Spare saw, or at least a b&c is always a good idea in case of disaster, but when my chain goes on a bar, it stays there til it gets demoted to stumping/trash work. Minus bar cleanings of course. I don't mind sharpening, and sometimes very much enjoy it, but my patience only extends to one sharpening in a row. I also *really* hate removing the bar, especially in the longer lengths. If I'm cutting clean hardwood, it gets sharpened every tank of gas. Softwood goes a bit longer. Dirty hardwood gets sharpened as necessary. Sometimes it's more than once just to get through a round D^:
Someone Might Care... Who Knows?
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Marc-Antoine
TreeHouser
Bulldozed trees or dragged across the lot by the backhoe are really annoying for that. Not only the bark is spread with dirt and gravel, but all the cracks and broken parts are filled with dirt too.
A landscaper asked me once to cut a load of firewood out of his wood pile. That was to complete the day after a quick climbing job. Once but not twice. From the amount of dirt I found, the ground level of the customers' yards is surely lower after he loaded the wood.
I find easy enough to stop cutting and resharpen as needed during the usual work. But alaping the stumps gets me every time. When the chain finds an embedded stone or a pocket of dirt, I have to continue the cut, sweating and cussing. Usually, it's of course with a brand new bar and it looses a good amount of it's working life in just one cut. Stupid.
A landscaper asked me once to cut a load of firewood out of his wood pile. That was to complete the day after a quick climbing job. Once but not twice. From the amount of dirt I found, the ground level of the customers' yards is surely lower after he loaded the wood.
I find easy enough to stop cutting and resharpen as needed during the usual work. But alaping the stumps gets me every time. When the chain finds an embedded stone or a pocket of dirt, I have to continue the cut, sweating and cussing. Usually, it's of course with a brand new bar and it looses a good amount of it's working life in just one cut. Stupid.
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Right on the dot, Burnham.
I go hard after the apprentices about that.
I will not tolerate them running a chain that cuts less than 90%.
I tell them, we are loggers god damn it, that means we are in the small select group of people on this green earth, who can file a chain.
I really try to instill some pride of being loggers into them.
Hard work and the pay is lousy, so all we have going for us, is the pride of being good at what we do.
I go hard after the apprentices about that.
I will not tolerate them running a chain that cuts less than 90%.
I tell them, we are loggers god damn it, that means we are in the small select group of people on this green earth, who can file a chain.
I really try to instill some pride of being loggers into them.
Hard work and the pay is lousy, so all we have going for us, is the pride of being good at what we do.
Frankie
I Build and Run Ported Saws !
When the chain begins loosing cutting performance (75-90%) of razor sharp according to Burnham or Stig it behooves you to STOP , drop and swap or grab another saw to continue the job .... If you try and “force” the chain you are stressing the Cutting attachment unnecessarily ... I prefer to have several saws with razor sharp chains / rakers adjusted ready for action ... Also if you stop just at the point the chain is beginning to dull a few swipes of the file is all that is needed to restore the edge and chain will give longer service life than if u dull it to shit and have to remove all that xtra tooth to restore it ... kind of a no - brainer imho ... You can touch up the chain(s) at home with favorite beverage and be ready for the next job
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Frankie
I Build and Run Ported Saws !
Time is $ ... by the time I file a chain by hand or drop stop and swap a new one I could just grab a gtg saw and have a face cord cut up ... This works for me , maybe different for guy deep in forest but idear is same
There is some talk above about cutting dirty wood and dirty stumps. Cutting so the last thing a tooth hits is the dirt, rather than the first thing it hits thus dragging the dirt thru the kerf, makes a giant difference. Usually a lot of dirty wood can be cut this way no problem.
Nutball
TreeHouser
Like this
Frankie
I Build and Run Ported Saws !
Dirty logs ... let the rain / snow hit em and then use the leaf blower blast away the debris ... a bore cut then up , down will keep the chain away from the bark and in the clean wood if excessive mud / dirt do not get blown away by the Leaf blower ... (hint : ported leaf blower works best) 
Frankie
I Build and Run Ported Saws !
