I am about to purchase my first chainsaw. I know very little about them and am trying to decide on what bar length to get. I'd like to ignore for this conversation talking about the various manufacturers and keep this related to bar length only. I am considering both a 14" and an 18" and am torn between the two. I expect folks to chime in asking what size logs I will be cutting up. Certainly a valid question (and one that I don't have a definitive answer to as I have done very little harvesting). I imagine I will primarily be cutting up logs from trees which have already been felled. With that in mind, how long of a tree trunk can a 14" chainsaw safely cut in half? My intuition tells me (that if approached from both ends) something like a little less than double the length of the bar, so perhaps 26" or so. How valid is this assumption? What about the diameter? About the same?
Thanks in advance.