Chainsaw Chains......

If you have a GOOD chain on your saw you should be able to cut a long bed pickup load of wood, dry or green without a problem. I've been cutting wood all winter in a logging cut over and only sharpen a little after each load. It's dry white oak, hickory and other hardwoods. It must be a cheap chain.

I have wanted some type of a sharpener like that as I use to stink at sharpening chains.

My dad told me that the heat from being sharpened that way will cause the chain to not hold an edge very well.

Bummer.

good news is I am finally getting the hang of sharpening with a file.

Mine works awesome. You cannot bury the wheel and let it sit there. You have to kind of tap it. About 3 taps per cutter. If you see any color change you are doing it wrong.

As with all things useful, these days, quality is becoming scarce.

Your standard chain may be the culprit.

I second Andy's choice of Stihl chain, but I'd use the rounded "chipper" style rather than the "chisel".
My experience is that the rounded tooth holds an edge better in foul conditions, but the full chisel is definitely the way to go when you are spending all day cutting large, clean timber.

I have no experience with carbide tipped chain, but would certainly enjoy the opportunity to give one a try.

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III

Only if you use it wrong will you overheat the chain tooth. As someone else said, you have to take small bites, and tap into the tooth with short periods of contact you will be fine.

I use nothing but this sharpener, and after sharpening, the chain holds an edge just as long as a brand new chain does.

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Never let your fear decide your fate!
Kein Mitleid für die Mehrheit

The only saws I've ever seen carbide teeth on were rescue saws the fire department brought to me to have repaired. Their biggest use was cutting into shingled roofs..

A big problem with a carbide tooth is, you can break off the carbide, and it can go flying and do a lot of damage to someone standing near..

You talk about cutting fast into a log.. WOW, but it's not cheap to have them sharpened... Also not cheap to replace, or repair missing teeth.

__________________
Never let your fear decide your fate!
Kein Mitleid für die Mehrheit

http://www.baileysonline.com/Saw-Chain/Carbide-Chain/

After 30 years of cutting 10 to 30 pulp cords of maple and oak, plus countless logs, plus a few years harvesting thousands of Christmas trees, I still cannot hand sharpen a chainsaw chain worth a darn.
Oregon makes a sharpener that is as nice as it is expensive. It looks like the one Northern sells. No doubt Northern's is made cheaper. I have bought an electric sharpener, that looks like those pictured, but made with plastic. You can see it is made cheaply. But on sale it is around $30.00 and if you are careful, it does a good job. I like the model that has a hand clamp that looks like the hand brake from a bicycle. It holds the chain in place while sharpening each tooth. Nice feature.
Don't forget that those raker teeth need to be ground down as the cutters get shorter from sharpening. If left too long, the teeth can't bite. Ground too short and the rakers let the tooth bite too much and then you have a bucking chainsaw.

How about waiting til the wood gets good and wet from rain-give it a try wet, I'll bet it cuts easier.

Like I said.. not cheap.. 2 grand for 100 feet.. .youch..

__________________
Never let your fear decide your fate!
Kein Mitleid für die Mehrheit

I don't have the patience to use a file... I used to use strictly the Oregon sharpener, but the shop I worked for paid for it.. I couldn't justify over $300 for a sharpener.. I had a tough time with the TS price too, BUT, it was almost a dead ringer for the Oregon. Yes, the tolerances aren't as tight, but it's made with all metal, and is pretty heavy, so I took the chance.. I'm happy I did.. the motor on it's really strong, and the bearings in it are nice and tight and no blade wobble or anything..

I've already sharpened a stack of chains for the neighbor, so it's come in pretty handy for making good neighbors

__________________
Never let your fear decide your fate!
Kein Mitleid für die Mehrheit

The problem the OP may run into is lack of water in the wood to cool the chain like green wood has. Get Stihl semi chisel chain and you should be fine. Semi chisel doesn't dull as fast and Stihl makes the hardest teeth. I prefer Oregon because of the softer cutters for sharpening by hand but if I ever ran into this problem I would go right to Stihl chain.

Dry oak, hickory, pecan, etc. will give most any chain a hard time. We (prison detail that I supervise) helped out with a huge (48+ inch) standing dead red oak that the city of Vidalia was having to cut off the street right of way. That thing was eating chains like crazy. They had 2 Husky 455's and were basically using one while the other was being sharpened and then trading out. They cut the main trunk with a big Stihl with a 36" bar and had to sharpen it twice before they got through it enough for it to fall.

I'm running the stock chain on my Husky 435 and the only time I have had problems was when taking down a big water oak at our pond. That thing was dulled my chain in no time. Glad a local logger taught me how to sharpen the chain! Strange thing is that felling the thing dulled the chain a lot faster than cutting it up did. Only had to sharpen it a couple of times in the course of turning it into little bitty pieces.

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"Ignorance can be cured, but there ain't no helping stupid." - Grandad

Don't buy a sharpener. You'll never use it enough. The newest and best way to sharpen saw chains are roller guides. Believe it or not you can grab them at lowes. Husqvarna makes them. Pick up some real files, Stihl shops have qualify files, you can also buy them online. Only downside to the roller guides is you need to sharpen on the saw. There is a guy on another forum who makes slick chain holders that work with roller guides. They're not cheap at around $100 but using roller guides you'll get sharper chains than a grinder. Most people struggle to use them correctly and even the $150 ones don't have great tolerances. Plus once you get good with the roller guides it teaches you how to sharpen correctly so if you're out in the field you can put a real edge on a chain if need be.