No .... blow off the entire log where you are going to cut ONLY... I get my logs in 8ft lengths so it takes about .... um 20secs ... ymmv
CurSedVoyce
California Hillbilly
I have a better plan i implimented once.
Custy of ours, that had a tendancy to micromanage and bolster about his logging days back east, hired us for cutting the logs we felled. After he skidded them through decomposed granite muddy sand.
Had them all decked and ready. Knowing what I did about those logs from a previous visit, i showed up prepared to dish out a valuable lesson. I had plenty of extra chains and saws. Had plenty of files. This site was under developement so no water or electricity.
Rob and I proceeded to make 2-3 cuts, stop and file, then 2-3 more cuts, then file..... wash, rinse repeat cutting 16" firewood out of worthless pine. Long day, Rob grumbled when he could not be heard. I just kept telling him, pays the same to file as it does to cut.
Custy started getting really flustered watching how long it was taking, mentioned he was having the same issues, money adding in his head. Finally, after a few hours, he broke us off to do some real cutting/felling, saying he would just finish it himself because the endevour was costing too much for firewood. I slapped new chains on the saws and had at the proper work.
That dude never called me to cut firewood ever again. Ended up eventually firing him over some other stupid shit he pulled.
He later told me he got a small pile of wood out of it then gave up. Burned the rest in a pile. Cost him some chain
I got paid, made my day rate for two. Never had to move the wood. Just fuel, oil, and a couple of 1/2 life chains.
Totally worth it.
Custy of ours, that had a tendancy to micromanage and bolster about his logging days back east, hired us for cutting the logs we felled. After he skidded them through decomposed granite muddy sand.
Had them all decked and ready. Knowing what I did about those logs from a previous visit, i showed up prepared to dish out a valuable lesson. I had plenty of extra chains and saws. Had plenty of files. This site was under developement so no water or electricity.
Rob and I proceeded to make 2-3 cuts, stop and file, then 2-3 more cuts, then file..... wash, rinse repeat cutting 16" firewood out of worthless pine. Long day, Rob grumbled when he could not be heard. I just kept telling him, pays the same to file as it does to cut.
Custy started getting really flustered watching how long it was taking, mentioned he was having the same issues, money adding in his head. Finally, after a few hours, he broke us off to do some real cutting/felling, saying he would just finish it himself because the endevour was costing too much for firewood. I slapped new chains on the saws and had at the proper work.
That dude never called me to cut firewood ever again. Ended up eventually firing him over some other stupid shit he pulled.
He later told me he got a small pile of wood out of it then gave up. Burned the rest in a pile. Cost him some chain
I got paid, made my day rate for two. Never had to move the wood. Just fuel, oil, and a couple of 1/2 life chains.
Totally worth it.
On stumps you can start at a clean spot and route the cut so you pull clean chips outward at the dirt region, rather than chaining the dirt inward to the clean wood. If luck is on your side. And try to delay the dirt to the end.
I may have slightly conflated sharpening tools and tool bits which definitely start out harder, not soft. If Gronk blues a chain's teeth in a dirty stump, are the teeth work hardened or tempered on the fly? Those are two different things. My guess tempered. I think we're talking abuse to the degree of generating smoke. Yeah, I've witnessed that, once even in a non-stump cut (home owner).
I can see deformation by steel or rocking out being work hardening.
Speaking of dirt and wood, I kilned up some volcanic like ashes in my stove. Hardened, heavy. Guessing the wood had sand embedded in it? Looked clean, no bark. This particular wood just sat there as an orange ember for an inordinately long time. Took a medium normal toll on my chain sharpness when I cut it.
I may have slightly conflated sharpening tools and tool bits which definitely start out harder, not soft. If Gronk blues a chain's teeth in a dirty stump, are the teeth work hardened or tempered on the fly? Those are two different things. My guess tempered. I think we're talking abuse to the degree of generating smoke. Yeah, I've witnessed that, once even in a non-stump cut (home owner).
