Chainsaws didn't gain immediate popularity in fire service because the chains tended to get dull when material other than wood was encountered. Captain Martin Bullard, a former machinist and officer of the Los Angeles City Fire Department's Heavy Utility Company, took the first step toward solving this problem in 1956 by attaching a piece of carbide to a chainsaw chain cutter. This was not an easy task, but ten years later Bullard was issued a U.S. patent for his attachment method. Bullard's patented chain stayed sharp longer, but unfortunately the carbide was prone to breakage and was quite expensive.
In 1984, Tom Ruzich, a California forest ranger and firefighter, developed a carbide-tipped chain that stayed sharp when cutting most building materials and suffered substantially less carbide breakage than Bullard's chain. Ruzich's improved chain made using a chainsaw with a carbide tipped chain cost-effective, and, in 1985, Cutters Edge was founded to manufacture that chain.
