Problems with Canola as bar oil

Wesspur
Rugged made
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I understand the concerns but is it really that bad? There have been so many guys in the past that used nothing but the petro and I would imagine that their lifestyle contributed to their downfall long before the affects of any oil did. I want to help the environment as much as anyone but does this make that much difference? I think not. Pretty soon it will be Bio-everything so for now I will stick with the good ole petro.
 
From a milling standpoint, if it flows better than regular oil, then, more should come out, and my oilers are barely keeping up, I'll have to give it a go, if the bar starts getting that burnt look, then it's back to an auxiliary oiler setup.
 
Austin1 said:
That's what I thought years ago! give it a try. And I am a old school stick in the mud!Try it on a old beater first thats what I did
Click to expand...

I know... but I will stick with my overpriced, bad-for-the-enviro Stihl bar oil. Never had an oil related failure and I ain't changin' now.

All I can say is good luck to those that use the olive oil and crap... Florence Henderson thanks you.:popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

Gary
 
Austin1 said:
I have left canola oil out in -30c and it flows way better than regular winter bar oil! other veggie oil will freeze as low as 0c soya or corn oil freezes very fast or becomes a thick sludge
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So canola oil could possibly be a good winter oil to use? I ask because none of the stihl dealers around here stock the winter bar oil. So I let my saws run quite a while to warm up in damn cold weather before getting around to cutting.
 
Highclimber OR said:
I understand the concerns but is it really that bad? There have been so many guys in the past that used nothing but the petro and I would imagine that their lifestyle contributed to their downfall long before the affects of any oil did. I want to help the environment as much as anyone but does this make that much difference? I think not. Pretty soon it will be Bio-everything so for now I will stick with the good ole petro.
Click to expand...


GASoline71 said:
I know... but I will stick with my overpriced, bad-for-the-enviro Stihl bar oil. Never had an oil related failure and I ain't changin' now.

All I can say is good luck to those that use the olive oil and crap... Florence Henderson thanks you.:popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: Gary
Click to expand...

I hate to say it, and sorry to see that it's true, but it seems some ARE CHICKEN to try something new. :monkey:
 
for me its a love hate relationship with canola oil. ive tried canola oil, its fine, went thru a 5 liter jug of it (cost me $65 CDN+ taxes) in about 4 days of cutting firewood. Bar was hot, chain was hot, the cutters were always dry, and the roller tip needed constant greasing. I also did'nt like the smell of fryed cooking oil that much. But i did try it on several occasions. Washes out of the clothes just fine.

my mainstay is a 1 gallon x 4 (case) of of Lordco all season bar and chain oil (red stuff). I get a "bro" deal, works out to $15 CDN for 4 gallons, after 2 taxes. Chain runs cool, bar runs cool, bar is always clean, no sawdust sticks in the groove, bar or chainlinks, and the cutters and pins are always wet with bar oil. The roller tip stays clean, lubricated and never needs greasing every 20 minutes like i experienced with canola. The red Lordco bar oil washes out of the clothes just fine (there is this thing called "laundry detergent", perhaps you've heard of it?)

when its firewood season, i go thru about 5 gallons a week, sometimes more. Until i can find canola oil in the same quanitity and price as i can get Lordco chain& bar oil for, i dont really have a reason to switch ( i cant afford $65+ bucks a week in canola oil...) I can afford $15 a week.

Stihl Bio oil here is about $10 - 15 CDN a gallon, canola runs about $10 - 20 CDn a gallon, regular bar oil runs about $4 - 6 bucks a gallon.

Until i'm rich, i wont be going back to canola. Hate on me all you want for it, its my money not yours, unless your offering to buy me a pallet of canola oil, i'll stick with my Lordco bar and chain oil.

