Husqvarna 346XP
The Husqvarna 346XP always was a bit of a starter saw – a very plain small saw with no pretensions and frankly not a lot to offer. At 45cc it was just a tad short on power, and, despite good handling and light weight, it was condemned to mediocrity by being that little bit underpowered. But a little can go a long way, and in this case it certainly did. Unfortunately it went the wrong way and spoiled what was otherwise a nice little machine.

The 346XP always had potential and now Husqvarna have given it that little bit extra that it needed, by opening it out to 50cc and updating it generally. Some things they have done are just what the saw was crying out for. Others I’m not so sure about. I don’t like the way Husqvarna have ‘beautified’ this saw and I find myself wondering at the inclusion of a primer bubble. I really don’t understand what it is doing on a saw of this quality and this importance
in the Husqvarna range. The silver chain-brake cover is just some marketing aberration that can easily be ignored, but it looks so naff it surely makes pro users think twice about buying the 346XP. I did a straw poll among hobby buyers and they thought the 346XP was probably
a garden saw, so that is maybe why it has the silver side cover.

Once the new bright shiny saw has had a couple of days brashing sappy Sitka, the stark colour clash of orange and silver soon starts to mellow and becomes less offensive. If it is a marketing trick to get Joe Public interested in the 346XP, then someone at Husqvarna deserves a slap because this little saw is an absolute gem and it is far too good to be aimed primarily at amateurs. You may or may not remember the noted poet, drunkard, sometime love god and ex faller of this parish, Tim Turnbull, who now resides in Scotland where he teaches the virtues of poetry to inmates of one of Scotland’s finest penal establishments.

Well, he asked me a short while ago if I had a spare saw he could beg or buy. The old Stihl 026 he had used to cut firewood for his log burner had finally expired and so I donated my MS 260 for a small cash consideration and the position of small saw for underbrashing and riding in the forwarder became vacant. What should I replace the old incumbent with was the question. I heard a baffling story that incredibly turned out to be almost entirely true around the time this was all unfolding. It concerned the 357XP, commonly used by the FC, and the felling trousers they supply to their staff. The story goes that someone in the FC got their knickers in a knot when they realised that a 357XP has a chain speed of 22 metres per second and the felling trousers worn by this saw’s operators are only rated at 20 metres per
second. The answer is quite simple: Husqvarna themselves make a type of felling trousers that are rated at 24 metres per second, so it would be easy enough to replace all the operators’ old felling trousers with new, higher specification ones. Too easy of course – this is the Forestry Commission we are talking about here and so someone has decided to change all the saws instead. True enough, the 346XP is a smaller, lighter saw that is less demanding
on the operator and the 357XP is a full power felling saw that is neither necessary nor justified any longer.

Apart from this, the 346XP has the most remarkably low vibration figures that will undoubtedly please the FC’s HR (Human Resources) department. And, so the story goes, the FC are replacing all their 357XPs with 346XPs. This in no way reflects the way the FC’s ambitions are diminishing! The major problem I, as a lowly forestry contractor, can see here is that given that a 346XP runs the same sprocket, chain and bar configuration as a 357XP, but it revs quite a bit higher (14,200 rpm versus 13,800 rpm), how can it be that, given both the laws of mathematics and physics, it doesn’t run at least at the same chain speed? Happily that’s not my problem. All I know is, the boys on the FC who are using these little Husqvarna 346XPs have taken a real liking to them, so I thought I would give one a try.

The first thing you notice once you get past the nausea-inducing colour scheme is the solid feel of the saw. It really has everything tucked in tight and it feels robust and sort of familiar. The balance is good and the small dimensions don’t make the saw feel flimsy because of this apparent solidity, but it’s the way the saw performs that will interest most people.

We all know that times they are a-changing, as the song says, and to that end I recently sold one of my harvesters. Now I’m left with an old but perfectly adequate 250 Ösa with a Keto 100 head that won’t tackle the sort of timber the big Viking head I had on the recently
departed Valmet used to munch through for fun, but it runs all day on a splash of fuel and the little head uses cheap sensors for measuring rather than expensive encoders. The one big drawback is that, as it is only a three-knife head, it needs some underbrashing doing in anything that’s particularly hairy, like the Sitka on the clearfell that is the first job I’ve taken on since the Valmet went. Sod’s law I think they call it!

This is where the 346XP comes in. I have been underbrashing using my MS361, but, in comparison to the 346XP, the bigger Stihl is like a carving knife next to a fine filleting blade. The little Husqvarna has superb balance with the 13” bar and its speed and manoeuvrability
are exceptional. My only problem is that after so long sharpening 3/8 chains I have had to swallow my pride and buy a roller sharpening guide – and God forbid I might have to get some glasses for close work as well! I remember doing the same thing years ago for a different reason. Then I could see perfectly well, I just couldn’t get the chain sharp! I took quite a bit of stick back in those days but it wasn’t long before most of the people I worked with were giving the simple sharpening guide a try and it soon won over a few converts when they found out they weren’t as good at sharpening as they thought they were. Throughout all the time I was felling on piecework I used a sharpening guide every third or fourth sharpening, and the only criticism I had was that the steel rollers on the guide quickly ruined the files.

