Full vs Skip chain

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arborworks1 said:
I am buying a roll of Oregon here soon. Last few chains I got from the saw shop were oregon. They have done extremely well. Now can one find a better deal than 325$ for a 100' roll??
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Well, I bought another 100' of full comp. Just posting to tell of the great price I got at Madsens- $259 vs couple other quotes of $339!
 
Paul PCTREE or Cory will buy your roll of Oregon if you don't like it. I'm still willing to pay the extra dollars for Stihl chain only.
 
Oregon chain is just fine. It's great quality for the money. It's all I run. I like stihl chain, but I pay out the butt for it, and it does absolutely nothing for my bottom line at the end of the day. My Oregon chains hold an edge very well for me. If you hit a rock with Oregon, and you hit a rock with wnother brand, you end up with a dull chain either way. I can see why some guys prefer better chain. But for me, Oregon is readily available, fair priced, doesn't stretch, and holds an edge well.

I ran skip chain on a 20" bar on a 361 recently and didn't enjoy it. I cut alright, but had a feel to it that I am not used to. It seemed like the saw was howling at much higher rpms, but wasnt cutting any faster. I didn't run it for long, so my opinion on full skip on a small bar isn't carved in stone yet.
 
A lot of our opinions are shaped by our sharpening habits and methods combined to what we are used to. For the last 15 years, every single tree guy who has used one of my saws instantly says "Wow, that's really sharp" or something along those lines. Maybe I'm used to running a sharper chain than most. But for me, Oregon chain simply won't hold an edge like Stihl chain. I can run Stihl chain for 3-4-5 tanks of fuel between sharpenings (and I'll stop to sharpen before the chain begins to sag) but Oregon lasts about 1-1.5 tanks of gas before I can't stand it and have to stop and sharpen. So therefore my Stihl chain will end up cutting twice as much wood as a comparable Oregon chain which means the Stihl chain is actually cheaper for me to use.
 
cory said:
I thought the whole point of full chisel was you use a triangular file on it??
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That's not the point of it, but to sharpen it and keep the original profile and thus the advantages of it, yes. But you don't loose all the good things chisel provides if you change it some by using a round file.

Doing a good job hand filing with a chisel file is much harder than round filing, and a well sharpened round filed chisel chain cuts much better than one poorly filed with a three face file.
 
I've never used stihl chain except on 0200/201s. But I can say the Oregon holds an edge just fine, imo. I never file during the day and never have a problem unless I find a nail etc. Chains on my 372 last, I'm guessing, 4 mos.
 
Chains go dull a lot faster cutting at the base, to my mind, not a heck of a lot of difference between Oregon and Stihl there. I would say that the advantage of Stihl really comes into play when cutting in clean wood, how it holds it's edge longer.
 
Burnham said:
That's not the point of it, but to sharpen it and keep the original profile and thus the advantages of it, yes. But you don't loose all the good things chisel provides if you change it some by using a round file.

Doing a good job hand filing with a chisel file is much harder than round filing, and a well sharpened round filed chisel chain cuts much better than one poorly filed with a three face file.
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gotcha
 
Real square chisel cuts a lot faster it's just a pain in the butt to file .I can do it but I never claimed to be an expert at it .Round no problem .
 
arborworks1 said:
I am buying a roll of Oregon here soon. Last few chains I got from the saw shop were oregon. They have done extremely well. Now can one find a better deal than 325$ for a 100' roll??
Click to expand...

Have you tried Madsen's? Last roll I got on sale was $209 and $15 shipping. Reg price was $249-$279 depending. http://www.madsens1.com/
 
I prefer not to run full skip square chisel on anything less that a 24 bar. Pretty grabby. Cuts like butter, but damn can it get jerky. Can also get painful if it grabs a piece of fire wood, throws it and nails you in the shin. Bucking a log it is quick... Limbing scary. Might just be me. Even Rob will switch over to full comp round chisel on some stuff on the 18-20" just to smooth out cutting small stuff.
 
When did we start talking about square filed chain? I thought we were discussing skip versus full comp? I wasn't aware that either of those designations had anything to do with the shape of the file used. It's confusing enough without randomly throwing in other variables.
 
Ahhhhhh.. ok... well even round full skip can be grabby...


What were we talking about ?? :D


<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/0gjFTxHH7tw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
Skwerl said:
A lot of our opinions are shaped by our sharpening habits and methods combined to what we are used to. For the last 15 years, every single tree guy who has used one of my saws instantly says "Wow, that's really sharp" or something along those lines. Maybe I'm used to running a sharper chain than most. But for me, Oregon chain simply won't hold an edge like Stihl chain. I can run Stihl chain for 3-4-5 tanks of fuel between sharpenings (and I'll stop to sharpen before the chain begins to sag) but Oregon lasts about 1-1.5 tanks of gas before I can't stand it and have to stop and sharpen. So therefore my Stihl chain will end up cutting twice as much wood as a comparable Oregon chain which means the Stihl chain is actually cheaper for me to use.
Click to expand...
Ehh, that's just the professional in you speaking. :|:
 
Stihl full-skip chisel here, I concur with Brian's findings.

I gave up on Oregon ages ago as it was always just to damn soft.

edit: I don't run shorter bars though. On the ground I run a 46 as the smallest saw. Above ground I'll go from a 200t to the 361 with a 25" bar(which yes I still always call a 24" bar. Stuck in my ways I guess.)
 
Far far better. Try Bailey's at 259 to 279.....

That's high to me, as I've usually paid $200-220 for Stihl chain, from Madsen's. Prices are up, I've noted.

To add to the whole discussion, I run full comp on up to 24" bars, sometimes semi skip on 24, and up to 28, full skip on 28 sometimes, and all longer lengths.

As far as what chain is fastest, race saw chain, afaik, is always full comp. Tommy Fales would be the man to ask about race chain for longer bars for west coast competitions. He's the guy who makes race chain for many of the Stihl Timbersports fellas, to the tune of about $600 for a 20 inch chain. He breaks apart all the links in order to thin every cutter and link, then respins the whole she bang. Surely not the only pro chain maker, but the most well known. What a hoot he was on Arborist Site, till he was banned...he was worse than Dennis Cahoon by a factor of, oh, 3 or 4....and Cahoon is a trip too boot.

Squishie, I've heard Oregon chain is now much improved, harder, maybe even prestretched. Almost all my reels are Stihl......
 
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