Little saw - BIG saw

After searching for a fair while I've finally found the bargain I was looking for!

It arrived this week and I've already given it a bit of a workout. "It" is a 2008 Husqvarna 575XP chainsaw. I found it on a online auction site and managed to buy it at just over 40% of the price of a brand new one.
In New Zealand many tertiary institutions offer forestry courses which are attended by new employees of the major logging companies. In the majority of cases the course fees are paid for by these companies. One very nice little feature of some of these forestry courses is that the students are supplied with all of the equipment they are going to need to complete the course.

This includes all of the safety gear as well as a chainsaw. The saw is of course of a size that is actually suitable for logging work. A lot of students when they leave the course sell their chainsaws for a variety of reasons, in most cases a wish to get cash to use for other things.

In the vast majority of cases these saws have done very little work and are barely run in. And most of them sell for quite a lot of money. Still cheaper than buying a brand new one but not cheap enough to make it attractive. That is until just now.

So I now have a near new proper chainsaw Yes, I know those of you who are fans of Stihl equipment would disagree, but I already have a Husqvarna that has done sterling service over the last six years and all of my, much more knowledgeable than me, friends have Husqvarnas. They were horrified when I suggested that I might consider buying a Stihl chainsaw if one was available at the right price. So it as just as well that this saw came up.

Just by way of comparison here is a picture of my little saw next to the new one. The new saw is going to see a lot of work in the near future. Lots of firewood to cut!