I can't agree with you bower.. .If I'm spending $100 to sharpen chains by hand, then I'm gonna spend another 50 and save myself a lot of time.

You'd be surprised at how tight that TS sharpener is.. .It doesn't take long to recoup the cost if you go through a lot of chains.. I'll need at least 4 or 5 cords of wood every winter.. if not more.. plus I've got a lot of land to clear.. I go through chains fairly fast.. I keep them out of the dirt, but I still cut a lot of tough wood, and a lot of fallen trees.. I've already paid for at least a quarter of mine this past year... If I would have had to take my chains in to have sharpened.. (you can't sharpen a rounded over chain by hand very fast or easy) then I would be out a lot of money and time.. Plus, there's not anyone anywhere close I could get mine sharpened..

For a typical city home owner, no, there's no justifying the cost of a sharpener, but for someone that has a lot of wooded land, and heats with wood, it's a very nice investment and time saver..

I've been sharpening chains for people for years and years.. I've sharpened thousands.. I wouldn't have bought that TS sharpener if it was weak or sloppy or I knew it wouldn't stand up.. It sharpens very consistently and the chains stay just as sharp just as long as if they were new chains.

__________________
Never let your fear decide your fate!
Kein Mitleid für die Mehrheit

http://www.drpower.com/power-equipme...insawSharpener

This baby has done hundreds of nasty stump cutting chains.

Yeah it's probably not good advice to spend that much on hand sharpening supplies. I cut around 30 cord of firewood per year (100 facecord) to sell. I sharpen all my chains by hand because I feel I can get a better edge on them than a grinder (generally true). Rocked chains get tough to sharpen, usually don't have any. It would probably take some trial and error with a grinder to not change the metallurgic properties of the metal by holding down too long. A quick drop is usually enough. I know that if I've only hit dirt two passes may be all it takes to sharpen the chain to preserve the life of the chain. If the OP is using quality chains then they're running into some pretty tough stuff. If they're not, I would suggest Oregon or Stihl SEMI-Chisel chain. If it's .325 pitch you might struggle to get it without safety bumpers (unfortunate). If it's 3/8 or 3/8LP you can find it without the safety feature. If you know how to correctly lower depth gauges (rakers), you will help yourself out too. Most don't even know how a chain works, or why a raker needs to be lowered. If anyone wants I would be glad to explain it.

With a good semi-chisel chain there should be no need for an electric sharpener. At least not without trying the roller guides. You might have to do a little filing of the guides to get them to fit your exact chain but other than that they give you a proper depth while allowing you to see what you're doing with the file. The typical file guide doesn't let you see what's going on as it controls the depth of the file from the top, where the roller guide is from the bottom.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_41169-86886-...ile&facetInfo=

Conveniently enough, they come with a raker file, and a couple Husqvarna files. Not sure where those are made or if they're any good. Generally you want to see, "Swiss Made" on the file. Vallorbe is the company before rebranding.

If you have a second person to hold the saw you can sharpen in the field pretty easily (do it all the time). Usually as fast as you can change a chain out. When you're home you'll need to throw it into a vice and chain the chain to sharpen multiples. But I can guarantee if you use a semi-chisel and have it sharpened correctly you can use one chain per session granted you don't hit too much dirt.

EDIT: OP, not a Husky guy but I beleive those are homeowner saws meaning they're probably .325. Carlton makes decent chains and .325 pitch without safety bumpers if you don't want them. Other than that you can get away with Oregon or Stihl and it might just be a pain to lower the rakers once they get level with the safety links.

I've put on brand new out of the box Husqvarna and Oregon chains, and same deal. If I can not get good quality from them two, where do you suggest I go?

I'm not dragging trees nor logs threw the dirt, they are cut in place off the ground then hand loaded on the trailer up to the supports to cut into 16 inchers.

I would gladly pay extra for a 'quality' chain, but what brand do you suggest as the two I have are not making the cut......literally.

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Stihl chain is the hardest. It's a little more expensive but for sure it is the hardest chain. Do you lower depth gauges on your chain and how do you hand file? With a guide?

I have a guide and an electric sharpener. I set up my electric one with a new chain to get my angle set, but only use it after 5-6 times with the hand file. Usually I hand file during each fill up and that gets me through the day.

After I hand file for a day I usually take that chain out of rotation (5-6 times with hand file) and will wait until I have about 8-10 chains to use the electric sharpener.

I check the depth gauges when I use the electric sharpener, that means after 5-6 hand files, I'll check em.

I'm not good enough to free hand (well, probably, but the guide works for me).

Like I said, I can take a chain straight from the box, put it on, tension it, and within 1-2 cuts, it seems as if I am using a hand-held gas-powered band saw. Really smooth cut, really dusty, and really, really slow.

I will try to get a Stihl chain as recommended and see if there is any difference.

Otherwise, I may just order a load or two of firewood for the remainder of this season and stick to cutting green trees and waiting for them to season for Winter 14-15 (and saving some chains in the process).

__________________
Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto- - Jefferson