Its funny, here in oz I buy Tsumura solid RSN bars and they have 'light and tough' stenciled onto the bars in red along with the Tsumura label however they are just the standard solid bars!lol They come from the factory like this but we all seem to talk about brands based on what is sold in the US. Many other examples out there with saws etc. I wish we had rebranded 'Total' bars or something similar as they are hard to beat for the price. I get Tsumuras at roughly half the cost of Stihl ES bars lol, unless I buy a new saw with a stihl bar replacements are always AM Windsors/Tsumuras.
There was a guy selling them on ebay.com.au that had the l&t print on the non-insert (thus non l&t) solid bars. The l&t are still solid, as in not laminated, but have the inserts to save weight - just to clarify. He had some good prices too, which I put down to the mis-printing.
My first Tsumura was a Carlton premium sprocket tip on closeout from baileys. Busted a sprocket nose after kissing the dirt too often and thought to myself 'geeze, these things aren't as good as everyone raves about' but haven't busted a thing on the three non-laminated Tsumuras I have ever since. And the rails don't seem to wear like other bars I have used. So, I'm very happy with 'em, except the laminated Tsumura bar I used (was a Total bar) b/c it was just as prone to pretzling as all the other laminated bars I have used, so there endith that laminated small bar experiment. The search for a solid, Tsumura, small bar for picco/LP chain continues though. For now, it's solid GB, which seem OK.
How do the Windsors compare to the Tsumuras? Haven't used that, or any Stihl branded bar.
Looks like the Shindaiwa's are coming with Sugi's in NZ but not in USA. Hard to keep up with who is making what. A bit like chain. Last roll of chain I bought was carlton branded lazer.
I would like to see how longer (than they currently do - say 70"+), milling Tsumura bars would compare to the GB bars for sag and wear. For people doing a lot of slabbing, or with slabbers on their mills, the Tsumuras might be interesting.
