Differences in bars???

I don't like laminated bars. Anyone that does a lot of felling, especially with bore cutting that will blow noses out in no time. Laminate bars will also pinch a lot easier.

The quality of steel in bars in what makes some more expensive than others. Oregon bars, whether branded by Husqvarna or dolmar or poulan whatever are softer steel than stihl ES, Tsumara bars, old Windsor sandvik bars, etc. I've never ran a sugi.

Some of the best wearing bars are old new old stock Windsor sandvick bars. Before I picked up a pile of them I ran nothing but total super bars (tsumara). For years they were one of the best kept secrets in the bar world. now they are still great bars, but they aren't the great value they used to be.

Oregon bars are ok bars if you don't mind filing the burs and flipping the bar every other tank of fuel. the rails spread just by looking at them. Windsor bars are now owned by Oregon and are softer steel than they used to be. Stihl ES and Tsumara bars seem to last forever before they develop a burr.

As Mike said, you put a bar on a milling saw, you'll see very fast what bars cut the mustard and which ones wont.

Bore cutting puts excess stress on the tip. I've never had good luck with Oregon tips lasting.

bars with rails that are too hard will chip instead of creating a burr

 

I've heard that, but I just couldn't bring myself to desecrate my Dolkita with Stihl parts!!

 

Why,not? It's the cool thing to do! Haha

 

I have a noob question myself on bar differences... Are some bars, like Stihl or other high end ones, "straighter" than others? The 28" husky bar I picked up for the 385 seems to have a bit of a "bowed" profile - Oregon bars appear to have the same shape as well.

The bow showed up in the notch I cut in the ash stump from this weekend. Took a bit of "touching up" at the corners before I was satisfied. Wondered if another type of bar might make a straighter cut?

 

The oregon light weight are the same weight as the stihl. Just a little more flimsy.

 

kinda like a fillet knife

 

I'm curious how many users of replaceable-tip bars have actually replaced a tip. How practical / economic is that likely to be, for a firewood cutter? The replaceable-tip bar is more expensive to begin with, and then you have to either buy one or more spare tips just to keep in a drawer in case you need them someday, or worry that the design might change and the tips be NLA by the time one is needed. Then when the time comes you probably find yourself wondering whether it's worth putting a new tip on a worn bar, so you start looking at a bar rail closer and watching YouTube videos about how to use it, at which point I'd expect most people to say, 'ah, screw it' and push the Buy It Now button on a whole new bar.

For some reason I'm currently obsessing over the notion that this oddball would be the perfect bar for my MS044 mongrel, but the replaceable tip is not the reason. I'd probably have rationalized it by now if I didn't already have a 24" Total Super hanging in the garage.

 

I doubt that's the result of the bar being bowed to one side or the other. More likely the chain is sharper on one side, or the bar rails have worn unevenly so that the chain leans to one side.

 

I've been running saws since 1977, firewood mostly but some logging, a lot of TSI, thinning, etc. I have never replaced a sprocket tip. I also got 9 years out of a laminated Husky bar... But we all seem to want the best bars, or best lookin bars...

 

Is there such a thing as a solid (non-laminated) bar with a sprocket tip? Or is the difficulty in making such a thing the whole reason for making the tip a separate assembly, with the replaceability just a side-effect?

 

I guess I'm having trouble explaining what I mean. The Husky bar is just slightly "oval" in shape. Its fatter in the middle than the ends. I wish it was more of a rounded rectangle - straighter along the length of it. Are others less oval?

 

I've found I wear the rails on Stihl 20" ES bars before the tip needs replaced. Probably because I seldom bore cut.

I seriously doubt most firewooders benefit from buying anything but budget bars. Forester etc seem to work fine and hold up at least as well as Oregon OEM stuff at a fraction of the price.

When it comes time to sell a nice late model pro saw, a cheapo bar may come back to haunt you.

 

About the same as stihl. $130 or so.

 

That belly makes the chain stay on better when making felling cuts. That used to be a more normal profile for bars. Cannon still does it in the longer bars.

 

I've never seen a solid bar with non-replaceable tip. I think it takes the laminated construction to get the sprocket & components in there?

 

The curve also allows you to subtly control what point along the edge is cutting / furthest ahead with slight changes in the position of the powerhead.

 

How often do you flip your bar between sharpenings when milling?

 

Depending on what I'm cutting and how long of a cut I can touch up after every cut. I won't even think of pulling it off and flipping it when I'm out milling.