Where are Carlton saw chains manufactured?

[windthrown]

cotton wood can have a lot of silicate in it, especially if it's growing in sandy soil. i took one down a few years ago. it was in the bosque, by the rio grande, , stem 36" to 48", had to sharpen my chain after every cut, wore the chain down and threw it away. it was oregon but i don't blame them. cottonwood can be bad.

When it is big and dry, cottonwood here is hard as a rock. I had a wood salvage permit 3 years ago to cut and remove firewood from a flooded river area. There were some huge 3'+ cottonwood logs so I tried to cut them. That stuff dulled my chains pretty fast. So I moved on to getting the alder, cherry and fir. All the cottonwood stank when I burned it anyway, so I do not cut it any more. Smells like cat pee.

 

[lmbrman]

Anybody try the 'unbranded' carlton chain, or have any info on it? I see it in some shops, suspect it comes from the place that starts with A.

 

[Wood Doctor]

If you're only getting 6 to 8 cuts from a stihl chain in 30" cottonwood something is wrong.

Not really. That's the average. Sometimes we can get 10 bucks in big stuff, but it's rare. Cottonwood is tougher than you think. Changing the chain is a lot cheaper than burning up dull chain (and bars) and wasting time and fuel. Also, the bark is often packed with sand and Lord knows what else from floods.

Windthrown and HeyDuke also know.

 

[Philbert]

Sounds like one of those rare occasions where carbide chain might be a realistic option.

Philbert

 

[imagineero]

Maybe yours are different from ours. The most common poplar in aus is the populus italica which is just nasty and rotten but easy cutting, could tut it all day long. They're tall and thin, and don't get much bigger than 30-40" at most. Less common is populus deltoides which is much more spreading but just as stinky and rotten and get a lot bigger in the barrel but still not particularly hard cutting and I'd expect to cut them all day with a good sharp chain. Populus sect. aegiros is the one we don't seem to get here or at least I've never seen one. Is that what you guys are cutting? Maybe it's harder

 

[Wood Doctor]

Sounds like one of those rare occasions where carbide chain might be a realistic option.

Philbert

We tried carbide also on the flooded plains when clearing big cottonwoods. The carbide chain would last much longer but cut at about half the speed. Sharpening carbide chain also costs three times as much. The diamond sharpening wheels are also still priced out of sight. Best bet was to use Carlton or Stihl full chisel and expect to sharpen them twice as often when removing trees dying from floods.

 

[Philbert]

The carbide chain would last much longer but cut at about half the speed.

!!! Even when you talked to it ?

Philbert

 

[MCW]

Best bet was to use Carlton or Stihl full chisel and expect to sharpen them twice as often when removing trees dying from floods.

Your best bet would have been to use semi chisel

 

[Wood Doctor]

Well, Matt, looks like things went really south. I may head for your neck of the woods after Hillary replaces Barack.

We've tried skip tooth cutting big cottonwood with very little improvement. It cuts faster (but rougher) on a few initial cuts and then conks out sooner because you have fewer cutters at work.

 

[MCW]

Don't head to Australia, we're just as bad

 

[Sapo_feo]

All Carlton skip is still made in the US, the Chinese don't like to re-tool for a few thousand feet. If there was more demand for skip then I'm sure they would have no trouble making a dedicated line. Until then the 20 remaining hillbillys in Portland have a job. One of the guys I used to work with got some Chinese Carlton to test a few years ago so the move has been planned for a while. He made a few loops but it stretched so bad he never finished the rolls and Carlton never came back for them.

 

[windthrown]

Maybe yours are different from ours. The most common poplar in aus is the populus italica which is just nasty and rotten but easy cutting, could tut it all day long. They're tall and thin, and don't get much bigger than 30-40" at most. Less common is populus deltoides which is much more spreading but just as stinky and rotten and get a lot bigger in the barrel but still not particularly hard cutting and I'd expect to cut them all day with a good sharp chain. Populus sect. aegiros is the one we don't seem to get here or at least I've never seen one. Is that what you guys are cutting? Maybe it's harder

We have different species of cottonwood here in North America. Where I live we have what we call black cottonwood, Pop. trichocarpa (AKA: California poplar). It is one of the largest (if not the largest) of the poplars in North America. They can get huge. Mature black cottonwoods attain heights of 125 to 150 ft. (225 ft. is the max) and diameters of 48 to 60 in. (108 in. is the max). They have a lot of fiber, and are used mainly for pulp here. We also have Quaking Aspen here at elevation which are tall and thin. Farther east and north they have Balsam poplar, Pop. balsamifera, a very closely related species to Black cottonwood in growth and habit, as well as wood. When they are smaller and green, they can be soft to cut. But when they get really large and dry, they can turn really hard. They are in the willow family, and like willows, tend to collect a lot of grit in the bark.

