Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire All chainsaw information appreciated here

I posted a picture of my Granberg G-106-A File-N-Joint earlier in this thread...here it is again.

I have at least half a dozen chains for each saw and when a couple need touch up sharpening I take them to the local hardware store and for $5 they sharpen them. I have files and jigs but it’s just easier for me to drop them off one day and pick them up the next. I usually buy a couple chains a year from the Stihl dealer, they have a buy one get one half price sales sometimes and that’s when I stock up.

Here is an informative source if you like forums similar to the 'Fire: http://www.forestryforum.com/

I inherited one of those sharpening jigs from the late former husband and I really should give it a try because using my files like I have been would have my saw cutting around in a circle given a big enough log. My saw is telling me that I've been filing my chains more on one side than the other..

I can make a dull chain cut better, but it's still going to be a long way from a professionally sharpened chain. I just take them to the local saw shop.

Bristoe, there is something none of us has mentioned yet.

Here in NSW the Rural Fire Service runs saw courses pretty much encompassing all one needs to know about the use and maintenance of a chainsaw, and I would bet London to a brick that similar agencies in your area would do the same.
They generally have a reasonable selection of saws to play with and it would give you the opportunity to see what suits you.


And as some have mentioned, higher octane fuel does make the saw start and run easier, I use 98 and run the mix at 50:1...it also pays to run decent bar oil in the saw, a lot of the commercial cutters around here mix the bar oil with used motor oil, I refuse to do so as I only use 20 litres of bar oil for the season so the cost is negligible in the scheme of things.

All well and good but personally,I think anyone should just learn how to sharpen a chain. 3-4 times a day for about a month and you should get the hang of it. It does help to have someone who knows to show you a couple times.

Sometimes a bar needs filing too where the edge has rolled over. When a chain gets a little worn a couple strokes on the drags will make it cut better too.

I’ll touch up a chain with a file in a pinch.
Have jigs but don’t use them. Just the little clamp on guide.
Like sharpening a knife. Get a good angle and keep it.
I grind chains. I take care of a friends chains with an orchard. Used by workers who don’t care.
They get rocked a lot.

And once you got grinders set up right a 20” chain takes maybe 5-6 minutes. And if you got the angles right and know how to grind......it’s sharp. If you don’t know......don’t cut very well.

One toolmaker to another a flat file for the depth teeth, the correct diameter round file ( I use Sandvic ) for the chain size, same number of full strokes on each tooth, and a little practice you will be fine. Stihl chain has the angle etched on the top of the tooth but if you give the chain a few strokes after every tank a fuel and don't hit anything with it you can lay the file into the tooth and get the feel for the angle before you start. Get a depth gage for the depth teeth. Turn your bar over when you feel a wire edge building up and flat draw file the top surface of the bar the lightly break the edge

I use Grobet files when I can get them.
Pricey but best I’ve used.

Grobet's are hard to find in my part of the country. Also I use a 5" bench vice to clamp the bar in to sharpen the chain on the saw in the shop. Tighten the chain before you start to hold the link flat against the bar before starting. Stihl has a double same side tooth and a green link to use as a start marker. I use a paint pen on my Husky's to mark the starting tooth. A linoleum knife works well to clean out the bar channel and also give the nose sprocket a shot of grease every time I flip the bar unless it is a hardnose bar

Also skip tooth chain is for added chip clearance for large diameter cuts and softer wood. A lot of people run them because they have an underpowered saw for the cut length. Same as a mill, chip load per engagement in cut. On small diameter, short cuts they vibrate a lot more

I like the linoleum knife idea.
Grobet files always seem hard to find. But for gun work they are a joy to use.

If you're going to do an appreciable amount of cutting, plunk down for a chain grinder



It's one thing to touch up a chain with a file, but to get every cutter to the same angle, depth and length as well as setting the depth of cut as the chain wears a grinder is the tool for the job.

At least someone has a sense of humor and was paying attention!



This morning, my usual crude technique......

Lonny;
Thanks. I enjoy saws and making them work as well as possible.
I have been lucky to know a lot of knowledgeable people to compare different things.

I’m lazy. I like the things that make my job easier.

Like 40:1.......it’s insurance......

I'm surprised that lots of places don't have the no alcohol gasoline. Most of the premium gas in these parts is leaded and we have one station in town that has no alcohol mid grade which has a lower flash point than premium gas. I really like that stuff in all my small engines. According to the manual being okay and before I knew better I ran no lead regular in a snow blower and the muffler was glowing cherry red. That can't be good for the piston I thought to myself. I switched to that leaded mid grade or premium and have never seen that exhaust that hot again. I was talking to the John Deere dealer down in Milwaukee and he told me that the majority of their maintenance issues is because of the bad, oxygenated, unleaded Milwaukee gasoline. He takes his own gas cans out of the area to get the better gasoline for his small engines. I never gas up the vehicles in big cities for the same reason.

I have a stihl 250 for yard work and it's great. It's a light weight saw with decent power for it's size. It's cut waaaaay more for me than it was designed for!

Yes, sir it is!

There are only 3 countries in the world that still have widespread use of leaded fuel. The US isn't one of them. I'm not sure where you get gas in Milwaukee, but I can assure you none of it is leaded.