# Partner Chainsaws...Anyone Know Their History?



## Brit101 (Mar 20, 2006)

What is the story of Partner saws? Used to hear their name, now you hear very little of them, anyone know what happened to them?

Thank you in advance for your replies.


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## SawTroll (Mar 20, 2006)

I certainly am no expert, but I have picked up some info here and there.

Based on the info I have, I think the story is about like this; 

Partner started making saws in about 1955, and as far as I know they were independent until 1979. They made mostly Pro saws in that period, but some Semi-Pro versions were made.

About the same was the case with Jonsereds, from 1954 until 1979, and Husqvarna from 1959, until 1978 (or a bit earlier).

E-lux first took over H, then J and P, and they also started taking over several less reputed chainsaw manufacturers like (but not restricted to) Pioneer (about 1980 ?), McCulloch Europe, and Poulan (1987) - and entering the "Homeowner" market. Soon products from the less reputed manufacturers started appearing in the model line-ups of the Swedish trio.
The Emab pruducts (mostly 34/35 cc homeovner saws) made at Huron Park, Canada and sold under a lot of different trademarks, among them Partner, Husky, Jred, Skil, Frontier, Poulan, Jo-Bu, Norlett, Campbell Housefield and were also a part of this, but that project started a bit earlier in the 1970s to my knowledge.

About Partner, the first major thing to happen was that they were merged with Pioneer in North America (but not in Europe). The Pioneer/Partner labelled saw were really either pure Pioneer or pure Partner designs anyway, and easy to distinguish from each other even though they had the same label. 
In Europe, the Partner designed saws were still sold as Partner, no mention of Pioneer, and no models of Pioneer origin.
When E-lux took over Poulan, they created the Poulan Pro trademark on the remnants of Pioneer/Partner. The connection to Partner/Europe was still there, and many models were the same initially (remember, E-lux ruled). Regular Poulans also entered the Partner line, and a few even entered the H and J line-ups.

After Poulan Pro was established, I don't think many saws were sold in North America as Partner.
In Europe they carried on, but most of the Pro/Semi-Pro models disappeared during the late 1980s. 
The P7700, 660 and 710 carried on a bit longer (the 710 until about 2000), and variants of those were also sold as Poulan Pro 415/425, 445, 475 and 505 - and the Jred 2077, 2083 and 2083 II. I suspect most of these saws were made at the Jonsered factory (the -s at the end disappeared in about 1985), but I am not 100% positive of this. 

The Partner innovation which has the biggest impact today is the "Air Injection"/"Turbo", introduced on the P7700 in about 1984. 

Today, all Partner saws are "homeowner" types of different quality.  
The cheapest ones are made by Poulan, and the better ones by Poulan Pro and at the old Italian McCulloch factory. I think that the Italian made saws are still more or less related to the P500 from the 1980s.

Of course there are omissions in this story, and there may even be mistakes.
:hmm3grin2orange: :hmm3grin2orange: :greenchainsaw: (cool smilies)


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## Bad E (Mar 20, 2006)

SawTroll said:


> I certainly am no expert, but I have picked up some info here and there.
> 
> Based on the info I have, I think the story is about like this;
> 
> ...


I have a Pioneer/Partner P39 made in Canada. While heavy and slow by todays standards it is as reliable and solid as anyone could ever ask of any machine.


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## West Texas (Mar 20, 2006)

I've been working on a Partner F 55, do you have an info on what it may be??? Its a pretty heavy saw and seems to be about the same power as a Sthil 260??? Tom


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## HiOctane (Mar 20, 2006)

West Texas said:


> I've been working on a Partner F 55, do you have an info on what it may be??? Its a pretty heavy saw and seems to be about the same power as a Sthil 260??? Tom


F 55 was an excellent saw,reliable,easy to work on.She was prone to vaporlock tho,but at less extent than the previous model R 16 lets say.


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## PWB (Mar 20, 2006)

SawTroll said:


> The Emab pruducts (mostly 34/35 cc homeovner saws) made at Huron Park, Canada and sold under a lot of different trademarks, among them Partner, Husky, Jred, Skil, Frontier, Poulan and Stiga were also a part of this, but that project started a bit earlier in the 1970s to my knowledge.


