Indian Chain Saw

[Al_Smith]

The AH 47 engine was to chainsaws early on about like Briggs engines to lawn mowers .I think they might put out 4 HP if that .I think I have two of them, one on an old Lombard and another on a David Bradley 360 .Slow as an old snail .
In the early days of two cycle go karts these were an "entry level " engine .They made hop up kits for them and they ran in a special class for themselves and Clinton engines .As for the early karts McCulloch pretty much dominated the field for years .  

[Real1shepherd]

They were forced to abandon the two man, the saws were too dangerous and too cumbersome in the west coast forests where they were designed to be used. Saws were resisted period. The loggers didn't like the noise, they were temperamental beasts needing constant fiddling to keep them running and many were afraid the newfangled machines would put them out of work.

That's a good point.....

The loggers loved the two-man saws because against the hand crosscut saws, they could do many times the scale in a work day. But there was a reason the handle end of the two-man was called the "idiot end". The "idiot' was the one forced to risk his life just holding that part of the beast.

Even though I missed out on a constant diet of OG Doug Fir, I did get to take many a giant....and even used springboards on the biggest along with Silvey tree jack packs. Ten yrs earlier into the trade and I would have had all the giants I wanted everyday.

I think the best time to be a PNW logger would have been to start in the late 60's with direct drive saws and go through all the saw iterations up into the 80's...then retire and do something else...lol. Those gear drive saws before that were beasts of weight and effort.

Kevin