Noodling

Poster on Arborsite was confused about noodling v. ripping, so I took these three photos to illustrate it for him. The advantages of working from home, you get to have fun at lunch time!
The orientation of the head and chain is key to the type of cut you're making -- here's a conventional cross cut.

This is a rip cut. Stanard chainsaw chains don't do this well, makes lots of dust, goes slow, leaves the wood very rough. Folks who use "chainsaw mills" to produce boards, usually for homesteads or other places difficult to transport lumber to, use special ripping chains.

This is a noodle cut. It produces copious amounts of long "noodles," pics of which I didn't get today as planned do to snow! Noodling lets you make very large chunks into more manageable size to handle.