Vintage saws and safety standards: when chain brakes and kickback rules entered ANSI, CSA, ISO and US and UK rules

This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. It gives dates and wording from catalogue records and regulator documents as read on October 9, 2026, and it does not say how any saw should be used, kept running or restored. Where no official page gave a date, the table says so and no date is filled in from memory.

ISO and European standards

SNV-Connect, the Swiss standards shop that lists ISO documents, shows an edition history for each standard. The table gives the editions and months it lists.

ISO edition histories for portable chain-saw standards, as listed by SNV-Connect
Standard and subject	Editions listed
ISO 6535, chain brake performance	June 1983 (titled Forestry machinery, portable chain saws, chain brake performance), December 1991, May 2008, August 2015. The 2015 abstract describes the standard as covering how braking time and release force are measured for hand-operated chain brakes.
ISO 9518, kickback test	June 1992, October 1998, July 2018.
ISO 13772, non-manually actuated chain brake performance	July 1997, October 2004, April 2009, February 2018.
ISO 11681-1, safety requirements, chain-saws for forest service	June 1996 (titled chain-saws for normal forest work), February 2004, November 2011, March 2022. The 2022 abstract says the document covers all significant hazards except kickback and balance for machines of more than 80 cm3 displacement.
ISO 11681-2, safety requirements, chain-saws for tree service	April 1998, July 2006, November 2011, March 2022.

The SNV-Connect record for ISO 11681-1:2022 shows it adopted in France as NF EN ISO 11681-1:2022. The first-edition years of ISO 6535 and ISO 11681 come only from the SNV-Connect lists above. The pages opened did not state which edition first required a chain brake.

ANSI and CSA

ANSI B175.1 and CSA Z62.1 in the dated records opened
Item	What the page says
ANSI voluntary chain saw standard, 1985	The CPSC release of August 7, 1985 says an industry voluntary standard had been revised, and describes it as limiting calculated kickback to a 45 degree angle for gasoline saws under 3.8 cubic inch displacement, requiring a front hand guard and at least two kickback-reducing features. The release does not give the standard's number in the part read. Source: CPSC news release.
ANSI B175.1-1991	OSHA's 1994 logging rule names it as "Safety Requirements for Gasoline-Powered Chain Saws" and requires chain saws placed in initial service after the rule's effective date to be equipped with a chain brake and to meet it. Source: OSHA Federal Register document.
ANSI B175.1-2021	The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety cites ANSI B175.1-2021, titled for internal combustion engine-powered hand-held chain saws, safety and environmental requirements. Source: CCOHS safe use page.
CSA Z62.1	CCOHS cites CSA Z62.1-15 (R2024) "Chain Saws" on its safe use page, and its maintenance page cites the same standard as Z62.1-15 (R2020). The maintenance page says the standard recommends an average brake stopping time not above 0.12 seconds and a maximum not above 0.15 seconds. First-edition date: No official page found on October 9, 2026. Source: CCOHS chain saw maintenance page.
ANSI B175.1 first edition and the edition that first required a chain brake	No official page found on October 9, 2026.

US Consumer Product Safety Commission

The CPSC release of August 7, 1985 reports a 3 to 0 vote to end work on a mandatory federal chain saw standard. It reports about 22,000 medically attended chain saw injuries involving kickback in 1982, and lists chain brakes, low or reduced kickback chain, reduced-kickback guide bars and bar tip guards as examples of kickback-reducing features under the voluntary standard.

OSHA 1910.266

OSHA's logging standard was published in the Federal Register on October 12, 1994, with a stated effective date of February 9, 1995. Paragraph (e)(2)(i) says each chain saw placed into initial service after the effective date shall be equipped with a chain brake, and each saw placed into service before that date shall be equipped with a protective device that minimizes kickback, and no kickback device shall be removed or otherwise disabled. Paragraph (e)(1)(ii)(E) lists chain brakes and nose shielding devices among the items the employer assures are inspected before initial use each workshift. The preamble lists four kickback devices discussed in the record: chain brakes, bar tip guards, reduced-kickback guide bars and low or reduced kickback saw chains. It records several commenters saying that almost all chain saws made for commercial logging then had chain brakes. The proposed rule had not required chain brakes. Source: OSHA Federal Register document.

UK Health and Safety Executive

HSE's leaflet Chainsaws at work (INDG317, rev2, published January 2013) shows a diagram naming the combined chain brake and front hand guard, low-kickback chain, chain catcher and anti-vibration mounts. Its list of items to check on a saw includes the chain brake, the chain catcher and the anti-vibration mounts, and it says a chain brake should be effective when applied at maximum revs or according to the manufacturer's specification. It also lists buying chainsaws with anti-vibration mounts among the good management practices for controlling vibration. HSE's text does not say which year any of these features became part of a standard. Leaflet text adapted under the Open Government Licence: Crown copyright, HSE. Source: HSE INDG317.

The patent and maker dates for the same features are on the page about the chainsaw history timeline. How kickback and brakes work is on the kickback and chain brakes page, and the rules by country are on the standards by country page.

Standards in this field are revised from time to time; the date on each source above is the date it was read. To correct or remove an entry, write to the address at the foot of this page.