drop a dead standing Cottonwood. I wore the new helmet so I didn’t hurt the kids feelings. A branch broke off above when I was cutting the base. I never heard or saw in coming. It whacked the top of the helmet, broke end first, then skidded down the side and ripped off the muff and that side of the face screen. Judging the deep gouge in the helmet, I think it would have stabbed through my skull. It did knock me dizzy for a bit. When I snapped out of it the saw was still running in the cut and I was leaning against the tree. Crazy that I needed it the first time I wore it.

When I walked in the house with the helmet my youngest looked at me and said “you broke it already!?!” Lmao

Yep, I've had it happen, not often but it happens. Broke the chain cover on the same saw twice from chains breaking.

Most new saws have a soft aluminum guard at the base. It’s designed so that the saw teeth bite into the aluminum and stop the clutch before the whole chain gets thrown from the saw.
Mines a little banged up. lol

met a guy about 2007 right before I got my stove and started cutting a lot

we got talking and I asked about his dad because he worked with his uncle

he told me he was 8 and his mom sent him out to the woods to get his dad as he had not come in at his usual at his lunch time.

he found his dad at the base of the tree , a widow maker had come out of the top and cracked him right in the head , his saw was hardly even in the cut he had just started cutting his first tree of the day and he was found a little after noon by his 8 year old son

helmet sounded like a better idea after that.

Thanks for the heads up. I have never ever heard of it happening.

I’ve never had a chain break. Yet.

Used to happen fairly common, not so much any more. Saw a 3/4 chain at a shingle mill brake. Went right through a sheet of 3/4 plywood.

Same for me. Makes since anything can break but makes me wonder if its Chinese chain or poorly put together master links from individuals or local saw shops.

Threw alot of chains but never had one break yet. Knock on wood...

I'm also suspicious of the broken chain. I hope he knew better than to use a cheap or modified chain.