What is the all time best chainsaw

[FamilyTradition]

Homelite 750, Poulan 8500/5200.

 

[HavinFun]

And one saw to rule them all …

 

[Long Bar 60]

This might sound crazy but my pops Homeliite super xL and Mac 10/10 has cut a lot of wood. We thought we were the dogs back in the 70’s using them. They still run great.
I’ll have to say the Stihl 361/362 is about the best saw I’ve run for a while. The 500i is good but dang the prices on everything jeez.

When I was 18 years old (65 now) and just started logging one of the saws I used as a chaser on the landing was a Super XL. Very reliable and powerful enough for bumping knots. My next door neighbor still has one and it still runs great!

 

[chilipeppermaniac]

Man, you guys know it all don’t you? Promise you, there isn’t an oak up north that’ll touch a live oak for density. Never been in a red or white oak that was harder than pecan or walnut. Didn’t learn that on the internet either.

Don’t remember the names, but one was in the older side of Kalispell, which was one of the few Stihl/Echo joints where I bought my loops, and 2 Husqvarna shops, one near Columbia falls and the other at the main junction in Columbia Falls. I’d have to pull up maps to get the names. I received great service at all of them.

LuDookie, I have a buddy who is a Kalispell native and a tree man.

 

[Long Bar 60]

Thanks for the back on topic. But man, 23 Stihls of the same model. That’s a lot of experience. These diso’d in 88 right. Do you run any modern saws?

Sorry, missed this. Yes, a 661 with a regular carb and a 500i plus some 461's. I've had a lot of saws because I was a cutting contractor and had to produce about 250 western logging truck loads of logs every month. We burned around 50 gallons of saw gas and a 55 gallon drum of bar oil every month. Good times!

 

[FXJenkins]

I’ll have to say the Stihl 361/362 is about the best saw I’ve run for a while. The 500i is good but dang the prices on everything jeez.

 

[LuDookie]

LuDookie, I have a buddy who is a Kalispell native and a tree man.

We really liked living there. Kalispell was our town, even though we lived more towards Columbia Falls on the border of Whitefish. To me, not only their saw shops were cool, they had cool stores, period. I’d kill just to have a Murdoch’s here in Texas. We don’t even have cool stores like that. The one close to our house was no saw shop, but they always had at least 5 pro Stihls and 5 pro Husqy’s on the shelf. That’s more than you’ll see at a warehouse here. We were just getting good and started there when Covid hit, and in hindsight, I could have stayed, but everything was on the line, and I didn’t risk it.

 

[chilipeppermaniac]

We really liked living there. Kalispell was our town, even though we lived more towards Columbia Falls on the border of Whitefish. To me, not only their saw shops were cool, they had cool stores, period. I’d kill just to have a Murdoch’s here in Texas. We don’t even have cool stores like that. The one close to our house was no saw shop, but they always had at least 5 pro Stihls and 5 pro Husqy’s on the shelf. That’s more than you’ll see at a warehouse here. We were just getting good and started there when Covid hit, and in hindsight, I could have stayed, but everything was on the line, and I didn’t risk it.

LuDookie,

I am sorry you had to leave a place you were happy in. I had never heard of Kalispell until I got heavier into chainsaws. That is when I met my friend Donnie from there. A funny thing happened closer to home. My niece's dad moved to MT maybe 15 years ago. She went to visit him and go fishing a number of times, and when I asked where he was living, she said Kalispell with her grandmother. Pretty sure grandma has passed.

My friend Donnie tells me how the Kalispell of his youth and adulthood has really changed. Big money out of staters are buying up things, taxes and cost of living is skyrocketing with it, and probably the part that makes me saddest is how he says the cartels have gangs and drugs up there really bad. Some of his lifelong friends are mixed up in trafficking and consuming Meth etc and have to break other laws to do this crap.

Here he is 65+ years old with injury damaged feet, the aches and pains of still climbing, felling, milling, and even his own woodworking from the wood he harvests. He is a real inspiration to me at a mere 60. Now that both of my parents have passed and I will soon wrap up my dad's estate paperwork over the next 6-9 months, I am hoping to get my low back/ hips fixed so I can get my self busy building my shop and to finish remodeling 3 family homes and not be in agonizing pain while doing so.

 

[LuDookie]

LuDookie,

I am sorry you had to leave a place you were happy in. I had never heard of Kalispell until I got heavier into chainsaws. That is when I met my friend Donnie from there. A funny thing happened closer to home. My niece's dad moved to MT maybe 15 years ago. She went to visit him and go fishing a number of times, and when I asked where he was living, she said Kalispell with her grandmother. Pretty sure grandma has passed.

My friend Donnie tells me how the Kalispell of his youth and adulthood has really changed. Big money out of staters are buying up things, taxes and cost of living is skyrocketing with it, and probably the part that makes me saddest is how he says the cartels have gangs and drugs up there really bad. Some of his lifelong friends are mixed up in trafficking and consuming Meth etc and have to break other laws to do this crap.

Here he is 65+ years old with injury damaged feet, the aches and pains of still climbing, felling, milling, and even his own woodworking from the wood he harvests. He is a real inspiration to me at a mere 60. Now that both of my parents have passed and I will soon wrap up my dad's estate paperwork over the next 6-9 months, I am hoping to get my low back/ hips fixed so I can get my self busy building my shop and to finish remodeling 3 family homes and not be in agonizing pain while doing so.

Only living there a year and a half, I only really saw the beauty of it. I never ran in circles anywhere near drugs or any of that nonsense so it just looked like Middle-America with a nice view, to me. But on the fringe of things I did notice a little bit of methy-ness to some folks there. Just seems obscure to live in such a beautiful pocket of the planet and want to escape with drugs or whatever. Not for me to understand, maybe.

 

[can]

Stihl 201 with a rasor Sharp picco super chain and the 12’’ light weight bar.

 

[chipper1]

Stihl 201 with a rasor Sharp picco super chain and the 12’’ light weight bar.

Rear handle I'm guessing. I put a couple tanks thru mine since Friday, and it has its place, but my ms200 rear handle is quite the runner as well, and many like to think the ms200 T is one to judge all top handles by. Those all have their place, but wouldn't really be high on my list of all time best saws, especially since the 201 in its initial standard carb form had some major issues.

 

[MacAttack]

My personal favorite saw is the Mac 10-10 but the best all-around saw I've ever used a lot was the Husky 372XP.