Box of Broken Poulans Bar Surprise

[dougand3]

Bought a box of broken Poulans and the 2075 (1990s 42cc) looked funny. It should wear 3/8 Lo Pro. Had a wide bar. I look the bar over and check the sprocket...and it ain't got one! It's from the factory like this. Chain is Poulan labeled reg 3/8 050 with 720 on drivers and 25 on cutters.
Bar has no markings...when did they make no sprocket bars?
And is this bar worth something as an antique or go in the scrap pile?

 

[fearofpavement]

That's just a hardnose bar someone put on that saw. It didn't come on that saw. They still make hardnose bars. Stihl calls them Duromatic.

 

[Chris_In_VT]

Hard nose bar. Not terribly common but not unusual either. Advantages being they hold up better in dirty nasty conditions where a sprocket tip would fail. You can run whatever pitch chain you want, with respect to the clutch drive and bar gauge. For example you can run .063 3/8, and swap sprockets and run .063 .404.
There is more drag than a sprocket nose bar so power loss is a disadvantage.

 

[fearofpavement]

All saws had these kinds of bars "back in the day" and then came roller nose bars and then came sprocket nose bars which most saws have nowadays. There still is an application for the hardnose bars (called that because they have stellite around the tip to reduce wear) such as cutting very dirty materials.

 

[dougand3]

Oh, I've seen the term hardnose, so now I've met one. Kinda shocked me, tho. I did think of drag because of low power saw to begin with. When this saw gets running, it'll wear 3/8 Lo Pro. Thanks, guys.