I asked my buddy, Step-N-A-Half Johnson, who lives just up yonder from me, about this very issue just the other day and got this response today:
"Naturaledge, I'm glad you asked about the idle issue. Let me just say, for the past 48 years I have been firing up my chainsaw to warm up - then I go back to polish off a quart of Whiskey so I'm good and loose when I hit the trees. My chainsaw has never let me down, well except for that time that it took half my leg off. Yeah, I say, let 'em idle."
Pretty much sums it up for me.
"Naturaledge, I'm glad you asked about the idle issue. Let me just say, for the past 48 years I have been firing up my chainsaw to warm up - then I go back to polish off a quart of Whiskey so I'm good and loose when I hit the trees. My chainsaw has never let me down, well except for that time that it took half my leg off. Yeah, I say, let 'em idle."
Pretty much sums it up for me.