Square or Round Chisel Chain?

[char]

We have a fleet (11-12) of 044, 441 and 460's at work. All have 28-32 in bars on them.

These saws are used on wildfire for everything from brushing, limbing, bucking to falling large trees.

I am curious about the stay sharp ability of square versus round and the ease of field sharpening. Weight = time so we aren't carrying around portable chain grinders or a bunch of extra chain. And we are typically miles from the truck and carrying 1 spare loop.

Square should give much better cutting speeds, correct? But can be more difficult to field sharpen or is that just a myth.

And I'd have to switch out my round files for square files? Best to reset the angles on a grinder when we get back to the shop?

 

[jack-the-ripper]

No, that is not a myth. Square grind is very hard to hand file. Between the two choices, you would be better off with round chisel.

 

[bigjake]

I like square just because it gets busy .but i never sharpened it a buddy
with a tree service does.

BTW out of the saws you use witch model is your favorite as everyday .

 

[char]

I don't really care which one I grab they all do the job equally well.

The older 440/044 for the weight. But after 10+ hours of hauling the thing around weight doesn't really matter. The 460 is a good saw to go out falling snags if that is what you know you are going to be doing.

 

[mile9socounty]

Stick with the round file. We use both round and square on our saws during fire season. Just all around easier is the round. Quickest to sharpen by yourself. Thats what Ive found out.

 

[BobL]

I reckon round ground definitely lasts longer in harder wood. This is clearly demonstrated when milling wide (36'+) hardwood slabs where freshly sharpened square ground runs the saw out of fuel consistently before the round. It's so consistent I've given up using square ground in hardwood. In soft wood it then comes down to how dirty the conditions are with dirty conditions favoring round ground.