Watched a video of a couple that have a nut orchard and they recommend a cordless reciprocating saw with a one-handed design for pruning. They mentioned the Milwaukee Hackzall but there are plenty of other brands that are cheaper.
I use a lot of kindling and the smoker basically takes kindling size wood too but cutting up branches has always been a pain.
I have a bunch of old Ryobi cordless tools in the 18 volt ONE Ni-cad system but the batteries are all bad. The newer 18 volt ONE+ lithium are backward compatible with the tools. The new ONE+ batteries used to cost a small fortune but have come way down in price.
I see Ryobi makes a similar saw to above and also make one-handed chain saws in 6" and 8" bar lengths, $130, $120 and $180 respectively. Prices are with 2.0 Ah battery and charger and is only $20-30 more than tool only. Would be a good way to get a new tool and revive a bunch more, 2 drills, flashlight, two-handed reciprocating saw, circular saw, jig saw.
Any of the above one-handed saws would be better than any other method I've used for cutting up branches for kindling. The back and forth motion of a reciprocating saw always tends to vibrate and sometimes binds and snags so I'd have to lean towards the one-handed chain saw and probably in the 6".
Thanks for the pruning post. It made me look at Ryobi again and see that reviving a bunch of cordless tools isn't $200 now, plus made me decide to ditch some small engines and the maintenance involved. I don't do enough push mowing or string trimming to justify the maintenance involved in gas versions. Seems like I work on them more than use them but some of that is the ethanol gas these days. A cordless trimmer with a couple of 4.0 Ah batteries could replace them both.
I'm even eyeballing a 40 volt chain saw with 16" bar. I have no desire to continue clearing land by cutting trees down. I have enough stumps including some I've been tripping on for 13 years. Killed a push mower by hitting one and bending the crankshaft too. They get 4.7 reviews minimum including from experienced gas saw users, even one that has a Stihl which he keeps for bigger projects.
A dozer could knock down everything but the biggest of trees on my level area in a day and I want to keep those biggest trees. I'm going to start taking out everything 4" or less using a mattock and ax, dig around and chop feeder roots and use the tractor for pulling them over to chop the tap root. BTDT and it leaves no hole to speak of and no stump or regrowth. Roots will rot in a few years. Most anything bigger than that can be knocked over.
I'm keeping my Stihl saw for all day cutting projects, like after a dozer has been through here, but when not using it for a while, I'll dump the fuel and start it and run it until it quits and then leave the cap off the tank until it's dry. Can dump the fuel into a gas can and then into the truck for no waste.
The 40 volt cordless would be handy to keep in the truck too for those times when I head to work and there's a tree down across the road. A 5 year warranty is as good as it gets. It's getting harder all the time for my little old arse to pull start anything.