Brit101
ArboristSite Member
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.
Thank you in advance for your replies.
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.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;
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 and Stiga 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, 485 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)
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.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
I used to know people that were working in that plant, I used to live about 10 miles awaySawTroll 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.
Your obsevations are pretty close.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
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, .....
Here is the P 39.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.
See my initial post, it is explained there.....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!!
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 .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)
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 .
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.So where does the Partner R440100cc fit in to all this
Peter
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