Husqvarna , The Whole Story

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Awww, that's new to me. never heard of it before. Sure looks a lil clumsy to operate though. thanks for the info.

PS. what means Grässklippare in swedish ?

I am a bit surpriced that you haven't read of it at Mange/Magnus' collector web-site......
 
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Anyone have some history behind the XP saw line? I thought the first saws in this line appeared about 1988, but I'm not sure. What model was the first XP saw?, maybe the 266XP?

I believe you are close - the 242, 254, 266, 268, 281 and 288 probably became xps at about the same time.....

The first one beeing an xp from the outset, probably was the 3120.
 
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The History of Husqvarna.

I will try to tell the story of Husqvarna as correctly as I can.

The History of this company is longer than many country's.
Chainsaws has not been a big part of its life. This may seem odd, but I will do my best to explain.
To make this easier I decided to split this up and leave out the Motorcycles and the other products they made with great success and focus on the main product in Husqvarnas Life, Gun's.

The Swedish king Gustav II Adolf, wanted more guns made since Sweden was unstable at the time, year 1630.
He decided to build more factories and Husqvarna was chosen for its water but there was also was a gunpowder factory.
1640 the factory was started, and made pipes and complete rifles. At this period Sweden was a great state, about 3 times bigger than today and wars were fought at its borders just about everywhere.
When the king died the wars stopped and there was no longer any need for 3 factories.
The Husqvarna factory was sold to a man with the name Ehrepreuss in 1689, and he continued as a private business. It was no longer a company owned by the Sweden Crown, but the remained a significant part of the company as they bought 99% of the rifles. Now Husqvarna made about 11 000 muskets and pistols a year, Handmade!
They were making black powder pistols and muskets.
Husqvarna was then at this time a pioneer and leading company in what we here call precision industry or fine mechanics. They were known for the quality and reliability of the guns.
Up till 1720 Husqvarna had made 230 000 gun's. Most for the Sweden Army.
After this long period of war's Sweden was tired and pretty much broke. It was a time of poverty and the Crown was in need of money, not guns. Sales dropped very fast from 11 000 to 1 500 and people lay of their work.
This was a hard time and 1840 it was sold to Ankarkrona, who continued making guns, but realized this will not last forever so he started making sewing machines, stoves, engines, and a lot of other products. In Husqvarna at this time, the factory was more than just a source of labour it was a pig part of the social structure too.
There was schools built and Husqvarna gave a lot more back to the community than just salaries. Ankarkrona was not just a sharp business man, but also very intelligent. He realized that a good product cheep enugh for all to buy would sell a lot. There were multiple of Husqvarna products in every home at the turn of the century.
At the end of 1860 at a time of instability in most of Europe sales increased on the guns. News like rear loaded rifles and guns had entered and now production increased rapidly.
1867 the company Husqvarna Vapenfabrik AB was formed, and they mainly made Remington Rifles on license for the Swedish army.
1877 a man called William Tham was appointed Director of the company and big reforms were made. Now the guns were not mainly meant for Army, but for civil use.
In the company there was of curse many brilliant inventors and craftsmen that made Husqvarna stay in top of the European gun manufacturing.
A legend was August Fredrik Hagst?m and his family. He was manager for the gun manufacturing. It was not uncommon that the workers lead their children in the same line of work and skill's. so was the case with Hagstr?m.
His son. Karl William was also a brilliant gunsmith and is mostly known and heard of for his test he had the men do when they were hired. He gave them two peaces of iron and a file.
If they got them so even and smooth that they held together, they had a job! He showed them how to do it correctly...
His son Hugo Hagstr?m replaced him after his death 1917.
By this time the generations of Hagstr?m had made a big impression on the gun world! Big and small series of rifle?s and guns were made. Some even special ordered from a certain gun smith they liked better.
In 1970 it was an end of an era. Husqvarna turned over the gun manufacturing to the Sweden military factories FFV.
They continued making small series of rifles up till 1989 when the company celebrated 300 year anniversary.

1978 Elektrulux bought Husqvarna Vapenfabrik AB.

This will get you started...
 
There was a guy that was chief ingeneer at Husqvarna for many years, he holds many patents like the two body antivibe system for ex. that is used on 180 and forward. His name is Ulf Näslund.

We were a couple collectors that wished to visit the museum and get some more out of it than just what is displayed, so I asked Ulf to guide us there.

I brought a couple pic's of collection to show Ulf and the ones on Museum.

This was one of them:
alaska18nf.jpg


Here is a pic from HVA's Museum:

hpim2130lj0.jpg


A funny observation.

Here is the one on HVA Museum:97-135-02

hpim2131sr9.jpg


Here is mine:97-135-03

hpim2287yz1.jpg
 
I talked to One of the fathers of this saw, Egil Skoog a while back he told me there could be 5 or 6 made.

