The big saws of the Pacific North West

[CM76]

Hi all,

After reading several books on the early days of logging the PNW - the most recent being in the mid 80's to the mid 90's, I am interested to hear about the saws that dominated the old growth logging in the early 60's up to the seventies. Saws such as the Stihl 090, Sachs Dolmar 166 and Mac 125 come to light very often ( and in the many previous threads such as 'The Old Giants' etc ) but I am keen to hear about the popularity of the big Homelite saws etc of the 60's etc to get a picture of what was popular and what wasn't - even for what reason ? I got hold of my first Homelite gear drive saw the other day (707G) so I am keen to find out more.

I love hearing about the old growth logging days and the great old saws that made it happen.

All replies are greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Chris.

 

[Freehand]

Here you go....

http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=4932

 

[GrantC]

I can't vouch for the rest of the PNW, but in the Oregon logging town in which I was raised in the mid-60s and on there was Mac, there was Homelite, and there was precious little else.

We had two saw shops in town to service the loggers; one was a Mac dealer, and the other handled Homelite. Each also handled some of the "off" brands; I remember the Homelite shop displayed signs for Pioneer (or maybe it was Partner - I don't remember now) and Jonsereds.

We had no Stihl dealers until the late '70s, and even then the loggers wouldn't trust them. They had a reputation for hard starting and easy flooding, and parts were scarce. (The local joke was that you didn't need spare parts for Stihl, because they wouldn't run long enough to wear any parts out!)

-=[ Grant ]=-

 

[artie__bc]

That's funny because I've always found the 090s start easier than the 125s. The saying here was the Macs would cut like everything if you could just get the thing to start!

 

[Jacob J.]

Pretty much the same thing here. There was a hardware store that was the central 'hub' of town and they sold Homelite, Pioneer (in the early days), and some of the smaller Mac saws. The old boy that owned it was a reformed stick wagon owner/operator who got out of the biz early on.

There was also a little country store up Little River road called 'Peel' Country store and the good old boy that had that would cut timber in the mornings and then run down and work the store in the afternoon and evening. He also sold chain and parts for Homelite and Mac and worked on saws in the back of the store. He also had the best price on White's caulk boots for hundreds of miles around and people flocked in from far away for that.

Stihl saws had a poor reputation around here in the 60's and early 70's and the popular saws were the Mac 125s and gear drives, Homie 990/2100/3100G and 1050 Supers, and all the big Pioneer saws (700, 750, 1771, 1850, and 800.)
The Stihl 090 started catching on here around '71-75 as carburetor and ignition components had been upgraded and the AV version was introduced. There was a lot of big federal timber being cut at the time and horsepower was the number one factor in selling saws. This was when the Mac kartsaws started selling well as timber cutters had been modifying the big Macs with kart blocks already for years.

 

[ckliff]

Here you go....

http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=4932

+1 I just read through the entire Art Martin thread over Thanksgiving. Was so glad to have finally run across it. I bumped it up & sent message to Mr. Martin hoping the thread might come back to life.

 

[brndn]

Amazing thread with Art Martin. I love looking at the 'good 'ole days'.

 

[thomas72]

Around here the best selling saw was Poulan back in the 60's and 70's. I think the Mcculloch sp125 and stihl 090 along with big homelites and pioneers are real good saws. They all will start easy and run strong. People around here say McCullochs and Poulans are hard to start, but those same people also run motor oil in their gas, use wire to hold housings together with a stick used as a starter handle.

 

[Tzed250]

.

.

 

[WesternSaw]

Strange

I had stumbled on to piece written on the old logging days in Prince George, B.C..i will try and round it up if i can remember where I saw it.Anyway the writers were interviewing a wood superintendent and he said if a logger showed up for a job and he had a Pioneer he would not hire him because of the Pioneer saws being unreliable.Sounds like bunk to me!Now to find that article!
Lawrence

 

[Jacob J.]

Lawrence- a bullbuck I worked for back in the early 90's would automatically deduct 10% from a faller's wages if they were running any saw that wasn't a Stihl. His reasoning was that Stihls were so reliable, cutters that ran them were far more productive than cutters that ran other brands.

Luckily at the time I had an 066 and an 044. I ran my 288 and 272 on the days he wasn't around. One time he did catch me when I had my Sachs 143 out on the strip in some bigger wood but he never said anything about that.

 

[Gologit]

When Stihl first showed up in the woods a lot of the guys refused to even consider them. A lot of those men were WW2 vets and a lot of them saw combat in Germany...hence an automatic distaste for anything from there.

They kept running their heavy-iron Homelite and Macs as long as they could but most of them eventually made the switch to Stihl. They wouldn't take any kidding about it, though.

LOL...I love the new saws, they're just better in every way...but wouldn't be nice if they could make a 660 sound like a Mac 125?

