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Chainsaw history timeline: from the first patents to chain brakes and anti-vibration mounts

A dated timeline of the chainsaw from the patents of 1905 to the safety features of the modern saw, with every date taken from a patent record, a museum page, a government page or a maker's own history page, plus a table of museums whose catalogue pages show chainsaws.

Checked against the sources at the bottom of this page on October 9, 2026. Rules, fees and pay change: the source has the last word.

This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. It sets out when chainsaw designs and safety features are dated by patent offices, museums, a government agency and the makers themselves. Patent dates are the filing and publication dates printed on the patent record. A maker's own claim to a first is reported as the maker's account, and nothing on this page settles which claim came earlier.

Timeline

Chainsaw milestones in date order, with the page that dates each one
DateWhat the source dates
January 17, 1905A United States patent for an endless-chain saw is granted to Samuel J. Bens of San Francisco, filed July 17, 1903. The record describes a chain carrying teeth, guided on a thin steel frame pivoted at one end so it can swing through a tree, log or slab, aimed at replacing hand crosscut sawing. Thunder Bay Museum describes it as one of the earliest chainsaw patents. Sources: Google Patents record for US 780,476 and the museum's chainsaw object page.
July 21, 1908A second Bens patent, filed February 23, 1906, adds a stiffened guide frame and alternating cutting teeth and dragging teeth that keep the kerf clear. The text names the large redwood timber of the Pacific coast as the reason. Source: Google Patents record for US 893,897.
February 15, 1927A third Bens patent, filed April 23, 1921 and assigned to the Chain Saw Corporation, covers a portable power-driven apparatus for sawing trees and logs, handled by a couple of operators. Source: Google Patents record for US 1,617,565.
June 30, 1929A Swiss patent in Andreas Stihl's name for an electric hand chain saw, filed September 7, 1928, places the motor and its gear above the chain wheel. Separately, Stihl's history page shows a petrol tree-felling machine, type A, of 1929 at 6 hp and 46 kg. Sources: Google Patents record for CH133857A and Stihl's product history page.
1940Thunder Bay Museum catalogues a Pioneer 650 chainsaw from 1940 and says it was used in bush camps for cutting pulpwood. Source: Thunder Bay Museum object page.
1943Te Kuiti Museum and Gallery catalogues a two-man gas-powered Titan chainsaw made by Mill and Mine Supply Ltd of Seattle in 1943. The Mall Tool Company filed a United States chain saw patent on November 15, 1943, granted August 10, 1948, whose cutting chain has a gauge tooth that controls the cut. Sources: museum catalogue record 2026.2325 and Google Patents record for US 2,446,774.
May 22, 1945Henry Disston and Sons of Philadelphia files a chain saw patent, granted October 25, 1949, about the cutting chain and its drive sprocket holding a steady connection as the chain stretches with wear. Source: Google Patents record for US 2,485,962.
July 1, 1946 and November 1947Joseph Buford Cox files a chain saw patent application. United States patent 2,771,919, filed in 1951 as a division of that application, covers chain saws powered for the felling of trees. Oregon's history page says the first Cox Chipper Chain was produced and sold in November 1947, and that the company was founded in 1947 with four employees. Sources: Google Patents record for US 2,771,919 and Oregon's company history page.
November 13, 1948Cox files the patent for a power saw chain, granted May 23, 1950. It says earlier saw chains with side-cutting teeth alternating with raker teeth cut with a jerky action. Source: Google Patents record for US 2,508,784.
1948Redland Museum in Queensland catalogues a 1948 Blue Streak Minor chainsaw made in Sydney by C.C. Engineering. The record gives a single 50 cc cylinder and a weight of 12.7 kg, and says the saw has no chain brake. Source: museum catalogue record R17815.
December 1, 1948A Swiss patent in Andreas Stihl's name, published June 15, 1950, covers a protective bar fitted above the guide bar and fixed at the engine end and the handle end, to guard the worker against the running chain. Source: Google Patents record for CH268922A.
1950Stihl's history page lists the BL petrol-driven lightweight saw with a swivel carburetor and 4.5 hp. Source: Stihl product history page.
1959Stihl's history page lists the Contra, a gearless petrol saw of 12 kg and 6 hp. Husqvarna's timeline says its production of chainsaws started in 1959. Sources: Stihl product history page and Husqvarna Group history timeline.
June 30, 1964Stihl files a German patent, published June 27, 1968, for a portable chain saw whose front and rear handles are mounted through vibration-damping elements. Stihl's history page says 1964 was the year it became the first manufacturer to fit an anti-vibration handle. Sources: Google Patents record for DE1271370B and Stihl's product history page.
April 21, 1967A British patent filed by two individuals, published November 12, 1969, describes a portable chain saw with coil springs placed where the handles attach to the body, to damp vibration reaching the operator. Source: Google Patents record for GB1170313.
October 20, 1967McCulloch Corporation files two patents, both granted December 23, 1969. One, naming Austin Gudmundsen, is an inertia-actuated brake for a chain saw, in which the violent movement of kickback moves an inertia element into the chain. The other, naming Ellsworth D. Wilkin, is a magnetic acceleration-responsive stopping device. Sources: Google Patents records for US 3,485,327 and US 3,485,326.
August 5, 1968McCulloch files a United States patent, granted November 24, 1970, for a chain saw with a vibration isolation system, naming Robert Eugene Frederickson and Walter Joseph Hammond. Its list of earlier United States patents includes number 3,224,473 of December 1965 and number 3,372,718 of March 1968. Source: Google Patents record for US 3,542,095.
1969Husqvarna's timeline says that in 1969 it became the first company in the world to launch a chainsaw with an integrated anti-vibration system. This is a different first from the one Stihl claims for 1964. Source: Husqvarna Group history timeline.
October 29, 1969Jonsereds Fabriker of Sweden files in Sweden for a safety means that cuts the ignition and brakes the saw chain when the operator's hand moves an actuator placed in front of the handle. The United States patent was filed October 20, 1970 and granted May 23, 1972. Source: Google Patents record for US 3,664,390.
1972Stihl's history page dates its QuickStop chain brake to 1972, and says its 031 AV (1972) and 041 AV (1974) models were the first on the market with both electronic ignition and a chain brake. These are the maker's claims. Source: Stihl product history page.
August 23, 1974Husqvarna files a German patent, published December 24, 1981, for a chain brake worked by a pre-tensioned spring held by a pawl, with a protective bracket by the carrying handle. The text says chain saws with emergency brakes were already known. Source: Google Patents record for DE2440483C3.
About 1975The NSW Rural Fire Service heritage collection catalogues a McCulloch Superpro 81 chainsaw dated about 1975 under a title that says it is without chain brake. Source: catalogue record.
August 7, 1985The US Consumer Product Safety Commission announces a 3 to 0 vote to end work on a mandatory chain saw standard and withdraw its May 1982 advance notice of proposed rulemaking, because an industry voluntary standard had been revised. It reports about 22,000 medically attended chain saw injuries involving kickback in 1982. The voluntary standard it describes limits calculated kickback to a 45 degree angle for gasoline saws under 3.8 cubic inch displacement and calls for a front hand guard and at least two kickback-reducing features. Source: CPSC news release.
February 9, 1995OSHA's logging standard takes effect. It requires a chain brake on each chain saw placed in initial service after that date, and a kickback-minimizing device on saws already in service. Source: OSHA Federal Register preamble and final rule.
2010Stihl's history page lists its first battery-powered chainsaw, the MSA 160 C-BQ, with the QuickStop Super chain brake. Source: Stihl product history page.