When I talked to Ulf he said he remember talking to Egil about this project called Alaska 1. The resoults of this prototype became MS90A the first series produced Husqvarna that was theirs from start to finnish.
A designer called Sixten sawssson and a engeneer called Muller was involved in this too.
There was rumors of 5 saws and one tossed away = 6 saws.
I tracked as far back as I could and can only finf three that was made complete to run. Two is in HVA's Museum and I have one...

I know know a bit more and belive there was three made to be tested, two more just engins.

We talked a lot when we were there and some about the Twin they made.
It was a two cylinder saw made from two 65 saws put together more or less.
The one on display is a wood dummy, but there is a engin that they tested a bit in the museums bacement.
This was as far as they got, they shut down this project before it even had a body for the engin. It would get too expencive and would never sell enugh to pay for development and production.

For those interested I have more on this subject already posted on collectors forum.

********************************/viewtopic.php?t=4325&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15
 
That is great Niko.... looks as though He has been a member longer than you!!!!!!!! :hmm3grin2orange: :hmm3grin2orange: :hmm3grin2orange:


Sure he has, but he has not been too active lately!

...I was referring to this tread, and not AS in general ......:hmm3grin2orange: :hmm3grin2orange: :cheers:
 
I was a regular here a while back, yes. Some may remember, but there is just a handfull usernames that I recongnize from then. Times change.. If we like it or not.

I learned so much under a fairly short time most of can't belive! Met some wonderful people and have a great time with these old bears!
The collecting has given me so much so I wanted to give something back.
That is why CSCF started and is up and running for those in to the same old stuff.

Problem is it takes time and is other way's consuming.
There are many great forums and sites evrywere and I try to visit as many as possible more or less.
I am here from time to time though..
 
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So who has the oldest Husqvarna?

:cheers:

Hello Mange, Glad you are able to add to this thread.
It is nice to get the facts about the Husqvarna Company first Hand from
some of the guys that live in Sweden.


Thank You and please share more.
 
A bit more of the Museum and factory tour with Ulf.

We were almost running thru all other stuff there was to get to the saws..
Ulf sloed us down and cought ouer attension on sume stuff and among other things a Stirling engin developed by HVA, Two cylinder snowmobile engin, first clearing saw (65) among other things.

We heard stories that were very amazing and hard to exept.
A guy calls on a thursday to get a special mashine built. A kind of snowmobile but just a track, engin, storage and a handle. The rider is behind on ski's.
This was called "Tolken" designed by Ulf over the weekend and production more or less started monday!

A great thing to see him hold his hand over the 65, 160, 180, 140 etc and talk about his creations.
Truly amazing.

We went in to the factory too to see production and how it worked.
We even got to see some stuff we were not seposed to as we kind of "got lost". They changed the tour since he went it last and we had more to see...

I will never forget this or Ulf. Amazing man in evry way.

Alaska1. Prototype for MS90.
hpim2131ko0.jpg


Husqvarna 65 cut away.
hpim2134fs1.jpg


This is a prototype for what would be a two cylinder saw.
This is sad enugh just a wood prototype. They have a engin without starter and handles that was thought to be used but Ulf shut the door on the project as it would cost more than it would ever give.
hpim2140tm1.jpg

hpim2141fi9.jpg


Here Ulf talk's about the 65 and what was changed from the prototype to the real thing. This was the first saw he was involved in and to quote him it was a "Perfect winter saw".
hpim2144wn1.jpg


The MS90 used old teknikes like the valve intake and still too heavy to continue on so completly new designs were needed.
Model MS 90G was the last version.

hpim2135xv7.jpg
 
A bit more of the Museum and factory tour with Ulf.

We were almost running thru all other stuff there was to get to the saws..
Ulf sloed us down and cought ouer attension on sume stuff and among other things a Stirling engin developed by HVA, Two cylinder snowmobile engin, first clearing saw (65) among other things.

We heard stories that were very amazing and hard to exept.
A guy calls on a thursday to get a special mashine built. A kind of snowmobile but just a track, engin, storage and a handle. The rider is behind on ski's.
This was called "Tolken" designed by Ulf over the weekend and production more or less started monday!

A great thing to see him hold his hand over the 65, 160, 180, 140 etc and talk about his creations.
Truly amazing.

We went in to the factory too to see production and how it worked.
We even got to see some stuff we were not seposed to as we kind of "got lost". They changed the tour since he went it last and we had more to see...

I will never forget this or Ulf. Amazing man in evry way.

hpim2144wn1.jpg


Thank You Mange,
Ulf Sounds to be a impressive Engineer.
You truly were A quite fortunate Individual to forego A tour with Ulf as the Host.
Please continue.
 
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