 

[WesternSaw]

Jacob and Gologit

Those post of your's were good to read!I guess my interests in the woods lies in the facts that one of my good friends Dad was a faller here in B.C. I have mentioned this before. I was quite young then and was fascinated by him always tinkering with his saw's.I can remember he kept a lot of his saws and stuff in two, heavy plastic mil constructed sheds.In there were his chains all hanging neatly on nails driven into the wood framing.He also had papers with his saw service records printed down.He was real old school,they saved everything to reuse again somehow.I can remember him being out of a truck for hauling his stuff to the log site and he had the back seat out of an old 4door Chevy ripped out for carrying his stuff.If I remember correctly all he ever had were Stihls,orange and white all over the place.He was not a big man but every inch was muscular.Sorry for the run on!
Lawrence

 

[pioneerguy600]

I had stumbled on to piece written on the old logging days in Prince George, B.C..i will try and round it up if i can remember where I saw it.Anyway the writers were interviewing a wood superintendent and he said if a logger showed up for a job and he had a Pioneer he would not hire him because of the Pioneer saws being unreliable.Sounds like bunk to me!Now to find that article!
Lawrence

Lawrence;I would call that bunk also as I spent a good part of my early days in the woods running Pioneers. They were the most reliable and the easiest to start chainsaws that were in operation around here. Even when the snow was 4-5 deep and the temp -20 F we had no trouble starting the Pioneers, the saws were not taken home or put indoors at night or when not in use on stormy days, they were chucked in under the brush pile and retrrieved when wew were ready to start felling again. More than once I could not find my saw after a snowstorm. The whole face of the cut would look different after 20-24" of fresh snowfall. Soon learned to take notice of the place I stored the saw as sometimes it would be 2-3 days before a storm blew completely through. Once we were cutting and it started snowing real heavy, by noon there was 12" down and no sign of stopping, we cut until dark as usual and by the time we walked out of the woods to the truck there was so much snow down that it was level with the engine bonnet. We were 5 miles from home and the truck was not going anywhere. We walked/waddled and slid all the way home, it took about an hour per mile and we arrived home at 10:15 pm, mom said your`e late for supper!
Pioneerguy600

 

[leeha]

I don't have any experience in the PNW. Most of what i know i have learned is here and else where. In my few years as a chainsaw collector i have seen all kinds of saws in various areas of this country and other countries. But it seems to me that the PNW was dominated by Mcculloch.
I have seen and bought many Mcculloch saws in California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Yes i have bought other brands as well, Homelite, Sachs Dolmar, Pioneer, Stihl, Canadien, As well as others. Here is a small example. Look at Saw King on Ebay, He sells tons of saws on Ebay and i would say the majority would be Mcculloch.
From the 797's, SP125's, and the 890's as well as others.
I very seldom come across Homelite's 2100, 3100 and the 900 series saws. Not saying there not there but just not as many as Mcculloch.


Lee

 

[Jacob J.]

Saw-King was a Mac dealer, that's why you see him with so much Mac stuff. He has a barn full.

 

[GrantC]

Pretty much the same thing here. There was a hardware store that was the central 'hub' of town and they sold Homelite, Pioneer (in the early days), and some of the smaller Mac saws. The old boy that owned it was a reformed stick wagon owner/operator who got out of the biz early on.

Whereabouts was this, Jacob?

-=[ Grant ]=-

 

[Wildman1024]

Saw-King was a Mac dealer, that's why you see him with so much Mac stuff. He has a barn full.

Is that why he has all these "Barn Finds"???? They are all from his own barn??? That's not fair then

 

[leeha]

Saw-King was a Mac dealer, that's why you see him with so much Mac stuff. He has a barn full.

That explains the Mac's that he has.
But i seem to see a lot more Mac's in other
areas also. Maybe it's just me.


Lee

 

[Jacob J.]

Whereabouts was this, Jacob?

-=[ Grant ]=-

Grant- this was in good old Glide, Oregon. Glide Hardware was what it was called in the late 70's and 80's when I was a kid there and they still sold Homelite, and Pioneer/Partner. By then though I only remember seeing the smaller saws. The big ones were sold in Roseburg at Hunt's (Husqvarna/Partner/Poulan), Hobi's (Stihl), and Capitol saw (Homelite/Husqvarna/Jonsereds.) I think it was called Homer's Hardware or something like that in the '50's and '60's.

That explains the Mac's that he has.
But i seem to see a lot more Mac's in other
areas also. Maybe it's just me.


Lee

Yeah SW Oregon and a lot of the coast was dominated by Mac. Even as late as '77 I remember there were Mac dealers on just about every corner. Most of the Mac dealers also carred Partner/Pioneer/Jonsered or Homelite. There were a few that carried Mac and Stihl. It's still pretty easy to walk into some old boy's garage/shop and see some big Macs in the corner. Homies too.