Archer Chainsaw Chain & Chainsaw Guide Bar Review

Archer Chainsaw Chain & Chainsaw Guide Bar Review - Intro

After 12 months of use with terrible abuse on my part, my Stihl Chain and original Husqvarna guide bar were not behaving very well, a few weeks back the chain snapped I suspected a jammed nose sprocket and I was in the market for a new chain and whilst I was at it a new bar.

Ebay found me at  Mister Solutions shop which stocks a wide variety of chainsaw parts. Including a chain and bar combos for £16 - £22. As my aged Husqvarna 136 may give up the ghost any day, I do not want to spend out lots on replacement parts.

6 Month Update at bottom of Page

Archer Chainsaw Chain & Chainsaw Guide Bar Review - First Apperances

The bar was quite heavy. But I am young and fit so not to bothered about that. The build quality looks OK, the finish is fine.The below picture show the Archer (Australia) Chain (bottom) compared with the original used stihl chain (top).

Stihl Chain vs Archer Chain

The bar is failry stiff, I have increased the bar length with this replacement from 15" to 20" so not sure if the extra flew is due to the bar quality or the length.

Below are a series of picture showing the archer chain and archer bar.

Archer Guide Bar (Timber Max)

Archer Guide Bar - Nose Detail

Archer Chainsaw Chain - Chain Close-Up

Archer Guide Bar - Fixing

Archer Chainsaw Chain & Chainsaw Guide Bar Review - In Use

A new chain always cuts very well, and this archer chain was no exception, the chain is a .325 semi chisel and flew through the 14" pine trees I was cutting, on this occasion I made in region of 50 cuts working for around 2.5 hours, by the end of which the chain was stating to loose its edge a little, although still cutting well enough I would not consider sharpening.

I think I may have had some lubrication issues as the bar seemed to get quite warm during use, and chain would tighten as the guide bar warmed. I am not sure is this is normal behaviour for longer guide bars, but it could become a bit annoying.

Update 20/06/2014: This oiling issue is caused by the holes (for fixing and oiling) in the bar being different to the genuine original part. They do not line up quite right. The oiling hole is in the right place no worries there but the fixing hole is set too far of centre, and partially overlaps the oil out let, this causes most of the oil to flow out through the fixing hole, where it dribble in to the sprocket/ clutch area and gums everything up.I guess this problem arises from the fact that this bar is designed to fit around 70 different types of chainsaw, and as such compromises have been made. Some oil does get on the chain but not nearly enough.

Update 19/12/2014

BAR - The oiling issue  as described above does mean that the this bar would not be suitable for general use, the fuel and bar oil reservoirs should run dry at approximately the same time, but I often find that when using this archer bar the oil reservoir is still 3/4 full, when re-fueling. I use this bar for the occasional large diameter cut, then I swap back to the original bar.

CHAIN  - The Archer chain is excellent quality, and cuts and sharpens very well. I bought another chain for my standard husqvara bar and it is very good, and I will be buying again.

Archer Chainsaw Chain & Chainsaw Guide Bar Review - Conclusion

BAR - Not Great

CHAIN - Excellent

The boats not in yet, it was certainly cheaper than the next reputable brand as a bar chain combo in say Oregon would be in the region of £50. So only time will tell whether this was a good buy. They say buy cheap by twice, but owing to the age of my saw, well maybe I'll only have to buy once! Will update soon!

Sunlight and Daylight Assessment

Desktop Study