I used to know people that were working in that plant, I used to live about 10 miles away
FYI this plant was assembly only, at least when I knew about it. Huron Park is (was) an old training air base left over from WW2 training, along with Clinton, goderich, and others in the area. Now an industrial park beside the town of Centralia if anyone's interested. Probably used an old hanger, most businesses up there did.

Also was a pioneer/partner plant around peterborough for a while I think.


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## woodfarmer (Mar 20, 2006)

*pioneer*

pioneer was owned by omc (outboard marine corp.) also made evinrude and johnson outboards, lawnboy lawnmowers etc. in peterborough i believe. pioneer and mcculloch in the usa, were two of the best chainsaw you could by up until the 80's, i see a lot more pioneers of that age going strong today than any other brand including stihl.


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## SawTroll (Mar 21, 2006)

West Texas said:


> I've been working on a Partner F 55, do you have an info on what it may be??? Its a pretty heavy saw and seems to be about the same power as a Sthil 260??? Tom


Your obsevations are pretty close.

Here is some info on the F 55.

The F 55A is the same saw with AV handle system.

They were among the semi-pro variants I mentioned in my original response.


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## SawTroll (Mar 21, 2006)

PWB said:


> ... FYI this plant was assembly only, at least when I knew about it. Huron Park is (was) an old training air base left over from WW2 training, .....



Thank you for the info.
By the way, I have one of the resulting saws - a Jred 365 made in 1984.
Light and handy, but total POS imo......



Bad E said:


> I have a Pioneer/Partner P39 made in Canada. While heavy and slow by todays standards it is as reliable and solid as anyone could ever ask of any machine.


Here is the P 39. 
It is a typical Pioneer - read valve, and _very_ heavy for its engine size.

:angel: ...and just a suggestion that goes for others as well as you;
It is not necessary to quote every piece of the post that you are responding to - it takes up a lot of space, without doing any good....


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## SawTroll (Jun 15, 2006)

SawTroll said:


> .... Partner started making saws in about 1955, ....


I have later found out that it really started in 1949, with the Be-Bo saw.

The 1955 saw (C6) was the second model, and _Partner_ didn't become the _company_ name before in 1963....


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## pinus (Jun 15, 2006)

What I heard-seen here the Partner was more widely spreaded here about 20-30 years ago than Husq. Stihls were droped out because they not survived with our gasoline and oil here at these times.


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## havvey (Jun 15, 2006)

*partner*

my understanding is pioneer partner merged. then in the end the were discontinued as elux had so many brands. Personaly i would have canned   poulan!!


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## SawTroll (Jun 15, 2006)

havvey said:


> my understanding is pioneer partner merged. then in the end the were discontinued as elux had so many brands. Personaly i would have canned   poulan!!


See my initial post, it is explained there.....


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## retoocs555 (Jun 15, 2006)

The first posts on this thread, as well as the thread about the partner 7700 which is linked to above, and here: http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=19401&highlight=partner

Are WELL worth the read.


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## MOE (Jun 15, 2006)

Partner also made a ton of circular cut off saws as well. We have a number on the fire department I work for. Some of our trucks carry stihl brand but they're still called the partner saw. I have a P-85, it's a boxy looking thing but it has a ton of power and handles pretty nice.


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## buck futter (Jun 15, 2006)

I think there was a mistake partner was on the cutting edge i wonder where we would be it husky jred and partner where all still separate companies vying for the sale. we might have a different class of saw if the competition was fierce.

Buck


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## ray benson (Sep 27, 2016)

SawTroll said:


> I certainly am no expert, but I have picked up some info here and there.
> 
> Based on the info I have, I think the story is about like this;
> 
> ...


Good post Niko, was just researching some old ipls and trying to figure out the pioneer/partner and pioneer saws to put them in folders .


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## SawTroll (Sep 27, 2016)

ray benson said:


> Good post Niko, was just researching some old ipls and trying to figure out the pioneer/partner and pioneer saws to put them in folders .




