John Deere – long celebrated for its green and yellow tractors – also maintained a brief but notable presence in the chainsaw market.
In reality, Deere never manufactured its own saw engines; it instead rebranded machines made by established outdoor-power OEMs. For example, early John Deere models were essentially off-the-shelf saws, repainted and badged. The 25EV model introduced in 1981, for instance, was manufactured by ECHO and identical to Echo’s CS-290EVL.
This is the complete history of John Deere chainsaws—plus a look at rare vintage ads that sold them.
The John Deere Chainsaw Legacy
John Deere’s early chainsaws were typically painted in a bright yellow rather than the company’s trademark green. Likewise, the earliest JD chainsaw – the Model 12 – was built by Remington (using Remington’s SL-9 chassis).
In this way, Deere’s saw lineup in the 1970s and 1980s read like a who’s who of the industry: Echo (Kioritz) supplied the big models (the 50V, 30, 40V, etc.), while smaller saws and trimmers came from companies like Remington, Pioneer, and eventually Homelite under license.
By outsourcing production, John Deere could quickly offer a full range of homeowner-grade and professional-grade saws through its dealer network without building factories of its own.
ECHO Partnership and Deere-Badged Models
From the mid-1970s through the 1980s, ECHO (of Japan) was John Deere’s primary partner.
Deere introduced its 50V chainsaw in 1975 – a 44 cc machine – which in fact was Echo’s CS-452VL painted in Deere yellow. Similarly, Deere’s 30 (≈30 cc) and 40V (≈35 cc) models – made in the late 1970s – were identical to Echo’s CS-302 and CS-351VL, respectively. The JD 25EV saw (introduced 1981) was an Echo CS-290EVL.
In practice, Deere’s models simply wore John Deere decals and yellow trim on the standard Echo bodies. This branding gave Deere dealers a power-tool product to sell alongside mowers and tractors, but customers essentially got Echo performance under the JD name.
The Homelite Acquisition and In-House Lines
In 1994, John Deere took a more direct role in the small-engine market by acquiring the Homelite brand and related consumer equipment assets from Textron.
Homelite was already famous for chainsaws and generators, and Deere’s purchase made Homelite a subsidiary in its new “Consumer Products” division (headquartered in Charlotte, NC).
Homelite continued producing its own red saws, while Deere used Homelite’s engineering and factories to bolster its lineup. Notably, John Deere also used a second brand, Green Machine, on some of its handheld tools.
By the late 1990s corporate bulletins and manuals listed Green Machine, Homelite, and John Deere as Deere & Company trademarks, showing that Deere was marketing chainsaws, blowers, and generators under multiple labels.
Under the Homelite era, many small Deere-brand accessories (like trimmers and blowers) were actually made by Homelite, so Deere’s dealers could say “made by Homelite under Deere.” Customers still recognized the build – Homelite parts and design – but the green/yellow Deere logo was on the case.
During this period, Deere’s chainsaw models included both Deere-named and Homelite-branded tools.
For example, Deere offered a “300CS” chainsaw in the late 1990s, which some dealers later complained was essentially a low-end Homelite 300 in new plastics. In short, John Deere’s marketing strategy emphasized the familiar Deere name and dealer service network, even though technically the engines were built by Homelite (in the USA and Thailand) or outsourced.
A November 2001 press release notes that Deere was selling off its Homelite unit as part of a “comprehensive strategy to improve business performance,” and that the Homelite sale did not include Deere’s chain-manufacturing plant in Columbia, S.C. This chain-making facility (which produced saw chain, often for Homelite saws) was being “marketed separately,” indicating Deere’s intent to keep some integrated capability even as it divested Homelite’s branded products.
In sum, the Homelite era (1994–2001) saw John Deere operating its most aggressive chainsaw business, but even then, it rarely innovated new saw designs under the Deere name.
The Green Machine and Deere’s Branding
John Deere’s use of a separate “Green Machine” brand for hand-held equipment is a little-known chapter.
Internally, Deere considered Green Machine a Deere-owned label for homeowners’ tools. The 2001 sale to Techtronics (TTI) explicitly included Deere’s Green Machine brand name for handheld gear. In practice, Green Machine tools were essentially low-end Homelite products (since Homelite was Deere’s consumer line) that carried a different logo and were sold through Deere dealers.
By divesting both Homelite and the Green Machine name at once, Deere was signaling that it was exiting the gasoline chainsaw and handheld power market entirely. Before that, however, some customers might remember buying a “John Deere Green Machine” chainsaw or blower – it was purely a branding choice by Deere to create a separate identity for certain products.
All told, Deere’s overlapping brands (John Deere, Homelite, Green Machine) reflected attempts to leverage corporate cachet, but they also meant consumers sometimes saw Deere chainsaws of very different origins.
Italian OEMs and Later Models
After selling Homelite in 2001, John Deere still offered chainsaws under its own badge for a few more years. These later models were predominantly sourced from Italian OEMs.
European supplier Emak – known for the Efco, Oleo-Mac, and Olimpyk brands – built many of Deere’s final saws. For example, JD’s mid-2000s models such as the CS52 and CS56 were built in Emak’s Italian factories (essentially the same saws as Efco/Oleomac models). Deere dealers simply sold them in green/yellow color. Customers noted that a JD CS62 was “made by Efco… just green and yellow.”
Unfortunately, parts support became an issue: few JD dealers stocked these European machines’ spare parts, so owners sometimes scoured Efco dealer networks or online markets for replacements. In terms of performance, the Deere-branded Efco saws were generally regarded as similar in quality to other mid-range Italian saws, but they lacked a distinctive John Deere engineering twist. In effect, John Deere’s chainsaw identity in the 2000s was almost entirely that of a private label.
Exit from the Chainsaw Market
By the end of the 2000s, Deere had largely exited the chainsaw market. Reports from equipment forums indicate that John Deere ceased new saw production around 2009.
With Homelite gone and Green Machine retired, Deere no longer had any proprietary chainsaws to sell – and the remaining JD-badged saws were simply being phased out. The company refocused on core businesses (agriculture, construction, large turf equipment) and eventually shifted small-engine products to battery-electric partnerships (e.g. a 2023 collaboration with EGO on cordless yard tools).
Today, John Deere-branded chainsaws are a thing of the past; collectors and enthusiasts remember them as the “green and yellow saws” that were actually made by others. The only one left is their toy chainsaw for sale on Amazon!
Legacy and Anecdotes
Although John Deere’s chainsaw venture was relatively short-lived, a few interesting tidbits endure.
Rare vintage Deere saws (like the Model 55EV or Model 46EV) fetch high prices on auction sites, and photo archives show Deere marketing ads from the 1970s proclaiming “Nothing Runs Like a Deere” for its chainsaws.
One of the most famous Homelite models – the XL-12 – even appeared on a poster for “Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation”, indirectly linking Deere’s former acquisition to pop culture. Internally, Deere’s own documents listed Green Machine, Homelite, and John Deere all together as company trademarks, a testament to how the firm saw its power-tool brands as a family.
In the end, John Deere’s chainsaws reflect a time when the company tried to extend its farm-and-lawn empire into every corner of outdoor equipment. The strategy of OEM partnerships allowed quick market entry, but the absence of unique Deere-built technology – combined with strategic missteps (such as inventory overstock in 1999) – meant the saw business never became a lasting core.
Today, John Deere’s chainsaws survive mostly in the hands of hobbyists, their history pieced together by serial numbers and service manuals rather than a corporate press archive.
