Bar and chain oil

Joined
Nov 13, 2014
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I know I've read in the past where people have used cooking oils for this? I have a small Dewalt I use for travel camping and I'm thinking these type of oil maybe a better choice for this. Anyone with any experience with this? Staying old school with with the gas Stihl.
 

wyosteve

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Jul 1, 2014
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I have no experience with cooking oil, but would normally use 10 w 30 cheap automotive oil. Works great at a fraction of the cost of 'bar and chain' oil.
 
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I have often used automatic transmission fluid as well., just keep the blade lubricated.
 

fmyth

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I use the cheapest vegetable cooking oil I can find in my cordless Dewalt. It works fine and if I ever shoot a moose close to the truck I can use the Dewalt to cut it up.
 

marjje

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Apr 23, 2023
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I used to work at a golf course and we did this because slinging cooking oil on the turf was easier on the grass than bar oil, at least in theory. It seemed to work fine but we didn't use are saws very hard either.
 
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Vegetable oil works fine for light duty. Keep in mind that it goes rancid fairly quickly. I use veg oil in the saw I use to split elk. I run normal bar oil for my big saws.
 

Mosby

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Jan 1, 2015
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I bought a dozen gallons of bar and chain oil this year. Poulan bar and chain oil for less than $8 at Menards and Echo bar and chain for less than $11 at Lowe's. I also bought a few gallons of Stihl winter bar oil for around $13 at a local Ace Hardware. Great time of the year to get bar and chain oil on sale and stock up. I can see using food grade oil on game but I would never consider using for my large chain saws when I can get bar oil at reasonable prices. JMO.
 

5MilesBack

"DADDY"
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Colorado Springs
Vegetable oil works fine for light duty. Keep in mind that it goes rancid fairly quickly.
This is why I have considered trying it in my Stihl. I have a 3 gallon jug of peanut oil that has gone rancid........figured I might get some other use out of it......like in the saw.
 

wyosteve

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I use the rancid oil to burn my piles of dead willows. Better than gasoline!
 
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When I was logging we'd use used motor oil. Between all the trucks and heavy equipment we had an almost unlimited supply.
 
OP
C
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Nov 13, 2014
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This is for wood. It's more a case of which oil would I rather risk getting on my gear or which would be easiest to clean up. This little things an oily mess compared to my Stihl 362.
 
Joined
May 6, 2018
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Shenandoah Valley
I carry a battery powered stihl in the truck. All I use in it is vegetable oil. For me smell isn't as strong, I haven't noticed any negatives with it.




Only thing is I tend to crave French fries a bit more after using it.
 

Jethro

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Mar 2, 2014
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Pennsylvania
If I had to pick which oil was going to get on my hunting gear, I'd pick vegetable over conventional bar oil. Although I'd prefer neither on my gear. We have used vegetable oil a few times in our saws. Clearing pond/creek banks where we did not want bar oil to get in the water. This was brush and sapling cutting, not felling and bucking trees. Also used it in saws cutting ice off greens.
 
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