There are a few different types of chainsaw competitions. These usually come up at Lumberjack Festivals, where people are doing all manner of activities that are related to the past days of the lumber mill business. In the modern era, lumber practices involve a lot of huge, high powered machines. This was not always the case, however. These lumberjack competitions will often involve people climbing trees, standing on logs in the river and trying to stay upright, splitting pieces of firewood with an axe, and using chainsaws and handsaws to cut logs down to size. The chainsaw is a bit more modern than the others, of course, but it is still valuable since it is a hand-held machine.

The most common type of chainsaw competition just involves the man with the saw trying to cut three pieces from the end of a log as fast as he possibly can. He will be working on his own, fighting against the clock. The logs vary in size depending on the competition; some are small and just require a quick movement to get through, while others are large and involve cutting from multiple angles to take a piece off of the end.

Many times, lumberjacks will use an up-and-down motion to cut the three pieces off. They will take the first one by going down in the way that one would traditionally use a saw. They will then use the top of the blade to come back up for the second. The third one will again be taken by cutting downward. This means that there is no wasted motion in the cut. The whole process contributes to the effort. In an event where shaving even a second off could help a person win, this is important.

Sometimes, the competition will be set up so that three men will all be using their chainsaws at the same time. They will be racing each other in a very real sense, not just racing the clock. This changes things a bit for the audience, who can watch to see how things pan out and can cheer for their favorite. On occasion, this is done with huge chainsaws made from snowmobile engines.

There are other chainsaw competitions as well. Sometimes lumberjacks will compete to see who can cut a tree down the fastest. This is a complicated procedure because, due to the pinching motion of the tree, they cannot just cut straight through. They must cut a notch out of one side and try to take the tree down in a certain direction.