Old Mac Guy
ArboristSite Operative
This chainsaw was made by the David Bradley company for the Stearns company of Hannibal, MO. DB also made the same saw badged as David Bradley, Grass Queen, and possibly other brand names.Who can tell me what kind of saw this is? Says Stearns Hannibal, MO. on it. Thoughts?? Year??
The Stearns company, like Sears, Montgomery Ward and many other hardware and catalog sales companies, did not make their own tools and power equipment, but bought them by large-lot purchase contracts from the actual manufacturers, painted in colors chosen by the buying company and with decals and stickers specially designed for the company selling them. In collector circles, these are known as "mules" or "re-badged" saws. It is a long-time practice, going back to the Reed-Prentice chainsaws of the 1930's-1940's, prevalent throughout the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's, and very much continued today, where saws branded Homelite, McCulloch, Poulan and many other brand names are actually manufactured in factories in Asia, Europe and elsewhere owned by large multinational corporations, and not by the original McCulloch, Homelite and Poulan manufacturing companies which originated the names and made them famous.
Your Stearns saw is one of only a few known to exist today badged in that name.