I can see deformation by steel or rocking out being work hardening.
Speaking of dirt and wood, I kilned up some volcanic like ashes in my stove. Hardened, heavy. Guessing the wood had sand embedded in it? Looked clean, no bark. This particular wood just sat there as an orange ember for an inordinately long time. Took a medium normal toll on my chain sharpness when I cut it.
Nutball
TreeHouser
Yeah, I wasn't talking about work hardening from the grinder, I was talking about hardening from heat from the grinder. I wouldn't be surprised if it happened from hitting rocks, I may have experienced that before.
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SeanKroll
Treehouser
Magnus
TreeHouser
Most I meet that have a hard time getting the chain sharp as they don't take time to fully understand the shapes and sharpness needed. Their interest in filing is limited to if it cuts or not.
Its all about goals and limits, when are you satisfied? I am never satisfied. I want to keep learning and experimenting to get it sharper and last longer. My goal logging beech was to run a day without loosing capacity or filing. I almost got there...
I filed two times, Lunch and evening. Unless I hit some rock or dirt etc..
To me its a matter of keeping chain sharp and NOT loosing the cutting capacity that is said here earlier.
It is not just for your safety a lot better, but also saw and in end wallet that benefit a lot from this.
Angles, type of file or chain etc none of that matter unless its sharp and stay sharp.
File often, as soon as you feel you lost a tiny bit of sharpness give it a stroke or two. More you get back behind the "tempered" surface and loose a bit durability.
Try out a bit different things what work for you.
Its all about goals and limits, when are you satisfied? I am never satisfied. I want to keep learning and experimenting to get it sharper and last longer. My goal logging beech was to run a day without loosing capacity or filing. I almost got there...
I filed two times, Lunch and evening. Unless I hit some rock or dirt etc..
To me its a matter of keeping chain sharp and NOT loosing the cutting capacity that is said here earlier.
It is not just for your safety a lot better, but also saw and in end wallet that benefit a lot from this.
Angles, type of file or chain etc none of that matter unless its sharp and stay sharp.
File often, as soon as you feel you lost a tiny bit of sharpness give it a stroke or two. More you get back behind the "tempered" surface and loose a bit durability.
Try out a bit different things what work for you.
Frankie
I Build and Run Ported Saws !
I’ve been experimenting a bit and have discovered that a “rough and finish” approach seems to work well ... For my round chain (sqr/rnd) I use a 13/64 roughing file to hog out the gullet and “rough-in” the tooth ... After doing both left and right hand cutters I go back with a “finishing” file with a squirt of wd40 on both the tooth and file - results have been excellent using this method - razer sharp chain ... A file is a cutting tool and a squirt of oil seems to bring me better results than dry filing - of course you have to clean the swarf more frequently but a file card makes quick work of it
biggun
Monkey for Hire
One of the guys I work with has a similar machine from Sweden. I was sceptical at first about the hardening etc. But holy shit Batman. His saw will cut. Sometimes he runs the chain 2 or 3 times through, taking just enough to make sharp but not blueing the tooth.
I can get a decent edge hand filing but his method is so much easier on longer chains. Also the margin for error is greatly reduced on 30” plus chains making the cut smoother.
biggun
Monkey for Hire
I have started using chalk on the files. Seems to make the file bite better and last longer and not fill with swarf.
Same guy who has the grinder shares the yard with a guy who is a fitter and fabricator/machinist. He always uses chalk when cutting metal.
Frankie
I Build and Run Ported Saws !
... The only difference is that mine is a newer version and is white instead of green ...
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Frankie
I Build and Run Ported Saws !
... this unit does both left and right cutters and the rakers ... It’s also quite a bit more expensive
SeanKroll
Treehouser
chalk???
Say more.
Say more.
biggun
Monkey for Hire
Sean, it stops the file dulling prematurely and keeps swarf out of the file.
Edit: doesn’t stop it dulling early, but just feels like it does due to the chalk keeping the swarf out.
Edit: doesn’t stop it dulling early, but just feels like it does due to the chalk keeping the swarf out.
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