:deadhorse: :deadhorse:
 
SRT-Tech said:
for me its a love hate relationship with canola oil. ive tried canola oil, its fine, went thru a 5 liter jug of it (cost me $65 CDN+ taxes) in about 4 days of cutting firewood. Bar was hot, chain was hot, the cutters were always dry, and the roller tip needed constant greasing. I also did'nt like the smell of fryed cooking oil that much. But i did try it on several occasions. Washes out of the clothes just fine.

my mainstay is a 1 gallon x 4 (case) of of Lordco all season bar and chain oil (red stuff). I get a "bro" deal, works out to $15 CDN for 4 gallons, after 2 taxes. Chain runs cool, bar runs cool, bar is always clean, no sawdust sticks in the groove, bar or chainlinks, and the cutters and pins are always wet with bar oil. The roller tip stays clean, lubricated and never needs greasing every 20 minutes like i experienced with canola. The red Lordco bar oil washes out of the clothes just fine (there is this thing called "laundry detergent", perhaps you've heard of it?)

when its firewood season, i go thru about 5 gallons a week, sometimes more. Until i can find canola oil in the same quanitity and price as i can get Lordco chain& bar oil for, i dont really have a reason to switch ( i cant afford $65+ bucks a week in canola oil...) I can afford $15 a week.

Stihl Bio oil here is about $10 - 15 CDN a gallon, canola runs about $10 - 20 CDn a gallon, regular bar oil runs about $4 - 6 bucks a gallon.

Until i'm rich, i wont be going back to canola. Hate on me all you want for it, its my money not yours, unless your offering to buy me a pallet of canola oil, i'll stick with my Lordco bar and chain oil.
Click to expand...


Not hating on anyone, at least you tried it! Actually, hearing your experiences like this is what this thread is all about.

In my area I get the canola oil for $5 a gallon, and the best bar oil price I have seen is about $8 per gallon, so I am actually saving money, though that is not the prime reason I'm using it. So I guess it depends on your region.

As for the trouble you have had with hot dry bar and sticking sawdust, that has not been my experience, but important for everyone to hear nonetheless. I hope more people will give veggie a try, maybe first in a beater saw, and post individual results, as you have.
 
something to consider too....where i cut a lot, there is about a 4 foot deep compacted bed of sawdust on the ground. It gets picked up weekly and used as fuel for a industrial burner. I'm really not worried about my bar oil impacting the earth, its getting burned and the emmissions are superheated and scrubbed thru catalytic converters.


I always use canola when near a pond or stream though, so perhaps i can be forgiven for that? what say ya'll?

as for canola pricing....its funny....seems to be as volitale as gas pricing....:laugh:
 
Highclimber OR said:
I understand the concerns but is it really that bad? There have been so many guys in the past that used nothing but the petro and I would imagine that their lifestyle contributed to their downfall long before the affects of any oil did. I want to help the environment as much as anyone but does this make that much difference? I think not. Pretty soon it will be Bio-everything so for now I will stick with the good ole petro.
Click to expand...


Umm......we're talking about environmental friendliness. If health effects were the cause for making the switch, we ALL should have switched a long time ago. Look at the incidence of lung & skin cancers among airline & car mechanics as a result of both the skin & respiratory exposure to benzene, MTBE, as well as the "natural" carcinogens present in any and ALL petroleum products, as well as its exhaust. I'm no perfect angel; I wear an organic respirator when milling, but not when I'm bucking logs. as far as everything being bio-friendly, thank god; we should have some trees to cut & mill left.
As far as the gumminess argument; all you gotta do is run a tank of regular oil through the saw before you put it up for the season.

SRT-Tech said:
for me its a love hate relationship with canola oil. ive tried canola oil, its fine, went thru a 5 liter jug of it (cost me $65 CDN+ taxes) in about 4 days of cutting firewood. Bar was hot, chain was hot, the cutters were always dry, and the roller tip needed constant greasing. I also did'nt like the smell of fryed cooking oil that much. But i did try it on several occasions. Washes out of the clothes just fine.

my mainstay is a 1 gallon x 4 (case) of of Lordco all season bar and chain oil (red stuff). I get a "bro" deal, works out to $15 CDN for 4 gallons, after 2 taxes. Chain runs cool, bar runs cool, bar is always clean, no sawdust sticks in the groove, bar or chainlinks, and the cutters and pins are always wet with bar oil. The roller tip stays clean, lubricated and never needs greasing every 20 minutes like i experienced with canola. The red Lordco bar oil washes out of the clothes just fine (there is this thing called "laundry detergent", perhaps you've heard of it?)

when its firewood season, i go thru about 5 gallons a week, sometimes more. Until i can find canola oil in the same quanitity and price as i can get Lordco chain& bar oil for, i dont really have a reason to switch ( i cant afford $65+ bucks a week in canola oil...) I can afford $15 a week.

