HOW MANY CHAIN MANUFACTURES

chugbug · October 28, 2008, 12:19:06 AM

Iv'e been hunting for a real good replacement chain for my husky 346 xp and got to wondering how many or how few chain manufactures there really are or are there only a hand full making alot of different labels . So far I have only come up with --Stihl , oregon , and Carlton , from what I can tell Stihl is the only saw company that makes there own chain and oregon makes 90 % of the oem chain for the rest of the saw companys .

So far most are suggesting the oregon 20 LP chain or the stihl 23RSC over of the 95vp narrow kerf chain for the husky 346 XP NE with 16'' bar.

Any other chain manufactures out there ???

John Mc · October 28, 2008, 01:09:05 PM

I've used Total brand chains a couple of times. I'm not sure if they are just someone else's chain relabeled or not.

I will say that I was not at all impressed with the quality. Maybe I just got a bad batch, but the heat treating seemed rather inconsistent to me: when filing rakers, it seems as though there was always 1 or 2 rakers in every 3 or 4 chain loops that were so hard they would ruin my flat file before I made much of a dent in them. (And this was not just a surface condition... it kept on chewing up files for the life of the chain.)

Ed · October 28, 2008, 02:44:21 PM

Total is Carlton chain.
Blount (Oregon's parent company) recently bought out Carlton, I guess you could say that leaves 2 mfgr's.

Ed

Dave Shepard · October 28, 2008, 05:29:57 PM

I buy the Stihl chain. In my experience, it seems to hold up better then other chain I have used.

chugbug · October 29, 2008, 06:29:25 PM

Ed , very interesting about Carlton being bought out , sounds like Oregon bought out the competition !! That just leaves Oregon and Stihl :-\

I guess I'll try out the woodland pro 20NK , I have friends that just love it !!! Maybe they just like the price , will have to see how it holds up , if it doesn't I'll try the stihl RSC chain ! unless I can find a deal on the stihl chain somewhere .

Maybe I shouldn't skimp on the chain :-\

Dave Shepard · October 29, 2008, 07:32:13 PM

I haven't tried Bailey's Woodsman Pro, but I noticed that pre-made 20" loops are a bit cheaper than the Stihl chain I'm buying. I'm going to get a loop on my next order and see how I like it. I don't know if you can spin your own Stihl chain for that price.

Ed · October 30, 2008, 08:04:00 AM

The woodland pro chain is made by Carlton. Good stuff, no compalints.

I you buy Carlton branded chain it's sharpened at 35 degrees, Woodland is at 30 degrees like Stihl & Oregon.

Stihl chain is priced almost 2x higher (around me) than anything Baileys sells. I use either the Oregon or Woodland.

Ed

John Mc · October 30, 2008, 09:00:17 AM

I've often wondered if all of the relabeled chains really are identical to the "name brand" ones... especially in the case where the manufacturer may have more than one production facility.

I work for a steel wire company, and we basically make our stuff to customer spec (shape, tolerance, hardness or tensile strength, etc). There are a number of cases where a lot of the basic specs look the same, but the quality level (and price and difficulty of manufacturing) are VERY different. There are also cases where one customer has their own proprietary "tweaks" to the more generic specs that make subtle differences.

It makes me wonder if this is also true in the saw chain world. Are "Total" , "Woodland Pro" and "Carlton" chains identical (other than the sharpening angle someone noted)? They're all made by Carlton, but what exactly does that mean? I had some bad luck with Total, but have heard good things about Woodland Pro here. Enough so that I've ordered a couple of loops to try out.

John Mc

chugbug · October 31, 2008, 07:20:28 PM

John , You got a good point , might not be made to the same specs. !! Let us no how you like the woodland Pro , I have a loop of 20 Nk on the way !!!!

footer · November 30, 2008, 05:51:05 PM

I have used only Stihl chain for years, as I have never found anything else that was even close to as good as the Stihl chain. I have started using the woodland Pro from Baileys for the last couple years and I think it compares quite good to Stihl chain. It is also about 50% lower priced than the stihl chain that i get locally.