The bows were used mostly for limbing a tree. They would use a straight bar to fell then the bows for limbing which took more time and effort. With a bow you didn't get the chain down in the dirt as easily. A lot of those old saws had a gear driven chain, not direct drive like most saws are now. They were big heavy monsters! One that comes to mind was the Mac 35. It had the crankshaft north to south instead of east to west like they are now.