I don’t mind using safety chaps if the area is open, but in the brush. They get caught up, and I don’t like to wear them.
My brother almost cut his leg off walking through brush with a running chain saw. I highly recommend clearing the brush first and dragging your wood out of the brush before you try to saw it. My brother ended up having to go to the hospital with his leg at the crotch being bandaged and his wife holding pressure on it to get to the er. He was alright lucky and only his pride was hurt but it was only the fact that somone else was there with him that kept him alive. Be very careful with chainsaws and brush the life you save will be your own.
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I am pretty careful with them. I am more worried about getting caught and tripping with the running chainsaw in my hand, if I back up or move over to another position. Usually I put the brake on though, which probably burns it up, but it is cheaper then the hospital.
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My brother did trip he was one of those guys who took the brake off the saw because it was “a pain”
As to burning the brake the stihl is the only one I have use enough to say for sure but I had an 034 my uncle bought for me to use when I was probably 15 I ran about 20 cords of wood though that saw a year for about 15 years and the brake worked just as good when I replaced the saw as the day I got it. The only thing that went wrong with it was the recoil start. I traded it to a friend because I have a long slower pull to start it and he has a short fast pull. So when I started it about 1 in 4 times the saw would yank the string out of my hand and feel like it was braking your fingers. But my best friend would start it on 2 pulls every time without it ever doing that to him. I think he still uses that saw and hasn’t done anything major to it.
I might not have mentioned I am paranoid about using the brake if the saw isn’t in the cut the brake is on just habbit for me to flip my wrist and hit it when the cut is done now.
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My stihl is a hard starter… Well especially now that it won’t actually start I am not sure why, but prior to that it took a good 5 pulls to get it started. My smaller woodshark takes about 5 pulls too. but it has a whole starting sequence written on it, and if you follow it, it works. 
Stihl hard starting. Get a new air filter. That is the most common problem I ran into they can only be cleaned soo many times. Next have someone replace the fuel line and filter in the tank. If it still won’t start easy have a pro check the fuel mix. The old timer who set mine up isn’t around anymore so I keep hoping my MS460 keeps starting easy. But so far I put that at full choke if it doesn’t fire first pull it will second and once it fires pull the trigger so it drops back to half choke and it fires and runs on the next pull. My 034 had a hard time starting a few times that is how I came up with the three points above. Normally it is either no air or fuel draining out of the line through a small crack.
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I replaced the gas line, filter, and just took off the air filter, and it is all good. I tried it with fresh gas too. I probably have to take it in but it is like a 100 dollar bench charge.
Have you verified spark and replaced the plug? I have seen the wire down by the switch get broken inside the insulation the way I found it was no spark.
I think I replaced the plug, but spark wasn’t consistent. I was actually wondering if it was a coil… but a lose wire is cheaper. good idea. I wanted to test the compression before I took it in.
On my Huskies the only problem I have had was the coil go bad, after 30 years. It always ran well but would not start when warm. Let it cool off awhile and Start and run fine till I shut it down and no restart till cool again.
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Love the innovations on this site.
Starting fluid makes that initial cold start easy every time
I have had a weak coil on a cheap craftsman saw it would light up a spark tester but would only give a very weak blue spark on a new plug with the gap at 1/2 spec
Got a new coil and it runs great and starts easy
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That is originally what it was doing… plus it wasn’t sparking regularly, kind makes me wonder if it is the electronic ignition that is at fault.
Well what else is there? Disconnect the switch, the wire to it just grounds the ignition to kill it.If it sparks with the switch disconnected switch is shorted. If still no spark then CDI is bad. If it started with no spark when hot it is a safe bet.
It is a Stihl, don’t they put some magic genies in there? 
It didn’t start until it cooled off, which you are probably right it is an ignition coil. I had a similar issue on my snowblower. I’m afraid to look to see how much a new one is. I think the one for the stihl weedwhacker was 80 bucks. I will give what you said a try.
I think I paid $89 go mine at saw shop. I would get part # and check e_ Bay
The won’t start hot is almost always a bad coil. The coil is basically a wire and when it gets hot a bad coil will short out when it cools off the coils will shrink a little and stop shorting out. It is a insulation failure that causes it so when it is cold you get an air gap that goes away when hot hence the only fails hot. Not starting cold with no spark tends to be a problem with the wires switch or plug.
Some quality time with Google will save you alot on saw parts. I order most of my stuff from
https://www.baileysonline.com
But I think you might beat them for the coil elsewhere.
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As long as you are sure there is no spark when hot its probably the coil but be sure to check hot before buying one. Many older saws were built before anyone thought we would waste good alcohol putting it in gas and those saws and some newer ones have a problem with the alcohol vapor locking in carb or line and will start fine when cool but not when hot enough to vaporize the alcohol. If you have one of these saws when when you shut it hot set it down with the bar/ muffler end higher than the carb it helps it to cool and restart faster.
Fred
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Apparently I can get an OEM one for like 11 dollars straight off the boat from China. Any reason not to just replace it? Hardly worth the time trying to diagnose for that price.
Nope make the swap. I am sure they all come from the same factory in China anyway so it wouldn’t scare me.