What type of Bar oil for a chainsaws

I've been cutting wood for 40 years and have never bought "bar oil." I've been using waste motor oil with zero problems. I pour it through a paint filter once and then store it in a jug. I've never worn a chain or bar out from lack of lube. All my chains get "done" once sharpened to the point there is no chipper left. I'm still using bars that customers threw out (for the wrong reasons) 30 years ago. I heat a large house and barn with 100% wood - so I cut a lot. There many be certain saws that have non-adjustable oil pumps that need premium blends of bar oil - but I've never encountered one yet. This whole thing as I see it - is just plain silly. When I was a Stihl and Homelite mechanic back in late 1960s - and on up to the 90s - we had many part-time wood-cutters that'd buy a new bar everytime the saw cut crooked - and I'd take those bars home and use them. Still am. Now - for someone worried about oil pollution and wanting something considered biodegradable - that's a different story.

I agree on the old saws, my homelite 360 takes SAE 30. I bought a new Stihl 029 when they first started that bar oil minimize thing. Used less than a 1/2 cup of oil per tank of gas. Stihl dealer put in 2 new oil pumps, reamed the passages, all new relative Stihl parts. Still run hot.

Laid under the work bench for about 3 years until I got motivated, put in a new pump, filed down the adjust stop for more oil, new stihl bar, prestressed chain, sprocket & bar oil. Now using almost a 1/2 tank oil per gas tank. Got it right? About an hour of bucking fir, bar starts running hot. Take the bar off, cleanup, turn over, get about another hour same thing. I am not pulling the bar off any saw every hour, keep on bucking, do or die. Bar turned blue, chain hot and stretched, jumped off the bar. I flung it down the hill in the brush as far as I could throw it.

Still there as far as I know. Locals stop by ask for permission to hunt through my property. A lot of these guys are former or part time loggers that use these little saws for limbing.

I tell them about the saw and they can have it if they happen to run across it.

Them: What kinda saw?

Me: 2001 Stihl 029.

Them: Thanks anyway, ain't worth carrying out of there.

Me: I hear ya.

Maybe some cityslicker will hunt through, find and steal it someday.

Joe

Nowadays a comparable saw is 1/2 the weight, or less, the engine runs 10 - 15k rpm, chain speeds are much higher so you need a better lube with adhesion.

Some new saws will survive on motor oil but will wear out chains, bars, sprockets much faster. It just makes economic sense to use bar oil, oil is cheaper then replacing worn parts. You wouldn't run non-detergent SAE 30 in your new truck if it required SAE 15w40 or equivalent, same difference.

It is going to get worst, states like CA are pushing low oil use saws for loggers, that's is why most newer saws do not pump bar oil @ idle. Manufactures are pressing ahead to exceed gas mix & bar oil mandates so their saws don't get banned.

Joe