My first Stihl saws

I picked up a couple saws off of Craigslist. A 260 and 290. I finally found Stihl brand saws for a good price. I am excited to tear them down because I have yet to be inside a Stihl. They were complete but non runners. I haven't had them on the bench yet but I didn't see any major defects and hopefully will be runners pretty soon!
I still have a husky 350 + a mac top handle that need to be finished and gone before these get work done.

 

The 290 came with a 16" and the 260 came with that 18". I was going to switch the bars. I will run them for a little while and do a comparison or 2 with the other saws once they are running well. They might both go down the road because the resale prices on these saws are so high. MasterMech Are all 026,260, 261 handles composite? Why don't they use a metal handle on them?

 

Stihl, the best saw you can get!

 

love my 260 pro great power for a little saw..

 

I have run a 026 and a 261 but never a 260. It is very light and nimble. Feels very good in hand. It felt a little nose heavy with 18" bar. What size bar do you use on it?

 

16 and 18 stihl es bars niece worked at dealer got some good deals.. I do not know differences between 026 260 261 pro or non pro.. it was cheap and felt right... about 8 yo and cut hundred of trees ...

 

I am asking because this is the first pro saw I have seen with a plastic "wrap handle". I prefer the feel of the rubber if I am not wearing gloves.
I probably will keep the 260 if I like it. I just love 50cc saws for what I cut.

 

Can you take it off and apply some of the rubber dip they make for tools? I cannot remember what it is called, but it is used on tools for coating handled etc

 

I'm am not familiar with it. I did think about this stuff I put on my sons baseball bat, "lizard skin". It feels really nice. I would be interested in dipping some rubber tho.

 

Plastidip

 

Both my brother and I have a 026. They both have metal front handles, as do my 024, 034, and 036. Personally (not to start any fights), this is one of the reasons I prefer the "zero" series Stihls over the "MS" series (I might also mention something about flippy caps, but being new to this forum, I'll refrain from doing so ).

 

Give the plastic handle a shot. I think they did it for AV and weight.

 

I'm pretty sure my early 90's 026 has a plastic handle but it could have been changed.

 

I appreciate you chiming in. So they used to have metal handles? The caps will take some getting used to.

 

I found a pic of mine. It looks like a plastic handle

 

Yep. All mine look like that from above. The metal handles are painted black. There is a rubber/plastic sleeve that covers the majority of the handle.

 

metal