In days of old when woodcutters were bold

[Bogieman]

Dropped by to see a friend earlier today and found him tinkering with this impressive old Danarm.

 

Direct coupled, no anti-vibration mountings, no chain brake mechanism and, judging by the bark, no baffles in the exhaust either!

It belonged to his wife's uncle and has been laying below the bench for a lot of years, but after a bit of fettling it fired up and performed according to specification.

 

Any suggestions as to its vintage?

[Conor Wright]

Fifties? At a guess.
Any idea of the model? Might help narrow it down.
I'm no expert on old saws.. or new ones either!
Could be the start of a vintage/classic saws thread!

[eggsarascal]

Ask @Stubby, he was probably using one after he'd taken jesus' dog out for its morning walk.

[spudulike]

Try this, always a good read - http://www.acresinternet.com/cscc.nsf/GasbyManufacturer?OpenView&Start=30&Count=30&Expand=31#31

Danarm seem to have manufactured all over the place, this link is the UK section. Always good seeing something older than you spinning up and cutting like a good un.

[Ratman]

Try this, always a good read - http://www.acresinternet.com/cscc.nsf/GasbyManufacturer?OpenView&Start=30&Count=30&Expand=31#31
Danarm seem to have manufactured all over the place, this link is the UK section. Always good seeing something older than you spinning up and cutting like a good un.

Oh fuck Spud [emoji33] theres a “Mark 2” in that link..... please no!!!

[Bogieman]

Good link, Spud. I reckon it's a DD.8F, but whether a Mk II or III I'm not sure. That puts it between 1957 and 1970.

Were they really still making that beast in 1970?

Either way, still a lot younger than me!

[outinthewood]

A lot happened earlish- mid 80's to give us saws we see "now" chainbrakes and AV were new and indeed "extras" , Stihl's first chainbrakes were a very clever system which disengaged the clutch which on the 032 was ok but on the 048 gave some dramatic crankcase destroying moments which gave Stihl a great problem in the US market with a lack of faith in the range leading to the now common brake band on the clutch drum. Remember the "Swedomatic" brake on the 80's Husqvarnas ? you could adjust the level of reaction of the brake which is why you see the ex army 281's with retro fit non adjustable brakes as we see as standard today.

So yes saws were like that in the 70's and early 80's.

Danarm produced some saws under agreement from Canadian , think this is one, and fairly sure one from Mac C the 10-10 I think ?

I had a very nice 125cc Dan and it was the loudest saw I've ever had !  

Just had a look at the pics again and I'm wondering on the Canadian link on this one ? I'm sure someone will come along and put me right.

Edited March 3, 2019 by outinthewood

[Big J]

12:1 fuel to oil mix. I don't fancy breathing in the fumes from that!

 

It's remarkable how far saws have some, though it's amusing working with a bunch of cutters with 5 series Husqvarnas these last few weeks and there is always something not working properly on them. They've become too complicated for their own good!

[Sawchip]

Old school saw that I have...about 58cc . The old saws run fine on 40/50:1 modern 2 stroke oils ...this one i even run on Aspen as it spends long amounts of time is storage !

[openspaceman]

37 minutes ago, Sawchip said:

The old saws run fine on 40/50:1 modern 2 stroke oils .

This is my feeling also, I have some older saws which used to run 25:1 and seem fine at 50:1. Do you know the science behind this? Is it just better oil?

 

I lashed out on some Stihl ultra  2t oil in the hope it will reduce the chance of lubrication failure, even though none of my saws require it (non strato). My hedgecutters use aspen red.