An IEL Chainsaw stamped with a swastica recently popped up on my Facebook feed.
The guy who posted it was asking if anyone knew why it was there…
Jacob Kendall shared in the IEL Chainsaws Facebook group:
Ok. How does IEL explain this?
I understand this used to be a sign of good luck. But this saw was produced post WW2.
Crazy!
He also added:
In between the cylinders. It would have been impossible to do with the cylinders on the saw. Plus, this is not the first time I’ve seen it done on an IEL.
Here’s the picture.
Here are some of the more enlightening answers…
Curt said:
This is hearsay so take it as such but I was once told that IEL had hired on some nazis post war and they stamped some saws as a “show of power”.
I don’t know how true that actually is but I’ve seen the swastika on multiple IELs and that’s what I was told. I can’t remember for the life of me who said it.
Michael Acres said:
The explanation I got about the swastika mark was that each person working assembling saws before the assembly line came about put a mark on each saw he put together.
My friend from those days Carl Tenford put a letter F on every saw he built. When the saw got to the run up station and would not work they could tell who to talk to.
- Heath said, “I heard after the war they put on some Nazis. And they’d randomly stamp some saws. Heard of it on pioneers as well.”
- Michael said, “My AB model has several on it.”
- Dave said, “On my super twin case too.”
And Jacob shared another image of a swastika stamped on an IEL Super Twin.
Here’s another example…
Jeramy Lowe shared this picture of a swastica on his IEL saw:
He asked:
Well I was looking through my parts and on one of my handles I saw this insignia and im wondering whats this about and does anyone else have this insignia there handle of there model AB or P? Its not on my I.E.L beaver handle?
Just curious whats the story behind this if anyone knows and yes I know what the symbol means but I have no idea why its on a saw.
Marshall replied:
I have that stamp on my twin. There were Germans working at the plant at that time.
My mark was between the cylinders on the crank case. Hard to see when fully assembled.
In another example from the Chainsaw Collectors forum, user Steve0123+ shared and asked:
I’m in the process of a complete renovation on an IEL Model AB with a question for the audience.
Along the way I have so far discovered three swastikas stamped into different aluminum pieces (sample photo attached).
Does anyone have any insight into the history of these saws which might show cause for these?
They are about 5mm across and definitely stamped in. When the saw was painted over, these were not visible but as I took it down to bare metal they became apparent.
Marshall replied, “There were Germans working at the factory. This was after World War Two. May have been a hidden show of support for the Nazis. I have similar stamping on my PT twin.”
In a final example, the same user Steve0123+ shared this on ArboristSite when selling his IEL Model AB.
In his listing, he shared:
Saw has been cleaned inside and out, stripped down to bare metal, repainted and re-assembled.
One extremely odd find, there are two (maybe three) swastikas stamped into the metal, (see pic 0362).
These are precision stamped on original parts, not graffiti sometime over the years. 30″bar, of course with chain.
There were no further comments on this aspect of the saw.
In various threads, people shared things like “the swastika was a symbol of good luck and fortune for thousands of years before Hitler used it,” but this seems unlikely here.
I think the most likely reason is that folk who were sympathetic to the Nazi party were making chainsaws and stamped this mark on them.
What do you think?
Let us know down below.