What the sources say about each safety feature

Chain brake: the earliest brake patents opened here were filed in 1967 by McCulloch and in 1969 by Jonsereds, and Husqvarna's 1974 patent says emergency brakes were already known. CPSC's 1985 release lists chain brakes, low or reduced kickback chain, reduced-kickback guide bars and bar tip guards as examples of kickback-reducing features. OSHA's 1994 preamble records several commenters saying almost all chain saws made for commercial logging then had chain brakes.

Anti-vibration mounts: patents from 1964 to 1968 show Stihl, McCulloch and individual inventors working on the problem, and Stihl and Husqvarna each date a first to a different year. HSE's chainsaw leaflet lists the chain brake, the chain catcher and the anti-vibration mounts among the parts to check daily on a saw in use. None of the sources opened for this page gives a first date for the chain catcher or for low-kickback chain.

How the standards and rules treat these features is on the page about vintage saws and safety standards. The wider timeline of standards for tree work is on the standards timeline page, and the kinds of saw are set out in saw types compared.

Museums and collections with chainsaws in their catalogues

Each row comes from the museum's own page or its catalogue pages on the eHive hosting service. Rows are in alphabetical order by museum name. A museum's entry does not mean the saw is on display on any given day.

Museums and collections whose pages show chainsaws or logging tools
Museum and placeWhat its page shows
Aotea Utanganui Museum of South Taranaki, Pātea, New ZealandCatalogue record TN.0017.60, a Woodboss chain saw with a separate 900 mm blade; the maker field reads "PM". Record page.
Hud-Son Forest Equipment chainsaw museum, Barneveld, New York, United StatesIts page says the collection began with the founder's saws, some traded in towards newer ones, that a museum was proposed in 2012, and that the family dealership opened in Barneveld by 1965 and sold saws of many makers.
Jack Morgan Museum, Hukerenui, near Whangarei, New ZealandCatalogue record 2010.2.292, a Disston chainsaw whose inscriptions name a Kiekhaefer Mercury engine. Record page.
Lord Howe Island Museum, Lord Howe Island, New South Wales, AustraliaCatalogue record LHI0122, a petrol chainsaw with a plate reading Danarm Tornado, made in Camperdown. Record page.
NSW RFS Heritage Collection, New South Wales, AustraliaChainsaw records including one dated 1950s (Mobilco) and one dated about 1975 (McCulloch Superpro 81). Example record.
Redland Museum Incorporated, Cleveland, Queensland, AustraliaCatalogue record R17815, the 1948 Blue Streak Minor chainsaw, with its inscriptions, weight and fuel ratio.
Te Kuiti Museum and Gallery, Te Kuiti, New ZealandCatalogue record 2026.2325, a Titan two-man chainsaw of 1943 made in Seattle, with measurements of motor and blade.
Thunder Bay Museum, Thunder Bay, Ontario, CanadaObject 2010.175.4, a Pioneer 650 chainsaw of 1940, with a note on the 1905 Bens patent.

Chainsaw makers with their own history page

Sources