New to me old saw

[backwoodsdave]

My newest, most modern bow saw so far, pro mac 700, starts good and runs like a top, heavy but saws like a champ.

[lxskllr]

Looks clean! How does the spur work on a bowsaw? I watched a video once, and it wasn't real clear what the function of the spur was.

[backwoodsdave]

Looks clean! How does the spur work on a bowsaw? I watched a video once, and it wasn't real clear what the function of the spur was.

The spurs or dogs as we call them here in the south keep the the chain pulling into the cut, without the dogs the bow would just climb up the log like sticking the tip of your bar to a log causing kickback, as you enter the cut the dogs slide down the log until it reaches the ground, then you just tilt the saw forward to finish the cut, minimal ground contact with the chain and less chance of a pinch with the thin bow blade than with a regular bar, these bow saws make bucking wood on the ground a more pleasant experience in my opinion, makes quick work of firewood or anywhere you'd have multiple cuts in wood on the ground, the photo shows the dogs sliding down the cut, you can see how the chain pulls the dogs tight against the wood as it cuts.

[Tom King]

When I was growing up, that was the only kind of "bar" I ever saw around here, and what I learned to use first.  People who had straight bars only used them for stumping a tree.  The bow was used for everything else. 

 It was a lot less work to buck small trees with a bow.  Guys who cut pulpwood, which was the largest wood business around here, since there was, and still is a large pulp mill down river a little ways, only had a bow saw, and didn't want anything else.

[Wood Shed]

First i have ever seen, if it works as good as you say for cutting logs on the ground, might be worth a try.  Thought that was an old John Deere saw at first glance, good looking anyway.

[backwoodsdave]

When I was growing up, that was the only kind of "bar" I ever saw around here, and what I learned to use first.  People who had straight bars only used them for stumping a tree.  The bow was used for everything else.

It was a lot less work to buck small trees with a bow.  Guys who cut pulpwood, which was the largest wood business around here, since there was, and still is a large pulp mill down river a little ways, only had a bow saw, and didn't want anything else.

Same here in my area, I learned to use a bow saw while working weekends and summer breaks from school working with the pulpwood haulers in my area, for a young man willing to get up early and go down to the local gas station where all the trucks filled up every morning there was always a days pay to be made by asking who needed some extra help that day.

[sawguy21]

I have seen them but not in use, they seem to have been popular in the southern U.S. but never caught on here. I understand they fell out of favor due to safety issues.

[backwoodsdave]

I have seen them but not in use, they seem to have been popular in the southern U.S. but never caught on here. I understand they fell out of favor due to safety issues.

I've always heard the insurance companies killed them off also, if you look at my saw you'll see no guards on the bow like the red saw in the other photo, the guards could keep your hand off the chain if you slipped or keep the chain off of your leg if you happened to let the saw get too close while walking or stepping over something, I actually have a scar from that, it only took once to remember where the chain was, also they were prone to a violent kickback if you got the top of the bow into a limb or something by accident, but in the several years I used one daily on the job I never really saw or heard of any serious accidents with them, no more than the log cutters with their straight bars.

[421Altered]

Back in the day in South Georgia, pulpwood/posts was cut to length in the woods, and hand loaded onto a pulpwood/post truck, then hauled to the mill.  The bow saw was the ticket for cutting it to length before you put in on the truck.  Then, when the mills changed to only taking full length pine trees for pulpwood, the bow saw was done for.  I remember those days well.  I never cut pulpwood/posts in the woods, but, I worked at a plant that bought pulpwood posts, either 6-1/2 foot long or 8 foot long and processed them into creosoted posts.  It was my job to pick up the pulpwood post , one at a time, and feed it into the debarker.  I was 19 years old, and about 120 pounds, made $1.25 an hour!  The work was so physical that at dinner time I ate 2 plates every day, and didn't gain a pound!  I used a bow saw for years, still have it, although I don't use it much anymore.  Also, I don't consider them any more dangerous than a regular bar.  All depends on what you get used to I guess.

[backwoodsdave]

Sure would be lots of bending and stooping over to cut a few loads of this a day with a straight bar saw.

[Old saw fixer]

A Homelite XL-12 with a bow was the ticket around here back in the day, Dad had one.  I used a Super XL with a 16" or 18' bar, I forget which.  We had a big older saw with a bow come in the shop once, the oiler had evidently quit and the owner had clamped a hand operated oiler to the top handle.  Also remember the pulp trucks loaded up with the bow saws hooked over the side posts. 

[backwoodsdave]

A Homelite XL-12 with a bow was the ticket around here back in the day, Dad had one.  I used a Super XL with a 16" or 18' bar, I forget which.  We had a big older saw with a bow come in the shop once, the oiler had evidently quit and the owner had clamped a hand operated oiler to the top handle.  Also remember the pulp trucks loaded up with the bow saws hooked over the side posts.

I'd like to find a good xl-12 bow saw to add to my collection, my uncle was a Homelite man and never ran anything else.

[sawguy21]

The only one I have seen was on a Poulan 306A in a dealer showroom.

[Real1shepherd]

Sure would be lots of bending and stooping over to cut a few loads of this a day with a straight bar saw.

Out west back in the day, the rule of thumb was that is your cut number of logs on a log truck exceeded 25-27, you weren't making any money. Some of us were lucky enough to have 1-3 log loads going to the mill, but that was short lived going into the late 70's and early 80's. On private property timber sale though, anything goes.

But of course in an area of smaller timber and often smaller log lengths, the industry and the workers adapt or die out.....

Kevin