Thanks - but there are several mistakes there, some quite importrant ones (for those who care about chainsaw history) - I have learned a lot during the last decade, also about Partner and the story of the E-lux brands in general.

I remember that I was "encouraged" to do that write-up on the Partner story as I knew it by then - it wasn't something I did on my own initiative.

The most important mistakes are related to the P7700 family of saws, and the origin of the "Air Injection".

First, the P7700 didn't come in 1984, it came much closer to 1990 - and it didn't have the fully developed "Air Injection" before the 1992 "model year". Also, all saws in that "family" were made at the Husky factory, not the Jonsered or Partner one - despite there weren't any Husky versions (all Swedish made saws for all E-lux brands had been made at the Husky factory since some time in 1987). Actually, no chainsaws had been made at the Jonsereds factory since 1979, when saw production was moved to the Partner factory.

The P500/P5000 based models (Partner and Poulan Pro) also were made at that factory from 1987, not in Italy. Several Partner models have been made at that Italian factory, some that few of us ever heard of - but not those.

The origin of the "Air Injection" becomes less clear the more you know about it, and it is a myth that it was invented by Partner.

What _is_ clear is that the first saw model that had the fully developed version (with the duct) was the Jonsered 2051 Turbo (the Jonsered name for the feature) in 1987, and the next was the 262xp in 1989. "Induction trough the fan" (without the "duct") allegedly first was used on Pioneer and Remington saws in the 1960s, and it allegedly had been used for other applications several decades before that. Needless to say, there were no patents involved when it was "rediscovered" and developed in the late 1980s/early 1990s. An interesting theory is that it may have entered the E-lux system via Pioneer/Partner - but that's just a somewhat far-fetched theory....


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## peter92 (Jul 13, 2019)

So where does the Partner R440100cc fit in to all this 
Peter


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## Huskvarna hotellgäst (Jul 13, 2019)

peter92 said:


> So where does the Partner R440100cc fit in to all this
> Peter


I'm no expert on Partner pre 1983 but the R440 & R440T (with electronic ignition) are products of the pure Partner era, prior to aquisition by Electrolux.
http://www.acresinternet.com/cscc.n...15886ec7e436814688256c490065b89d?OpenDocument


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## peter92 (Jul 13, 2019)

Huskvarna hotellgäst said:


> I'm no expert on Partner pre 1983 but the R440 & R440T (with electronic ignition) are products of the pure Partner era, prior to aquisition by Electrolux.
> 15886ec7e436814688256c490065b89d?OpenDocument


looks like a husky too, that DOC doesnt open or work


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## Huskvarna hotellgäst (Jul 13, 2019)

peter92 said:


> that DOC doesnt open or work


Try it now


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## peter92 (Jul 13, 2019)

Huskvarna hotellgäst said:


> I'm no expert on Partner pre 1983 but the R440 & R440T (with electronic ignition) are products of the pure Partner era, prior to aquisition by Electrolux.
> http://www.acresinternet.com/cscc.n...15886ec7e436814688256c490065b89d?OpenDocument


works now thank you 
Peter


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## Huskvarna hotellgäst (Jul 13, 2019)

peter92 said:


> looks like a husky too


Are you sure you're talking about an R440?
I wouldn't have said it looks like a a Husky. Aparr from everything else the old Partners are probably unique in having the fuel and oil caps on the clutch side.


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## peter92 (Jul 13, 2019)

Huskvarna hotellgäst said:


> Are you sure you're talking about an R440?
> I wouldn't have said it looks like a a Husky. Aparr from everything else the old Partners are probably unique in having the fuel and oil caps on the clutch side.


well im half blind haha


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## Huskvarna hotellgäst (Jul 13, 2019)

peter92 said:


> well im half blind haha


You were looking at it in a mirror


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## SawTroll (Jul 16, 2019)

Huskvarna hotellgäst said:


> Are you sure you're talking about an R440?
> I wouldn't have said it looks like a a Husky. Aparr from everything else the old Partners are probably unique in having the fuel and oil caps on the clutch side.



I agree, it does NOT look like any Husky that I know of.


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