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No, I mean a good old fashioned round file, with no guide. Am I a pro miller? No. I don't know any pro millers that use a chainsaw mill. I am, a fourth generation licensed and insured Arborist. I've been hand filing chains for 40 years. I also collect Savage model 1899 rifles that were hand filed and fitted, a common practice 100 years ago. Savage quit making the 99 in the 1990's because the hand fitting was too expensive to make a profit. Yet, I can shoot groups with my Pre-WWI rifles that can rival anything that comes off a CNC machine today. It's amazing what the human eye and hand can do when they work together. When you are a hobby miller you don't have any clients per say, so who cares what they want to watch. On the other hand, I've had clients, when removing trees, get their neighbors and watch me free hand a bench. They find it amazing that one can cut a 12/4 slab by hand. It's really not amazing at all, it just takes some practice. You mention speed several times? I'm retired, all I do is fish in the spring and summer, hunt in the fall and winter, and mill in between. To quote a machinist friend of mine, "what's time to a pig?" I could care less how long something takes, I've always got tomorrow, till the good Lord takes me home. I try to walk at least an hour a day. I've got an Oak staff I found in the woods, that I thought would make an interesting walking stick. While walking I take a piece of sand paper and polish the staff, it may take a year to finish. But that's quicker than my original plan of hand rubbing it till smooth, I was getting blisters, my hands are getting soft since retiring. When I was in business, I tried to teach the young guys that "time is money". Now that I'm retired and getting old, I've realized that all that money, won't buy me any more time. The true wealth in life is how many friends you have, and lives you've touched.
So, welcome to the site. Teach us old guys some new tricks. We will try to teach you some old ones.
Cheers, Joe.
