Iconic Saws of History - Solo Rex/Super Rex

Solo is a cool brand from a time where saws were big, heavy and loud!! Even their relatively modern saws are, well, big/heavy/loud.

The high point for Solo was undoubtedly with the introduction of the legendary Rex in 1958. Big and Blue, Blue and Heavy and Heavy and Loud, this sucker was one hell of a saw. It looked a bit like what HR Geiger would have designed if given the crayons to come up with a saw. It looks, one part Alien, one part Sea Monster and one part German Master Race showing off. It was however one hell of a kick arse saw as long as you didn’t have to kick arse for a particularly long performance.

It was touted to be one of the first saws to “extensively use plastics”, but if you have ever picked one up you will realise that the only plastic bits are the cover at the back, which will have inevitably started to break down with UV exposure and to have warped to the point where engaging the choke requires a level of finger dexterity more in keeping with a piano player than your average chainsaw user.

125cc means a pretty nasty growl when you fire this sucker up, but for all its braggadocio in the sound department, this baby had conveyer belt like chain speed and was counting on grunt to get the wood cut rather than zing. It was well made though and with lots of brass fittings and generally well thought out German engineering it’s one of those saws, which nearly 70 years down the track is a pleasure to work on.

I suppose its natural rivals at the time were big McCulloch's, maybe Jonsereds and Dolmar's, but at 125cc it was a fair way in front. When the competition started to catch up in the 60’s, Solo followed the well-trodden path of chucking an even bigger jug on the sucker and taking her out to over 140cc in the not so innovatively named “Super Rex”.

A “pure” brand, that never sold out, Solo have to some extent faded into obscurity, but the quality of the Rex means that they are unlikely to be forgotten by chainsaw enthusiasts, and I for one am a fan.

Solo continued to produce big clunky saws for some time, but never again did they reach the heights of the Rex.

Bonus Classic Song Lyrics - Steve Earl "Copper Head Road"

Well my daddy ran the whisky in a big block Dodge

Bought it at an auction at the Masons Lodge

Johnson County Sheriff painted on the side

Just shot a coat a primmer then they looked inside

Well him and my uncle tore that engine down

I still remember that rumblin sound

Then the sheriff came around in the middle of the night

Heard mamma crying knew something wasn't right

Was headed down to Knoxville with the weekly load

You could smell the whisky burning down Copper Head road

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