Sharpening Your Chain

I file vertical. Easier to keep angles and profile. Gives a better result faster.
I turn file after first stroke so I don't push crap in file. Wipe file after each tooth.

The only way to get further and better results is to raise bar and keep learning and trying. There is no limit to how good it can be.
When you get it sharper than new you focus on keeping it sharp longer. If you get it to last half a day in logging without sharpening or loosing sharpness you are doing well, but there is still more to learn.
 
It seems that wiping the file would just cram the crap into the file.

Isn't tapping it against something more efficient?
 
grrrr reminds me got to go do my 105 and 93 after Fridays cutting of ice and snow covered hardwoods. Got called to hit some bigger stuff for a guy.
 
I am sure everone knows this, but in the first few minutes of the vid i got dizzy from the vid dancing around so shut it off. What i did not see in the first few seconds of the vid was a talk about the composition of a saw chain: they are made with a super hard chrome finish, but the body is mallable steel. That makes it easy to file. To sharpen a saw chain, first look for the worst tooth, then file everything else to match (in an ideal world). Sharpening does not really only mean a perfect curve or angle. First you must remove enough material to remove the scored chrome layer. If you get a perfect angle but the chrome layer is still scored behind your filing, then you will not have a good cutting chain.
 
Chisel cut, round ground, two different types of chain, two seperate types of users. Fellers cut high, with clean trees (no fences, crap grown into them or years of nailing lights, or whatever onto the trunks. Urban tree guys get all that crap on a daily basis. Round ground is more forgiving.
The other day i watched a feller friend cutting and felt terrible. His saw cut twice as fast as ours. But hit a fence wire or something and his chisel cut saw is down.
 
You’re going to have to explain the chrome finish/malleable steel thing in more detail please.

Outer layer, chrome hard finish, inner layer, softer steel. Check it out: when filing, see that layer that peels off? That layer is what is hard enough to cut wood.
 
I grind em on a silvey sdm4. Usually carry a couple extras, more if Im in dirty wood.

Imo they cut better than filed chains, and I can change one quicker than I can file it. I will admit to not being good at filing, never had to be since I had a grinder.

A really well filed (square chisel) chain will out cut a ground chain. But you have to be an excellent filer. All the cutters I know grind, its easier to get good chains.
 
I also have a Silvey 510 round ground plus a Silvey raker grinder. Got tired of spending evenings filing chain.
Round ground chains cut slower, but are less forgiving. If i was a faller, no question, i would go with chisel cut. But i work on urban trees full of crap, also we cut stumps very low because we usually gring the stumps.
Fallers are cutting clean trees with higher stump cuts.

Filing is an art, i know some guys who really get into it and do a great job. Weed smokers seem to be good at getting in the groove, but i am impatient
 
Zane, I have always heard that but I have yet to see it. I guess I don?t know any really good filers. My biggest problem is seeing where the chisel bit file is in relation to the corner of the tooth, even with good eyesight it?s difficult to see.
 
A lot of the race guys here grind their chains, and then file them.

For lots of dirty wood a round file makes sence, lots of chasers on the landing round file.

Dad learned how to file in the days before lits of grinders, and his filed chains cut very well, back when he could see.

Aye good light, high powered glasses, and a sharp file help. But Im no filer.
 
I've both taped the file at times and wiped it down the leg of my pants at times. Recently it occurred to me that I was probably slightly dulling the file each tap just like back dragging a file dulls one a bit. I decided I will only wipe the file for a few files and see if I notice a difference.

Wiping a file down my levies will knock most of the metal shavings out of a new file similar to cleaning a flat file with a "file card", a metal brush.
 
I never drag back file in cutter. I wipe every tooth. With the cutters, not against as when you file.
When chain get dirty after 20 or so filings I clean it. If that won't help I dip it in Apple cider vinigar let it sit for a minute and blow it of.
I get 150-200 filings of a file so I think I must do something right...
 
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