Stihl Bio oil here is about $10 - 15 CDN a gallon, canola runs about $10 - 20 CDn a gallon, regular bar oil runs about $4 - 6 bucks a gallon.

Until i'm rich, i wont be going back to canola. Hate on me all you want for it, its my money not yours, unless your offering to buy me a pallet of canola oil, i'll stick with my Lordco bar and chain oil.

:deadhorse: :deadhorse:
Click to expand...

Dude, this may be beating a dead horse, but are you using some kind of fancy cooking oil? You paid $65/5L? ROFL!!!!!! No wonder you're bitter and won't switch. No offense man. Sheesh. Here, the very cheapest that a gallon, not quart of bar oil goes for, is $6 a gallon for the cheap off-brand stuff. Redmax, husky, or stihl is $7-9/gal. I got the cheapest canola I could; I don't need it to have a flash point 10deg. higher than the next best or have superior taste. It all smells better than petro.
 
aquan8tor said:
Umm......we're talking about environmental friendliness. If health effects were the cause for making the switch, we ALL should have switched a long time ago. Look at the incidence of lung & skin cancers among airline & car mechanics as a result of both the skin & respiratory exposure to benzene, MTBE, as well as the "natural" carcinogens present in any and ALL petroleum products, as well as its exhaust. I'm no perfect angel; I wear an organic respirator when milling, but not when I'm bucking logs. as far as everything being bio-friendly, thank god; we should have some trees to cut & mill left.
As far as the gumminess argument; all you gotta do is run a tank of regular oil through the saw before you put it up for the season.



Dude, this may be beating a dead horse, but are you using some kind of fancy cooking oil? You paid $65/5L? ROFL!!!!!! No wonder you're bitter and won't switch. No offense man. Sheesh. Here, the very cheapest that a gallon, not quart of bar oil goes for, is $6 a gallon for the cheap off-brand stuff. Redmax, husky, or stihl is $7-9/gal. I got the cheapest canola I could; I don't need it to have a flash point 10deg. higher than the next best or have superior taste. It all smells better than petro.
Click to expand...
I pay about 16$ canadian for strait 100% canola oil and that is a 16litre pail a buck a litre sometimes I can get it at the Superstore for 15.00$ for a 16 litre pail. 3.78 litre to a american galon.
 
So what is the real bottom line?

Environmental concerns? As it is not cost, convenience is out the window if you cant keep it in a saw, componentware if I may say, is questionable?

Doing just a little research, I honestly do not see the environmental benefits that constantly get brought up?

Regular bar oil will brake down as fast as veggie oil, if not faster.

Sunlight and bacteria brake oil down into harmless compounds.

Dispersing , evaporation and bio-degradation happen faster on water.

When nature takes it course on regular bar oil, it leaves behind carbon dioxide and fatty acids, things necessary for all life forms.

If one qt of bar oil is used to cut a 100' tree into blocks for firewood, or 80 cuts. if that oil is spread out 8' wide by the trees 100', or 800 square feet, that oil would be spread so thin that it would pass a test with a white glove.

Whitetail deer seem to have the best noses in nature, and they don't even seem to notice areas that have been freshly coated with this nasty bar oil?

I guess I'm just not buying into the environmental concern.

Winning a bid last fall to cut a track for the placement of a propane tank and the trencher for a gas line, from a seemingly environmentally friendly couple, I added a check box if they would like me to use "bio-bar oil" and I would simply add $20 buck to the quote,,,,, they denied the extra 20 bucks!

Edit, web link: http://www.ocean.udel.edu/oilspill/cleanup.html
 
Last edited:
Environmently Friendly

I'm going to use the carbon credits those using veggie based oil are not using, and continue using regular bar oil. (a little technique I learned from watching Al Gore!!)
This way I don't have to make any changes or spend more money, but still operate environmentally friendly.
 

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