cost of stihl chain oil is $19.20

I have been using Poulan bar oil, which goes for $10/gallon at my local discount store. After using 4 gallons of it I find it to be a great bar oil at a good price.

I stop at my FIL's shop and take bar oil from his 55 gallon drum. He hollered at me the first time I bought a gallon of bar oil and told me I can take it from his bulk tank for free.

He has Bar and Chain oil in a 55 gallon drum?

Unless you're using motor oil which is no longer a recommended practice. B&C oil has tackifier additives that help the oil stick to the metal much better than plain motor oil. Motor oil may work in a pinch/emergency but I wouldn't run it habitually.

You might want to read this thread, there are many professionals who swear by used motor oil.
http://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/free-chain-oil.61159/page-4#post-767243

Yup. He logs for a living, so buys it in bulk for the processor and his saws.

That's the stuff I've been using for several years now. Not that my opinion is better than anybody else's. I've already spent more time than I care reading these motor oil and canola oil threads, I eventually gave up and decided what i've been doing is just fine and I'd like to just get moving on the cutting.

All's well that oils well...

Stihl does not make bar oil. They buy it and brand it. It is high quality virgin oil (not recycled, last I looked), with no addatives except a spendy type of tackifier. I have a bottle of Stihl bar oil here and it works/looks the same as the Durex stuff that I get (made in the PNW for loggers, and is actually good bar oil with a red dye in it). Poulan and Husky bar oil are both good, I have gone through many gallons of them as well. WallyWorld bar oil varies so much I do not use that any more. I would save the money for the spendy premix JASO FD 100% synthetic for the gas tank.

Back in 2007 we were complaining about $7 a gallon bar oil...

I suspect as long as we continue to stick something slick and fluid like in the oil tank things should be OK . . . providing it's not something like liquid Bondo say.

That said . . . I tend to stick with the tried and true bar and chain oil . . . usually buying the Husquvarna brand to help support my dealer (plus he keeps the cost pretty low to compete with the cheaper B & C oils available at the general store down the road) . . . but sometimes buying the even cheaper stuff at Tractor Supply, the general store, etc. when the price is too good to pass up or when the chainsaw shop is closed.

For $20/gallon, it had better have a $10 bill taped to the jug.

Oh no, that American $10 bill is mine!


Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani

i'm gonna follow Zap and SmokinJ and try out some canola oil. I meant to do that in the spring, but got sidetracked and forgot all about it...

I deliver 5 gal jugs of canola oil to my customers. Their cost is just under $30. Unfortunately, my employer doesn't sell stuff to us. I'm going to check Sam's Club next time I'm there, and maybe GFS. Could be pretty cost effective. I don't use five gallons of bar oil in a year, but I use all of three. I could subsidize it with kitchen use

Oh man, I gotta get me one of those... lol 55 gallon drum should last me and my 7 mo old son for the rest of our lives....

Take a gander in some of your owner's manuals. No saw manufacturer that I know of approves of running used engine oil as bar & chain lube.

Folks (professionals or not) swear by any method of operation that is cheap or at least gives them the perception of saving money, just like things that cost more money must be more valuable right? And any method that saves them from the hassle of carting their oil to a collection center is bound to pick up support.

And for the past two years he has just dropped a forwarder load of 8' logs by my wood stacks for the following year. All I have to do is buck it and split it.

Heck the whole barrle not much more.

I would not recommend that MM, as canola goes rancid in time. Short shelf life and the tendancy of it to gum up and chryatalize are the main issues against using it. That and it does not have a tackifier in it...

Also pro loggers/fallers are not the sharpest tools in the drawer, at least not the several hundred that I have met. Also in that thread they talk about using ATF for bar oil. BIG issue about that is all the detergent in ATF. The detergent disperses rapidly and gets into the ground water, and really f*s things up.

People, really... get a clue. Use that contaminated crap on your bar to cut your firewood and it will cycle back into you, your wives, your kids, your pets, your neighbors, your garden, and your water. If you want to lower your IQ with heavy metal contamination and raise your's and your family's chances of getting things like cancer, go ahead and use that crap on your saws.

Sure sounds troll like to me.........I know I know me and my family will die....Hate when people turns the internet to you have on choice or you Die!

I am often amused and confused by the opinons on subjects like this. It is ok to put store bought oil in our saw and let it get on the land but used motor oil is going to give me cancer and ruin my drinking water. Or was that coffee, or beer, one time it is good for me the next time it is going to kill me. Canola oil is the best, no it is the worst because it goes rancid and doesn't have tackifiers. Oil is fine when you put it in you car but now it is going to kill me when it comes out. I guess our engines are radioactive. I am amazed everyone that does oil changes is not dead by now.

Why did you take that oil out anyways?

Don't use old motor oil. Baby kittens will die if you do. Don't use canola, unless you want your bar and chain to wear out.

I think I would be careful about calling loggers stupid on a site like this, or anywhere for that matter.

Oh, pile on boys, pile on...

Having been a faller myself, I have called a lot of loggers and fallers I worked with stupid. A lot of them have fingers missing and stuff like that. Must be from their superior mental capacity I guess? Oh yes, I have gotten into a lot of fights in my day too. I call it like I see it.

As for bar oil, that stuff is not good either, but contaminating it with metals an blowby only make it a lot worse. As as I said my father practically drank the stuff, and he died at an early age, in a very ugly way. There are no great bar oil choices out there, but some are certainly better than others. If you wanna swim in toxic metals and blowby, be my guest. Just please stay away from me if you are going to do that though. And good luck when you get older.