Odd saw chains?

[bubbajunk]

I've been going through a ton of stuff which I cleaned out of a barn that belonged to a relative of mine who passed away. He had dozens of chainsaws, mostly old McCulloch, Tanaka, and Stihl
Along with the saws I found piles of chain hanging in the work shop area, roughly 900 or so chains.
As I'm going through the chains trying to ID and sort it all out, I'm finding some odd chains.
The strangest is a few lengths of chain marked Sabre, its in 3/8" -50pitch, but the cutters are arranged 2 left, 2 right, 2 left and so on, but with skips between the left and right pairs?

I also found some chain that has no rakers, none at all. Just high angle chisel teeth. These are also 3/8" -50 p.

There's also a ton of extra tiny chains, the loops make maybe a 10" circle. The drive teeth are drilled, with 5 holes in each drive tooth, the rakers are normal, but the cutting teeth are ribbed on the sides. This chain is also marked Sabre.

Any idea why a chain would be set up in these ways?

 

[Tom B.]

No ideas, but I'm following this thread. It should be interesting.
And welcome to the forum!

 

[chipper1]

Welcome to AS Bubba.
Sabre made some odd chains 354 and 377(others too, just nat familiar with the older chains).
The ones missing the depth gauges may have been chains that were set up for cutting ice.
The old power sharp chains were odd looking as well.
Maybe these guys could help, pictures would be helpful as well.
@ray benson @Philbert @Modifiedmark

 

[LonestarStihl]

This sounds like a fun thread. Welcome to AS, I’ll also be hanging out to see and hear some good stuff.

 

[bubbajunk]

Someone else here mentioned something about cutting ice but they haven't cut ice here in years. But I can't say where he got them either.
Those chains also have the teeth pointed further upward than the other chains. The teeth are canted back about 20 degrees.
I found another one a little while ago that has the two left, two right tooth configuration but every three pairs there's a same distance blank or skipped set of links. It occurs 3 times around the loop.

 

[HarleyT]

Any pics?

 

[svk]

Post pics please

 

[svk]

900 chains! That ought to cover you for life even after you sort out the ones that you can’t use.

 

[Remle]

900 chains! That ought to cover you for life even after you sort out the ones that you can’t use.

I probably have 30-40 and 12 saws and I’m beginning to feel like a hoarder.

 

[MacAttack]

i bet you don't find a single 404 pitch 058 gauge chain in there.

It took me a few months to find any, lol

 

[svk]

i bet you don't find a single 404 pitch 058 gauge chain in there.

It took me a few months to find any, lol

You best bet for those is to post in the Mac and Homie threads and find a fellow collector who has a reel of chain and will make you a loop.

 

[MacAttack]

You best bet for those is to post in the Mac and Homie threads and find a fellow collector who has a reel of chain and will make you a loop.

I was luckily able to find some complete chains on Ebay that fit, but your idea would have been my next option!

 

[Philbert]

Welcome to A.S.!

A lot depends on how old the chains are, and what they were used for. 'Originally', saw manufacturers had to make their own chains, so there was a lot of variety in size and type. Many years ago, most manufacturers had chains made for them by one of a few companies, and had their names added. Like a lot of industries, companies were acquired or absorbed, leaving a few main players today. 'Sabre', for example, is now a brand name owned by TriLink, and has little to do with their older chains. Windsor, Sandvik, and Carlton are owned by the parent company of Oregon chain.

Companies also experimented with a lot of different designs. Seems like little may have changed since 1946, when Joe Cox (founder of Oregon) patented what we now consider to be 'standard' or 'conventional' saw chain, but if you look through saw chain patents (Google Patents some night when you are really bored), you will find dozens (hundreds?) of design ideas for improvements - some worked; some didn't; some never found success in the market.

As noted, there were also different chain designs for ripping, sculpting, construction uses, fire / rescue, etc. Some users modified / experimented with their own chain designs. Posting clear photos of individual chains would help.

These also help to sort / identify different chains by pitch, gauge, etc. I use them a lot:



Philbert

 

[bubbajunk]

I still have to clean a few of these oddball chains up, when I do I'll take a few pics.
When I found these they were stored both hanging on spikes in the barn, all over he walls, with some stored in cookie tins with oil, others were in old canvas feed sacks up in the loft, plus there's an metal 55 gallon drum full of misc chains. Not only do I need to sort them, many are tangled up a bit from being stored like that.
I'm finding a lot with the Sabre name, and a lot of the very small chains. The smallest saw I've got besides the pole saws is a 12" Sears saw but even that runs a chain that's still larger than the smallest chains I'm finding.