 

[sawfun]

I drive a transit bus that goes right in front of Blount in Milwaukee Oregon and haul some of the workers. Carlton and Oregon is still made there. Probably more Carlton. More workspace is being converted to office space as more actual chain is increasingly being made in China. The worry of some was that it was going to be just a corporate headquarters at some point. The do chain testing and research there however. Interestingly enough, one guy said the concrete cutting chain was gaining popularity very quickly.

 

[OBX Koastie]

I don't cut a lot of wood but a lot of what I do cut is not the cleanest including red oak, gum and pecan. While the Stihl chains still stay sharp longer the difference between Stihl and the WoodlandPro I get from Bailey's is not that noticeable. I do no like Oregon (easy to sharpen but too soft) and the only way I would take Husky chain would be if it was given to me so I could sell it on fleabay. No mater what angles I tried, no matter how I tried to follow their directions to the "T" I could not get the chain to stay sharp. Finally threw two loops away each half used. I was just given a loop of Tilton (Made in China) chain to try with a Tsumura bar I got from a site supporter. Henry says he is sending one with each bar ordered. We'll see how it compares.

 

[MacLaren]

Are the new Carlton Speed Tip bar's as good as the old Windsor Speed Tip?

 

[heyduke]

We have different species of cottonwood here in North America. Where I live we have what we call black cottonwood, Pop. trichocarpa (AKA: California poplar). It is one of the largest (if not the largest) of the poplars in North America. They can get huge. Mature black cottonwoods attain heights of 125 to 150 ft. (225 ft. is the max) and diameters of 48 to 60 in. (108 in. is the max). They have a lot of fiber, and are used mainly for pulp here. We also have Quaking Aspen here at elevation which are tall and thin. Farther east and north they have Balsam poplar, Pop. balsamifera, a very closely related species to Black cottonwood in growth and habit, as well as wood. When they are smaller and green, they can be soft to cut. But when they get really large and dry, they can turn really hard. They are in the willow family, and like willows, tend to collect a lot of grit in the bark.

Here in new mexico we have the fremont cottonwood, Populus fremontii. old growth can be quite hard and difficult to cut. when it grows in sandy soil, like in the bosque (forest) by the rio grande, it often has a lot of silicate in the bark and wood and can be hard on chains. below are some fotos of a hundred foot tall fremont cotton wood that we wrecked. besides siliicates the lowest ten feet were full of old hand forged nails. even in the cuts without nails, i had to resharpen the chain after each cut, wore out a couple of chains.





this tree had very large branches overhanging the structures in the background.

we also have balsam poplars here. they have smooth bark like our native aspens but are shaped like fremonts. they are an invasive species and grow like weeds.

 

[Philbert]

That's some tree!

Philbert

 

[windthrown]

we also have balsam poplars here. they have smooth bark like our native aspens but are shaped like fremonts. they are an invasive species and grow like weeds.

All c-wood/poplar/aspen is invasive. Locally people hate it because when the trees fall, and they just sprout more cottonwoods from wherever they touch the ground. So you have to fall it and then get rid of it all. They are that easy to propagate (similar to willow) and that is how they make dense stands here along all the rivers and streams. We also have other types of c-wood here that are from the east that people brought with them and planted on their farms. It has a solid white center, vs. the green-grey center wood of black c-wood.

That is one bad-ass log there, must be a bytch to buck and split. And for all that effort you get pretty low quality firewood. Does that species stink when it is burned like black c-wood does? I do not burn black c-wood any more because it smells like cat pee to me. Guys in Maine say that the Balsam c-wood smells the same when its burned.

 

[MCW]

Are the new Carlton Speed Tip bar's as good as the old Windsor Speed Tip?

Same bar so shouldn't be a difference. Unless the paint changes something

 

[MacLaren]

Same bar so shouldn't be a difference. Unless the paint changes something

Cool. Thx MCW