Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Chainsaw chain sharpening

I have a Carlton Profi 110 set up for 3/8 chain and a Foley 308 set up for .325 chain. I have a number of chains for each saw and simply replace them when they start to dull. Spend an evening sharpening 3 or 4 chains at a time.

I've had a guide for years only used it for wonky filing for ripping with a chain saw mill. But for everything else I don't find 5 minutes to do it by hand a hardship and quicker than screwing around with some kind of device

LazyL + 1 , not workin hard but also donate wood. But I have a cold one in the woods while stroking the file

I have 5-6 chains in a bucket right now as I have not found a way to effectively sharpen them, just bought another new one. If I use one for several days around home (we have a heavily wooded lot) they get pretty dull and I keep them out of the dirt. Whenever I know I'm going to have a big job to do I always buy a new chain. I really need to sharpen the ones on the bucket when I figure the best way, never any luck with a hand file.

If you think an electric grinder is faster you're fooling yourself.

File and guide plus raker set keep me in tune. Only time I think a grinder would help is when I hit steel on one side of the chain.
Have seen friends grind half the chain away in one sharpening using a grinder.

try one of these ( get the right size for your chain)

you will be happy

The shop I used to take mine to had an electric set up made by Stihl. He was very good with it. Always wanted one of those but never bought one.

Will check that out!

If you want the best......

Get a Silvey or Simington square grinder.

Hot knife thru butter sharp.

Yep, ya gotta make sure "the blade" is level.

yes I'm kind of a fan of change sharpening gizmos..
I do have a bench mounted chain sharpening grinder. I've used it a fair bit it works. I know my weakness I try to do too much too fast and get the chain hot and then lose the temper on the tooth and then pretty much make junk out of the chain cuz it will not hold an edge.
I can sharpen one by hand pretty decent but not the greatest.
is your I do really like my grand granberg jig that mounts on the bar I can actually get chains sharper than factory with a little patience it's not very fast but it's very effective.
a good happy medium is the steel 3-in-1 file like you were shown above. I've learned to deal with it and do it in the timber or on a workbench and come out with good results. the easiest way is to put your sawbar in a vice and use two hands on the file assembly works the best in the easiest.

I use a file, DIY, and take at least 3 spares to the woods. Last time I had the local shop do one, a chain with about 1 hour of use on it came back with about 50+% of each tooth ground down. Don't think the kid took the time to do a proper setup.

Back when I looked at them, the Oregon Professional would have been my choice.

Dad gave me a Harbor Freight he picked up somewhere.

It worked, but seemed like a bunch of fiddling around.
Didn't give it a fair shake probably, but by the time I take a chain off, put one on,
sharpen the first and put it back on? It only takes a few minutes on a log or tailgate to sharpen a 24" bar and be done with it.


Plus I don't waste chain.
Rock three teeth?
Fix them, set the rakers, touch up the others and roll.
No need to grind off a quarter of every tooth just because a couple hit a stone.




3....
2.....
1.


They are lining up to tell me this is wrong.



IdHolton,
Dad has used the Granberg file n joint for 40 years.
Just saw it tonight on his bench.
It's slow and fidgety compared to hand filing, but it does an outstanding job.
It's also the best thing for a new saw guy.
Using it for awhile teaches much of what's needed for hand filing.

DREMEL here with chainsaw blade attachment.

5 min to hit all the teeth and also touch the rakers. It will then blow chunks of wood versus sawdust out of my 4 commercial saws from 14” up to my 460 magnum w/ 25” or 28”

Battery powered dremel so I can sharpen in the woods.

Cheap, fast, convenient, small and very effective. What is not to like about it?

I’m not taking chains off to sharpen, not giving up bench space for a large sharpener, not taking time to hand sharpen. I don’t even know where all my files are anymore…..I reckon they are out there somewhere in the pile of unused / retired

Again, cheap, fast, convenient, small and very effective. What is not to like about that? Whatever suits you but I’ll never again use anything but the Dremel

I hav a nice foley grinder I never use
I always file my chains
It’s way faster