Brand Q for old-timers

[AOrtlieb]

From any of you logging guys that have been around long enough to have seen and done it all:

I work at a big advertising agency (some of you drive trucks made by our biggest client) and I'm always interested in brands and how/why they evolve.

If either Stihl or Husky is the current King of the Hill (don't want to start a fight about which one would be #1), my question is what was the brand that was considered the best back in the '40s, '50s or '60s?

Was it McCulloch? Poulan? Pioneer?

When those brands began to falter, what was the model of Stihl, Husky, Dolmar, etc. that first got your attention?

 

[nmurph]

This will get you no where fast...just another brand war.

 

[AOrtlieb]

This will get you no where fast...just another brand war.

Really? People will fight historic brand wars?

I thought with that much time gone by most of the passion would be out of the equation.

 

[HuskStihl]

RandyMac and Gologit were logging in the 40's. Hopefully they will be around with a first person account of the times

 

[Guido Salvage]

Like most products, it was dependent on the area and the strength of the local dealerships. Those companies that produced products that consumers wanted survived, those that did not faded into history.

 

[watsonr]

Like most products, it was dependent on the area and the strength of the local dealerships. Those companies that produced products that consumers wanted survived, those that did not faded into history.

Very good answer Gary.. in my neck of the woods (Idaho) and near the largest white pine mill in the territory, Homelite was King. 50 miles up the road it was McCulloch. AND a Stihl saw in your hands got you the look, especially one with anti-vibration and quite possibly a rainbow sticker for your truck window!

 

[dl5205]

...RandyMac and Gologit have been logging since the 1800s...

!

 

[AOrtlieb]

Thanks, that's interesting. I thought there may have been some regional variation, but never considered that it could be that different from one local area to the next.

 

[Guido Salvage]

Thanks, that's interesting. I thought there may have been some regional variation, but never considered that it could be that different from one local area to the next.

Really not much difference between saws and farm tractors, sales were greatly dependent upon the local dealership and how strong they were. The global economy and mass advertising came after the period in question.

 

[lone wolf]

RandyMac and Gologit were logging in the 40's. Hopefully they will be around with a first person account of the times

So their 90?

 

[Wagnerwerks]

Very good answer Gary.. in my neck of the woods (Idaho) and near the largest white pine mill in the territory, Homelite was King. 50 miles up the road it was McCulloch. AND a Stihl saw in your hands got you the look, especially one with anti-vibration and quite possibly a rainbow sticker for your truck window!

That made me lol,,, but that was how it was here too.

 

[Wagnerwerks]

So their 90?

They started really young. Saws were smaller and kids were thougher back then.

 

[watsonr]

Really not much difference between saws and farm tractors, sales were greatly dependent upon the local dealership and how strong they were. The global economy and mass advertising came after the period in question.

Yep, everything was a local newspaper and word of mouth.

 

[HuskStihl]

So their 90?

Oh my bad, it must have been the 30's!
The stories are great tho. Using the mini coal shovel to scoop coal pellets into the boiler, waiting for the pressure to come up, make a few cuts, plunge the bar into whale blubber for lube, scoop some more coal...............good times!

My sincerest apologies to the gentlemen being satirized. They can't be a day over 80, and are far better men than I.

 

[jughead500]

In the day mccullochs were the pnly thing in thes parts with only the occasional homelite.stihl wasnt around until the mid 80's and husky in the 90's

 

[1Alpha1]

RandyMac and Gologit were logging in the 40's. Hopefully they will be around with a first person account of the times

If I had any idea that Gohugit was that old, I would have never have been as harsh to him as I have been in the past.

Now I'm feeling all guilty and stuff..............opcorn:

 

[old guy]

I started cuttin in the early 60's and the only serious saws I remember were Mac's and Homie's, my saws were yellow, a D44 and a 740.

John

 

[RandyMac]

RandyMac and Gologit were logging in the 40's. Hopefully they will be around with a first person account of the times

can I set you on fire?

I pulled a bunch of 6 and 7 cube Homelites out of Southern Humboldt where the timber was 8' or smaller, where the timber was larger, McCullochs were more common. The McCulloch shop in Fortuna probably sold a few thousand big inch saws. There was a Pioneer shop that did good business, sold lots of P50 series saws, most landings had them, a few weirdos used the larger Pioneers for falling and bucking. Del Norte was almost all McCullochs, although there were many two-man Malls and some Titans.

 

[dl5205]

...can I set you on fire?...

I was gonna be very disappointed if this was not the reply.

 

[AOrtlieb]

Thanks for that reply. My father in law as a kid cut some with his father in the upper regions of the lower peninsula of Michigan and a bit in the UP. He remembers fondly the old Macs, except for the weight compared to today's saws. He still talks about the old lumber camps, and how he and a brother would use the two-man hand saw on the ground.

Somehow he became a Sachs Dolmar guy. He just hit 80, so now he's down to a small Makita.