I bought 2 Stihl 20" ES bars for the .404 and 6 20" loops of skip chain. So you can get the bars from Stihl.
As to someone's quip about faster racing and maximum production, I have found those two phrases to be mutually exclusive, in many cases and when it comes to chain or 2 seconds faster and "more powerful" saws, it doesn't quite work that way in the real world.
When you consider that running .404 chain of any length on most any saw size will only (potentially) slow the cut times down a few seconds, yet in semi-chisel for the last so much longer, you will not see more production from 3/8" chain. Because you will never make up the loss of minutes in sharpening times with a few seconds per cut, just doesn't happen.
Its the same concept with Chisel chain versus Semi-Chisel chain and in many cases of dirty wood, 3/8" versus .404. For racing the fastest setup would be 3/8" Chisel chain, but for production .404 Semi-Chisel. With 3/8" Chisel chain you could go 30 minutes before needing to be sharpened ............... with .404 semi chisel you could go 4 hours. If Joe Blow was to put up a video of cookie cutting, it will clearly show that 3/8" Chisel chain is clearly faster at cookie cutting and bamm, every homeowner in the nation is clammering to get it, when to prove that .404 Semi Chisel ........ or 3/8" Semi-Chisel for that matter, is really the King at wood cutting production you would have to follow the cutter around for several hours or days and weeks to show that he is sharpening way, way less, therefore wasting less chain, therefore going through less chain, therefore ordering less chain, to the point that there isn't any place that semi-chisel isn't more practical and efficient, once you get past that cookie cutting loss of a couple of seconds.
Now go to he opposite side of the racing spectrum again from Semi Chisel ................. Square Filed Chisel, faster sure, more wood cut for the effort .............. not likely. If you add up the time that the typical Square Filed Chain user spends messing around with it, they can't even see the Semi-Chisel user over the piles of wood that the semi has cut, LOL. Not to mention the knee jerk reaction of Square Filed users to go buy a $1,000 chain grinder and play with their chain every night at home, while that might be fun for some, and there isn't anything wrong with that, its not faster wood cutting production for the effort involved, its just faster cookie cutting times ................ big difference.
Those that talk about racing or a few seconds here and there, and then wood cutting production in the chainsaw world simply don't understand what true production is all about and how to get there. Thats the problem with declaring a 2 seconds cookie cutting saw that gets horrible fuel mileage the winner and the fastest, when it doesn't necessarily work that way. It sure looks good on the stopwatch, but its just the fastest at cookie cutting, but due to poor efficiency it might not be the fastest at wood cutting production, again as I say many times, "Seconds faster and minutes slower".
The same philosophy goes for these "I cut firewood, which should I buy 90cc or 70cc?" threads ............... first of all most of these people are noobs and aren't pro loggers, if they were they would already know the answer to the question, and that is, they will cut more wood, much more easily with a 70cc saw, not the 2 second faster 90cc saw which weighs and handles like a brick irregardless of the manufacturer. The problem is "advisors" on these types of threads generally get all caught up in testicles and horsepower and a few seconds here and there, and its never about what saw will actually get more work completed for the effort of operating it, and in many or most cases its the smaller saws, as they are in many cases more efficient or in most if not all cases they allow the user/human to be more efficient, which is the whole key to higher production.
My experience and opinion,
Sam
