We’ve seen some great ads written by masters of marketing and mayhem, but this may be the best ad I’ve read in years, if not of all time. Please read this gentleman’s listing; you will not be disappointed. This 1950s Lancaster Direct-Drive Chainsaw can be found here on Facebook Marketplace in Holtwood, Pennsylvania, and the seller is asking $400. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Gary for the tip!
Also, the photos were actually well thought out, not just treated as some annoying requirement. “Oh yeah, I need photos, I’ll just take some quick verticals here in the shade with each end cut off, it’s good enough.” No, sir/ma’am, this guy nails the photos. This whole listing is easily a top-ten ad. It’s one of the best I’ve seen since I started looking at vintage vehicle listings with my old neighbor, Al Gore, back in the 1970s, when he was in the process of inventing the internet. Just kidding about knowing Al Gore, but not about this being a top-ten listing. Oh yeah, the vintage gas can goes with the sale.
I’m sorry to go on and on about this listing, but when you’ve seen thousands of bad listings, and someone comes through with a great one that they put some actual thought and real time into, you notice it. If I had a company listing things for sale, I’d make this guy an offer he couldn’t refuse to do all of the listings. Lancaster Pump and Manufacturing Company is, I believe, a company related to C-B Tool Company out of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Here’s a fun ad showing the line of chainsaws available at some point in the 1950s.
The tag reads Direct-Drive, and I can’t quite tell the model number. Is that ISO or 150? The second digit sure looks like an S to me, but 150 comes up in some searches, so I’m going with that. The 325 at the end may be the .325″ pitch, which is a bit smaller than a 3/8-inch chain. The ivory-colored button on the back is a “double-acting force-fed oil pump”, and I’m not positive on the bar length, but a lot of these were 16-inch bars. There’s a little air cleaner on the bottom, the cylindrical piece, and the throttle locks for easy starting.
This 3.5-horsepower single-cylinder looks like it would be an easy restoration. The seller says, “Built back when men smoked while refueling equipment, and OSHA was just a rumor.” I don’t believe it’s currently in running condition, but as a display piece, this is hard to beat. Please check out the listing to read about this gem and let us know your thoughts. Are any of you into vintage chainsaws?
I needed a good laugh today being as how its Monday. That was a good ad. Thanks Scotty. I don’t remember ever seeing a direct drive chainsaw before and can only imagine what this beast must have been like to use. Clutch We don’t neeeeed no Stinkin’ clutch!!!! Just another unnecessary part to wear out. 🤣 It’s a cool find, and I’d go the same route as this seller, don’t get it running. The worlds a slightly safer place that way. Thanks Scotty. You made my day.
In 1975, when I was 18, my dad retired from the Air Force and moved to far northern California. He promptly bought a 1965 Dodge 3/4 ton pick up and one of these chain saws. Well, we had to go cut some wood and split it by hand… The only thing shock mounted on these old chain saws was the user. After an hour of running one of these, you felt the results for a day or two!
Ha!! Great ad, and great write-up SG. It’s such a wonderful piece, I think you need to buy it and mount it in a prominent place in your house. Your wife won’t mind.
It looks wonderfully deadly. Love it!!
Color me skeptical but that sure looks like a centrifugal clutch on the business end of the crankshaft. A buddy’s dad had a West Bend at about that time and it had a clutch. Weighed a ton but did the job.
Will, you may be right. I zoomed in and that sure as heck does look like a clutch. I would be wiling to bet dollars for donuts that if it is indeed a clutch, the springs went and/or or the clutch shoes melted into the drum and now it most certainly is “Direct drive”.
Dave
I agree, it has a clutch…not really direct drive. Really no different than a modern chainsaw without all the other safety features.
The funniest and most entertaining ad I’ve seen this decade. Not sure about its originality, SG, because some of the verbiage was lifted directly from your rap sheet: 1) Pure Vintage Brutality, 2) Smokes while refueling equipment, and 3) Looks absolutely mean from every angle. Great article, SG. A most excellent way to start off the week.
Because Will and me made the same observation:
“direct drive is when the chain is turned directly from the crank. The gear drive has a gear to lower the chain speed. The crank turns the gear, which in turn runs the chain.”
– The Internet
Less torque from Direct drive but higher RPM.
Less torque from direct drive but higher RPM than gear driven.
Both types still use a clutch.
Cool old saw!
Thanks, Eric in NC, and you are correct, Will (the really old but very observant one)! I saw the clutch there and wondered why it was called Direct-Drive, and ran across the info that Eric in NC mentioned, but then I didn’t mention any of that…
It looks like the same clutch that loosens up on my Rokon when it’s idling, and I have to reach down to tighten the spinning bolt without my hand being caught up in the thing, uuuf.
