Chainsaw Repair

Husqvarna - Stihl - Poulan - Jonsered - Dolmar chainsaws and more => Mystery Saws => Topic started by: brettl on April 11, 2014, 02:40:34 am

Title: Who's who in chainsaws?
Post by: brettl on April 11, 2014, 02:40:34 am
I'm just curious because I enjoy the history of our saw companies. Who all is part of the Husky/Poulan conglomerate? Add as much history as you do or don't want to on that one.

What about Echo? Are they part of it. By the way, Cut started an awesome Echo history post on the Echo thread.

Some companies I don't know much if anything about: Don't see companies like Solo and Efco in my neck of the woods. Not many Partner saws. What's their history? A buddy of mine had an Olympic saw, said it was a beast. That was 20 years ago. Have John Deer saws always been made by someone else? 

The Makita/Dolmar deal surprised me. Dolmar isn't big in Kansas but I thought their bread and butter were the loggers and suspected they were in other countries what Stihls are here. The Makita merger seems an obvious attempt to market to the masses. Makes perfect sense but it's a shame to see one of the original German saw makers merge.

Well, like I said I'm just curious. I like to keep up just because and there seem to have been a lot of mergers in the last decade or so. Thanks
Title: Re: Who's who in chainsaws?
Post by: RoyM on April 11, 2014, 10:09:51 am
Husky/Jonsered/Poulan/McCulloch/Redmax/Partner are under the Electrolux AB umbrella. Echo/Shindaiwa is Japanese and not part of the group. Solo (Germany) and Efco (Italy) are bit players  at least over here.
Dolmar was purchased by Makita from Sachs in the late 80's. The brand was recently spun off as a separate entity and is now a stand alone brand. Excellent product although a limited product range and factory support needs improvement. They really need a well stocked north American warehouse for the distributors to draw from.
John Deere saws have been made by Remington and Echo.
Title: Re: Who's who in chainsaws?
Post by: 660magnum on April 11, 2014, 10:22:18 am
John Deere were also made by Efco before they went with the Stihl name brand and became Stihl dealers in the USA..
Title: Re: Who's who in chainsaws?
Post by: HolmenTree on April 11, 2014, 11:01:28 am
I can't remember Efco but I did see the twin cylinder Echo CST-610 EVL wearing the John Deere colors.

Great little saw BTW, I demoed it in the mid '80's. My assumption was it wasn't destined to be a great pro production saw, but probably would make one of the best weekend firewooders out there.
Title: Re: Who's who in chainsaws?
Post by: brettl on April 11, 2014, 09:50:22 pm
RoyM, do you mean that the red Dolmar is no longer? Just in Makita blue now?

660, I had no idea Stihl had ever been connected with anyone else. How were Efco and John Deer a part of them? Cool information guys.
Title: Re: Who's who in chainsaws?
Post by: RoyM on April 11, 2014, 11:10:57 pm
Makita still has the blue saws, Dolmar has gone back to red. It's like the difference between Pontiac and Chev.
Efco was never connected to Stihl. They made some models under the J-D badge, now J-D dealers are selling Stihl who to their credit never re badged. The independent Stihl dealers are not happy, they need to supply top drawer service to keep the customers from going green. The farm  equipment dealers view saws as a necessary evil to keep customers in the store. Do they want to spend time selling a 250 dollar saw or a 250,000 dollar tractor?
Title: Re: Who's who in chainsaws?
Post by: brettl on April 13, 2014, 10:54:18 pm
I see your point. Even though we're in the Wheat State here, I can only recall one Stihl/JD dealer. It's in Kingman, KS, roughly 45 miles from the city here. The rest of the Stihl dealerships I've seen in Wichita and the surrounding area cater to cutting and landscaping equipment. No doubt this will be very different away from the "big city", I just haven't taken notice I guess. I'm glad you brought that up though. Here in the city you'd never guess there's a JD/Stihl connection.
Title: Re: Who's who in chainsaws?
Post by: Fish on April 14, 2014, 11:01:04 am
Of course their were a few J D saws that were Homelites, when Deere bought them out and they dropped Echo.
Title: Re: Who's who in chainsaws?
Post by: 660magnum on April 14, 2014, 11:07:08 am
I have a John Deere - Homelight weed whacker
Title: Re: Who's who in chainsaws?
Post by: brettl on April 14, 2014, 08:20:49 pm
So Echo and Homelite were one in the same for a while?
Title: Re: Who's who in chainsaws?
Post by: 660magnum on April 14, 2014, 08:49:27 pm
I don't think it was more than a couple years? Homelite had already quit making the good saws. mid 90's? Then Homelite went to Hong Kong.
Title: Re: Who's who in chainsaws?
Post by: RoyM on April 14, 2014, 10:06:58 pm
J-D bought Homelite from Textron. Drove it into the ground then dumped it when they got in trouble with C.A.R.B. over some unapproved product that got into California. Echo never was involved with Homelite.
Title: Re: Who's who in chainsaws?
Post by: KilliansRedLeo on April 15, 2014, 11:28:03 am
I don't know the timing but some Homelites were either re-badged Solo saws or the other way round. Example Solo 647 & 654 are the same as Homelite 290 & 340.
Title: Re: Who's who in chainsaws?
Post by: KilliansRedLeo on April 15, 2014, 11:34:52 am
Look here fro the Solo 654

http://chainsawrepair.createaforum.com/for-sale/time-to-clean-out-last-winter's-project-saws/msg38501/#msg38501

And here for the Homelite 340

http://www.acresinternet.com/cscc.nsf/ed1d619968136da688256af40002b8f7/213b208630f378cc88256c26001436f8?OpenDocument

It says there that the 340 was manufactured in Germany by Solo

Title: Re: Who's who in chainsaws?
Post by: 660magnum on April 15, 2014, 11:43:58 am
That's a nice looking chainsaw
Title: Re: Who's who in chainsaws?
Post by: KilliansRedLeo on April 15, 2014, 12:02:24 pm
According to Mike A's site the 340 came round in 1986. I have one as you saw, had TROUBLE getting parts for it from Solo but once I found a cross ref to the 340 part numbers parts were not a problem. The saw runs well just too hard for my wife to pull! So, she now has confiscated my brand new HVA 543XP, oh well at least she won't be complaining.
Title: Re: Who's who in chainsaws?
Post by: 660magnum on April 15, 2014, 12:12:04 pm
The main thing is that she's happy?
Title: Re: Who's who in chainsaws?
Post by: KilliansRedLeo on April 15, 2014, 01:50:40 pm
+1 on that! If Mama ain't happy then no body is happy!
Title: Re: Who's who in chainsaws?
Post by: snoozeys on October 31, 2014, 07:18:15 am
I didnt realise they were all interconnected at one time or another !!!
Title: Re: Who's who in chainsaws?
Post by: RoyM on October 31, 2014, 09:56:45 am
Solo also made the short lived Homey 47 and 54. If anyone comes across a Poulan 25 in Sachs-Dolmar clothing your eyes are not deceiving you, they were around in the late 70's. S-D built I believe the 5200 and 6000 for Poulan. We tried selling these to the loggers but they would not accept anything but Stihl or Husky.