The Old Giants

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Imagine you and your partner spent the better part of four hours putting a tree on the ground. The butt is the height of a city bus, the trunk stretches out somewhat short of a city block.
First you need to get yourself and 40+ pounds of chainsaw on top of it, ladders are not supplied. You could walk down and find a spot, the Catskinner might give you a boost or scale the butt-end. I would scrape the crap from between the calks, stick my Pulaski in about halfway up, hoist the saw bar up to the top edge, using the Pulaski handle with my left hand, give the saw a bit of throttle and pull myself up. It got tricky sometimes when resetting the Pulaski, but that is why the calks are cleaned. Once up there the work begins.
While I displayed talent and a certain amount of skill falling trees, I was a better bucker. I earned my spurs early on, in the the Bull Creek basin. there were big log and debris jams leftover from the Dec '64 flood. We were clearing such things because the Park system feared, rightfully so, a repeat of the disaster caused by debris dams. A great deal of the debris came from the Bull Creek drainage, a large fan shaped area and received 21 inches of warm rain in a couple days, that melted the snowpack, it was on. The basin was upstream from the famous Rockefeller Redwood Forest. Bull Creek had/has world class timber, in an area that was renowned for big timber. It was heavily logged in the '40s and 50s, mechanized logging at it's destructive best. Would have been something to see or do, that style of high production logging, very little environmental regard, the get in there and tear out the timber mind set. Anyway, the flood picked up a huge amount of big logs, stumps, etc, which got stuck at a narrow point by the cemetery and burst, sending all that crap, three miles downstream. When it got to the Redwood forest, in the park, Bull Creek makes a hard right turn, the debris jam got stuck again, several times, and cut the creek banks, undermining the old growth, toppling them into the creek. By the time the whole thing got through 6 miles of old growth forest, it had claimed many big trees. Most of which were washed into the South Fork of the Eel River, where they headed toward the Pacific, taking highway bridges out on the way by.
I seem to have wondered off.
This was a Forestry Project and like most of our projects was either prep or training for fires. I spent many months bucking big, well seasoned DF, Redwood and various hardwood logs, into 16" rounds, that we called "poker chips". As soon as I gnawed off a round, three people grappled with and beat into firewood, most of the Redwoods were split into usable products. I used a McCulloch 660, half inch chipper on a 48" solid tip bar. On a few occasions the 660 wasn't enough, we had bigger saws, but you had to pledge your soul to the ******* at the station's sawshop, in order to get one. We improvised, hung a 60" Cannon on the 660, went to 404 chisel bit and motored on. I also spent a winter converting Redwood logs into rails and posts for the Prairie Creek State Park.
 
0.84


http://www.acresinternet.com/cscc.n...6392690948380cc488256b6100178447?OpenDocument

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Not mine. Just taken from the net.
 
Randy, I have to imagine that given the choice, you preferred to use a 125, 797, 890 or 895 over a 940 when bucking back in the day? Or did the two man saw have advantages on big wood?
 
We used the 940s mainly at the splitting yard, dragging them out on the stream-beds didn't happen often. There were a pair of them, bought in 1972, they had 72" bars. They were not unpleasant to operate, but did require two men to move them from place to place. All told, I probably have only 40 hours run time with the 940.
 
CM76,
Thanks for sharing your great photos. Wish I had the shop space to work on 'em all. I've passed up some old saws because I do not have the room to keep them. So.. I use this forum to satisfy me desires and watch others that can. Thanks again.

Arrow13
 
Bring this thread back to the top with a pair of Pioneer 850 geardrives I just got. the one without bar
is currently locked up and soaking. The one with the bar is now a perfect runner with a full tune up.
Got a new coil, points, condenser, carb kit, fuel line and filters.

Lee










A nice looking pair of Pioneer gear drives Lee Congratulations mate

Chris
 
With the arrival of my freebie 075 this past week, I've entered a new area of saws that I know next-to nothing about - the over 100cc class of old saws. I hear all kinds of talk about the great power of the old saws - Homelite 1050, 2100, etc, McCulloch SP125, Dolmar 166, and such - but I've never run any of them (yet), save for my 075.

So, my question: I know the 075 is no screamer of an old saw, but I'm wondering - how do these old saws stack up with one another in terms of performance? How do they compare to an 075?

Side3_075_Stihl_07.jpg
I have a Montgomery Wards 820 (128cc) saw and it my not RPM like newer saws, but the torque has a definite advantage. You will find that your 075 has torque and great for bigger cross cutting trees and milling. Keep it tuned and you'll hav a saw you will enjoy using.
j-
 
This thread is one of the primary reasons I became a collector of chainsaws; I was fortunate enough to find an SP125 very early on. When I picked that one up I asked if he had any other saws available and added a 450 and a 1-71. Not long after that I won the 1-85 from Sawking off e-bay. I use the SP125 for harvesting firewood when it is appropriate, but I really love the sound the 1-85 makes. If you get in the right position on the muffler side, it literally pounds you in the chest.

Mac Pack3.JPG

DSC07493.JPG

1-85 Action 1.JPG

Later on, I also got an 840 from the same guy as the SP125, 450, & 1-71. It took some work to get the fuel tank cleaned up and patched but that saw is also a good runner and get pressed into service from time to time with a 48" hardnose bar.

DSC05490.JPG

DSCN0851.jpg

I was also very fortunate to find an SP118 (aka Dolmar 166) that I have used a few times for real.

DSCN0076.JPG

I also picked up this Wards 90 (Mono 84?) with the AH81 engine. It makes a lot more noise than chips but looks good up on the shelf.

Mono 84 Wards 90 1.jpg

Mark
 

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