I picked up a 20″ 039 Farm Boss chainsaw secondhand from our local Stihl dealer a couple of years ago for about A$600. They were first produced in the 1990’s with a slight hiccup, a product recall, occuring in the US in 1994 – a small problem with a grounding wire. Still (or should that be Stihl) this hasn’t held these chainsaws back.
I bought it primarily for cutting firewood in the winter but it has been applied to more uses than this since. One use has been for cutting our jarrah sleepers which we’ve used around the the formation of our veggie patch. Our circular saw wasn’t big enough to cut these sleepers in one cut so we decided to use the chainsaw – much easier.
We’ve also used it for pruning trees, removing roots and resizing our bush poles. It is probably one of the best tools I’ve ever had in the garden.
Most of my friends have other brands from Husqvarna’s to McCullochs and while they’re good brands I’ve never heard anything bad about Stihl chainsaws. And mine’s worked tirelessly for me.