 

[Philbert]

My methods for cleaning up old chains is described in these threads:

https://www.arboristsite.com/community/threads/philbert-meets-the-stihl-rs3.202969/

https://www.arboristsite.com/community/threads/philberts-chain-salvage-challenge.245369/

Philbert

 

[Justsaws]

I've been going through a ton of stuff which I cleaned out of a barn that belonged to a relative of mine who passed away. He had dozens of chainsaws, mostly old McCulloch, Tanaka, and Stihl
Along with the saws I found piles of chain hanging in the work shop area, roughly 900 or so chains.
As I'm going through the chains trying to ID and sort it all out, I'm finding some odd chains.
The strangest is a few lengths of chain marked Sabre, its in 3/8" -50pitch, but the cutters are arranged 2 left, 2 right, 2 left and so on, but with skips between the left and right pairs?

I have a loop of chain similar to that in a bag labeled, “ripping”.

I also found some chain that has no rakers, none at all. Just high angle chisel teeth. These are also 3/8" -50 p.

Could be the type of chain that was sharpened with a stone mounted onto the saw. PowerSharp is a brand name from Oregon. The stones that went in the saw mount are worth more than the chains, keep you eyes peeled.

There's also a ton of extra tiny chains, the loops make maybe a 10" circle. The drive teeth are drilled, with 5 holes in each drive tooth, the rakers are normal, but the cutting teeth are ribbed on the sides. This chain is also marked Sabre.

Could be metal cutting chain, aluminum, lead, etc.. Chains were thought to need lots of cutting fluid, oil.

If the holes are stamped indents and the ribs are sintered then the chains could be carbide tipped or plated, expensive.

Any idea why a chain would be set up in these ways?

Sabre had a wide variety of products. Seemed like an interesting company. Sounds like a great bunch of chainsaw stuff, enjoy.

 

[bubbajunk]

Here's one with some double links I came across today, the links are marked Sabre and its a 3/8"- .050 chain on a 20" bar. There's a few doubles, some alternating cutters and three or four long skip sections. There's 3 or 4 more cutters on the left than on the right.

I'm after seeing some of these, I'm wondering if they're not just made up from odd bits of chain?
I see no reason or benefit to having a chain with more cutters in one direction than the other. The random skip pattern, maybe, but even that's not consistent.
All the drive teeth and cutters match, (same brand and model).
As I dig through the bags I'll snap a few more pics.

What ever this chain is, its teeth are pretty hard, it about smoothed out a brand new Oregon file trying to clean it up. I could cut the lower part of the cutter in the gulley, but it wouldn't touch the cutting edge itself.
The bar says Oregon, Made in Japan, and has a screened Tanaka logo on the right side. I actually found info on the saw it was on, a Tanaka ECS 650 bought in 1991. From a feed store in the PA.

 

[SEAM]

The teeth-only chain is probably for cutting bamboo... common in Japan, I do have a loop somewhere, but sharpening all those teeth
The Tanaka ECS 650 is a rare beast - in Japan they hardly sold any of the bigger ones. I have found only one 65 cc saw made by Tanaka and sold by Shingu in Japan so far.

 

[Brushwacker]

I have a couple reels of Sabre .315 chain. If you run across presets for it i could use several . I have sprockets.

 

[bubbajunk]

The teeth-only chain is probably for cutting bamboo... common in Japan, I do have a loop somewhere, but sharpening all those teeth
The Tanaka ECS 650 is a rare beast - in Japan they hardly sold any of the bigger ones. I have found only one 65 cc saw made by Tanaka and sold by Shingu in Japan so far.

I've got two ECS 650's, and two 655's. They seem to be really well built saws but they're very uncommon around here.
I've never seen a dealer here, I'm not sure where they came from but two came from the central Pennsylvania area, the other two from southern New Jersey. All of these have Oregon 20" H009 bars and Sabre 3/8" - .050 pitch chain on them. These are strong running saws.

I talked to a local guy here about ice chain and he said that the chains I have have too much angle to be ice chains. He also seemed to think that most ice chains would have been longer loops than something for maybe a 14" or 16" bar.

The bamboo cutting is a possibility but there's not a lot of bamboo in central PA, only the occasional stand or two.

I put one of the no raker chains on one of the Homelite 150 Autos I have here and gave it a try in some old wood and it cuts fast with huge chips. It sort of pulls itself down into the wood. I was more expecting it to bog the saw but it cut fine, but I was only cutting some old dried up Holly tree trunks that were laying behind the barn.

The chains with the odd tooth layout cut pretty much the same as a normal chain on the one Tanaka 650, I was expecting it to pull to one side but it cuts fine, but I only used it to cut a few telephone poles.

I don't have anything to fit the really small chains, when I get a chance I'll take a few comparison pics of the various sizes.