I can now report that in the intervening twenty-odd years the makers have plastic-coated the rollers to get around this problem. The feeling of familiarity I kept getting annoyed me slightly for most of the first few times I used the 346XP, but I couldn’t really put my finger on what it was. I knew it was a pleasure to have the little saw at hand ready for the odd rough tree that needed tidying up so the head could get a clean hold on it, and I even enjoyed the longer stints when a patch of windblow required close co-operation between the harvester
and me as newly appointed cutter to methodically break down a small area before normal work could be resumed. It was when I was reading the specifications for the 346XP that it dawned on me why the saw felt familiar. The power rating, at 3.8hp, is exactly the same as a 254. The 346XP is a little over 50cc. With the extra few years’ development it now produces the same power as the last 254s, but the feel too is familiar, the balance is just right and
the heavier-than-it-looks feeling that the 254 always had is there as well.

One thing that is missing is the 254 vibrations that we thought were well on the non-existent side of acceptable. I have used a few 254s in recent years and they may have been good back in the 80s and 90s, but measured against modern saws like the 346XP they were hardly the smoothest small saws ever. There are some things about the 346XP that I can only call contradictions. The colour scheme I have already mentioned, and the primer bubble, but the clutch is another noteworthy feature that bears closer inspection. Husqvarna have returned to a right-way-out clutch, with the sprocket inboard of the clutch drum on this new model,
and it has steel C-springs rather than the more usual long tensioned single spring or the enclosed multiple compression springs. The last saw I owned with this type of clutch spring arrangement was a 242 and these springs proved to be that particular saw’s Achilles’ heel.

The springs fitted to the clutch on this saw seem much more substantial though and they appear to be of a different design as I believe the 242 clutch used modified clearing saw clutch components. Also under the side cover is a chain brake mechanism that is the same as the now well proven 357 type that in its earliest incarnations needed careful treatment by the operator to avoid problems, as rough treatment or hamfisted fitting of the side cover
could result in trouble. The 346XP has got proper big saw features like a side chain tensioner
and it has two bar mounting nuts, not one like some small Husqvarnas in the past. It also has
tool-less air filter access and one of the most effective anti-vibration systems on any saw on the market. It has not got tool-less filler caps though, and the oil tank top is very small and is a pig to undo by hand, especially when using biodegradable chain oil that seems to glue the top shut if left overnight, making a saw spanner a must to get it loose.

It has also got a single control lever system that is really two controls that work as one. They both seem a bit flimsy at first meeting but have actually proven very robust, and, although they take a little getting used to, they work well and aren’t fiddly even when wearing felling gloves.

Husqvarna seem to have some problems deciding just what is what with the 346XP, as, when browsing their website, you won’t currently find the 346XP listed. It is in the catalogue between the 339XP and the 357XP, but to find it on the website you have to specifically search for ‘346XP’ and the saw that comes up is not the same as the one in the catalogue, as it is the older 45cc version that has now been superseded.

This is slightly confusing but the one on sale in the UK with the silver side cover is the new 50.1cc version. Running in is becoming a major issue with just about all new saws now. I was told that the little 346XP didn’t need a lot of running in, but when I spoke to our local Husqvarna dealer’s chief mechanic he said it needed ten hours, no question. I ran the little saw for a couple of hours and then tried to get it to rev to the recommended 14,200 rpm
top speed and it wasn’t interested.

I tried again after about four hours and still no joy. Resigned to the idea that he was probably right I let all and sundry put a few hours on the 346XP over the next two weeks and
at the next time of asking it was easy to set the tickover and the top speed without any coaxing at all, and the way the saw felt had completely changed. It was run in and ready for work.

It is clear though that this is one of a generation of saws that is possibly at the tail end of the era of the piston port two-stroke chainsaw engine. I still have access to a number of old Husqvarnas, and in particular a pretty good 254, which I have compared this 346XP to on a number of occasions during this article. While there are similarities, there is one striking difference, and that is in the engine note. The two saws sound totally different and that is down to the way the designers are building features into the engines to comply with legislation while still producing the kind of usable power the operator needs. They have certainly done a good job with the 346XP. It’s just a shame there isn’t the kind of forestry contracting around that there was twenty years ago that saw lots of chainsaw operators thinning small timber and making decent money doing it, because this would have been a super little saw for the job.

On the subject of money, although I must stress that the 346XP is not a direct alternative
to the 357, it is a useful saw in the right type of timber and for the right type of work. I paid around £400 for mine and, as always, the price you pay will depend on how good the relationship you have built with your local dealer is – but it will be a whole lot less than a full spec’ felling saw both in cash terms and in weight and bulk.
Simon Bowes