Both drive types still use a clutch to engage the chain sprocket.
Cool old saw!
No thanks.
I like my arm where it is.
Ran when parked.
Interesting… I think I have one in my “collection” Saw it sitting on a pile of debris on bulk pick up in the neighborhood… Funny ad.
Strong 💪 arms to follow after using this in the bush on the job. Loggers, roofers, cowboys. Three types I don’t recommend fighting. 🤛
Stan, don’t forget truck drivers that had manual steering. Made a man out of me.( cough) I was curious as to the “direct-drive” thing, it looks as if another way of saying what most chain saws were, the chain coming right off the crank, for sheer chain speed. Some have a reduction gear, that makes them harder to stall, but I’ve never seen one. You can bet most of these ended up on that Murray go-kart, with blistering results!! I like the exhaust,,, and we never wore any hearing protection, and I can still hear just fine,,,ringing ears was the result. Could be worse. I think the gas can is equally as collectable.
Same with me Howard, I can hear just fine, if people would just speak up! Why does everybody mumble these days?
Huh? What did they say? I know, I say that too, and while I do have certain pitches that I can’t hear, people generally mumble when talking in person. Reason for that, I figure, is we don’t interact towards people like we used to. Why, this wonderful curse of a machine I’m typing on right now, is the smoking gun. Phones? Pfft, people don’t even answer their phones anymore. Ironic in an age where communication is so advanced. People are surprised when I say I have no text message thing. In fact, when someone mumbles and I say “excuse me?”, it’s almost taken as an insult. My healthcare ( Medicare) doesn’t think hearing or teeth are important enough to cover.
About 25 years ago a leader from the backyard ash tree fell after a windstorm and it brushed against the house, luckily no damage. I had an old 50’s Poulan saw with the beaver tail bar like this one. And, like this one it was heavy, all metal, and very LOUD. I did wear ear protection. I do have the saw still in the garage and the original manual. I think it has the gear drive but I haven’t used it since. The fuel / oil ratio is 25:1 30 weight non detergent. The ash still exists, though only half as tall and hollow enough to hide inside. This reminds me to treat it again for the emerald ash borer.
As I stare at the electric chainsaw I use for trimming the trees and hedges around my yard, and then look at this thing, Aaron Prichett’s song lyrics “Hold my beer… while I kiss your girlfriend” seem to be playing in my head.
Must have run out of mustangs and Corvettes to ride about today huh?
Thank god. No ridiculously overpriced Mopar muscle “project cars” either.
Tempted to buy it based on the write – up alone.
That’s a killer chain saw.
And thanks for noting the write up by the seller. My kinda writer.
I’m sure Uncle Smitty (of Hudson fame) is laughing his a##off right now . I don’t remember what brand of chain saw he had. But I used it once (Ibwas about 26 at the time) to cut down a 60′ oak tree in 1978. I’m guessing that the bar was about 24″ or maybe 30″ but it about killed me using it all day! He bought it new in about 1958 or ’59. One of my visual memory banks is him just tossing it into the back of his Black k Studebaker Champ pickup. (the one with the twin grip differentialand sliding rear window) to go help a friend take down a,few trees. When that 60′ oak tree came down many neighbors came running out ofctheir houses because of the jolt to the ground. Man that chain saw was a beast! hoods ba fgmng ?
Why was the correction option not available on this post? Using my phone first thing in the .morning when not awake and my fat fingers are not condusive to typing correctly the first time around.
Man Killer
I noticed that the seller is a woman named Coleen. Kind of ironic when you stop to think about it. There is a small picture of her in her profile and she is way too young to have been alive when machines like this proliferated. But her advertising is not only skillful but period correct. Kick back on this chainsaw was probably vicious. Not to mention getting singed by the exposed cylinder just inches from your digits. This was a saw for the Marlboro Man.
As a general rule (my opinion) Just about anything “direct drive” is probably going to be a handful.
A 2 cycle weedeater is direct drive.
Throttle modulation makes for easy rpm control.
This listing is gone; someone must have purchased this cool chainsaw!
Reminds me of the saw I learned to fell trees with in the summer of 1972. I was working as part of a 3-man grounds crew at a summer church camp north of Gettysburg, PA. The full time caretaker gave us a 1-day intro to chainsaw use, with saws not much more advanced than this one. We had to put up enough wood to hold the camp all summer and the lodges on weekends year-round. He’d drop the trees and the three of us would buck and split them. It was a wild summer – we learned a lot and had a great time.