How Sharp?

[Terry Syd]

Saltas, I've been looking at my chains and I see that there is some wear on the outside radius of the semi chisel. I also looked at the thickness of my chips, which gives me an indication of how far down the side plate I need to look at. If I can find a very small diamond drill stone, I may be able to improve the cutting ability of the semi chisel chain.

When we put a lot of hook in the cutter, it cuts faster, but also wears faster. That is largely due to the lack of support for the chrome (the chrome is always the same thickness). It may be possible to remove some metal inside the curve of the cutter, but not take it all the way out to the chrome. In other words, keep the same support under the chrome, while reducing the thickness/resistance of the cutter going into the wood.

It appears to me that the removal of the metal from the inside of the corner of a square ground chain is a major element in making the square chain faster. Perhaps something similar can be done with a common semi chisel work chain.

With a proper bit in a Dremel, it would probably only take another few minutes to touch up a chain. The proof of the concept would be in trying the chain, that is, does the chain cut well enough and last long enough to justify that extra few minutes.

I may have trouble finding a diamond drill bit that small, but I'll see if I can find one and give it a go.

 

[David (saltas)]

Just a thought

Terry have you played with metal lathe?

Are you familiar with chip breaking TCT tips?

These stop the big long bits of the swarf you get with HSS , but they also transfer all of the heat into the chips
The chips look like "6" or "9" and they are dark blue indicating a lot of heat went into them.
If the heat is transferred to the chip the material and the cutter must be cooler, This reduces the wear on the cutter.

If you are removing material from were I think you are saying you may be heading towards this.

I wood expect to see more crescent shape chips.

 

[Terry Syd]

I'm at the point of just trying it and seeing what the results are. It wouldn't be the first time I've tried something and then gone back to the drawing board.

I don't expect dark blue wood chips coming out of the kerf, but it would be a hoot if they were smoking!

 

[lambs]

I have seen a few threads in the past week regarding sharpening saw chain and accessories, deep subject. Shops charge an exorbant amount for a task that takes mere minutes when done correctly. Most chainsaw buyers have no idea how to sharpen a chain properly, myself included when I bought my saw. So whats a guy to do?
I googled 'chainsaw sharpening'. I read instructions on how to do it. I watched a bunch of videos on how to sharpen chain. I asked my dad to show me how to hand file a chain, he is 73 and hard of hearing from running chainsaws with no ear pro most of his life. He told me how to do it, I watched him do it, I tried sharpening, he scolded me for not doing it correctly, we put the saw away.
I bought one of those nifty little orange pouches for 30 bucks, oh I guess it had a couple files in it, couple pieces of metal they call "guides" and some tiny wooden handles I suppose is what they were. So I use the guide, I follow all directions that I read, have been told, watched, and so on. Even check and file the raker/depth gauge whatever you want to callums. Chain looks sharp. Feels razor sharp too. Must be sharp. Lets put it to some wood. Dry, seasoned western larch, fairly soft wood, harder than pine though, nothing but tiny chips and dust when the saw hits it. Tiny chips and dust usually indicate dull chain right? The saw seems to go through the wood quickly but the dust and tiny chips are throwing me.
I am trying to figure out why I can't seem to get my chains back to near factory sharp. My angles appear to be good, cutters are clean looking, no ragged edges. So thats where I am at. Any tips or hints, something I may be missing? I will continue to sharpen my own chains and hopefully get better at it but until then, let the dust fly.

You're probably doing this already, but since I didn't notice anyone mentioning it, are you making sure you rotate the file as you use it on the cutters? It's a good idea to rotate it every few strokes to let filings drop out.