tending to your chains

[willt1981]

i want to see how most of you guys keep your chains in order. ive been doing alot of cutting for several years now and have to say i hand file almost all the time. when i first started i think i would make the chain duller but i bought one of those small roller guides that sit on top of the tooth and it let me get the feel of how a REALLY sharp chain should look. i was soon able to replicate this sharpness free hand and actually improve on it. i kept assuming that a grinder would do this good of a job but much quicker. a few years ago i got a fairly inexpensive oregon grinder for christmas. i can get a chain to cut fairly well with it but nothing like when i hand file. is this what most of you guys experience? not to brag but i can sharpen a chain that will fly through seasoned locust like im cutting green white pine with my 460 when i file by hand but when i use the grinder its slow going. i still use the grinder to clean up chains that have hit rocks and need alot of metal taken off. ive always been a little disappointed that i never got better results from my grinder though. can most of you guys get a chain much, much sharper when hand filing?

 

[Steve NW WI]

I've got similar experiences to yours. I have a hard time not burning the chains when I grind them, just not patient enough I guess.

I like the Husky roller guide as well, and I'm probably better off using it that freehanding, so I'll stick with it.

For now, the grinder is saved for rocked chains. I'll likely spend more time on it and get better with it after a while. I've seen some great grinder jobs, and a lot of poor ones. I'd really like to know the secrets of the guys that can do the great job with them.

Once my cash starts overflowing and falling out of my pockets, I might try one of those high $ bonded wheels that's supposed to run a lot cooler and see if it helps me. I do know that holding a consistent radius on the wheel would help.

 

[mtngun]

Grinder guy here. I sometimes do a light touch up with a file, and sometimes after grinding, I'll give each tooth one stroke of a file to clean up the gullet, something the grinder doesn't do so well. But otherwise, I can grind way better than I can file.

Secrets ? The wheel should only lightly graze the chain.

 

[centennial60]

I've been using a file with a guide. Never tried a grinder though. I can see how it might be nice to straighten out a chain that has hit something though.

 

[loadthestove]

Grinder guy here. I sometimes do a light touch up with a file, and sometimes after grinding, I'll give each tooth one stroke of a file to clean up the gullet, something the grinder doesn't do so well. But otherwise, I can grind way better than I can file.

Secrets ? The wheel should only lightly graze the chain.

:agree2:

 

[mattmc2003]

well, the way i see it..... the oregon factory grinds their chains. so one would think that they would have the best grinders out there. right? and i have actually put a fresh out of the box oregon lgx against another that was new but filed once. on identical husky 55 saws... and my hand filing won by a fair amount. i'm not the best by no means, but if i can file better than the factory can grind.... that says a file is better to me. just my opinion. maybe not as consistant but sharper and faster.

 

[treeserv.jax]

after i have sharpened a chain a couple of times a take a flat metal working file & file down the hump on the links so it can really bite.

 

[Nosmo]

Hand File Mine

I can't say which is better - machine grinding or hand filing but I can say I am satisfied with my hand filing. I've done the hand filing for my own saws since the 1970's.

Nosmo

 

[svon89]

When you are hand filing, how do you hold everything still? I am not good at filing, and have a friend who has a grinder who does my sharpening. I get some that cut really well and some that don't.
I hand sharpen all of my woodworking chisels, so with a little patience I do think hand filing would be possible for me.
Thanks

 

[willt1981]

When you are hand filing, how do you hold everything still? I am not good at filing, and have a friend who has a grinder who does my sharpening. I get some that cut really well and some that don't.
I hand sharpen all of my woodworking chisels, so with a little patience I do think hand filing would be possible for me.
Thanks

im not sure if holding still is so much the objective. what really clicked for me when i became better at hand sharpening was seeing what a well sharpened chain should look, feel, and cut like. then it was just a matter of replicating that. as someone said earlier - a good hand filed chain is much sharper than one out of the box. im not sure that i could explain very well how i even do my hand sharpening. sometimes ive been sharpening around my father-in-law and ill be doing something that i think is normal and he'll say "what the hell are you filing down for?" i tried to explain to him that to keep the same hook angle you had to file down on the tooth toward the drive links until the tooth is "deep" enough again. i dont think he got it. i think it just takes practice and realizing that your basically making a sculpture everytime you sharpen your chain - espically when the teeth get smaller.

 

[rmihalek]

I think the heat generated by grinders takes some of the hardness out of the cutter. I found that my hand filed chains cut as fast as my grinder-sharpened chains, but stay sharper longer. I haven't measured this in any precise way; it's just seems the hand-filed ones cut faster for longer, maybe three or four tanks of fuel compared to two or three tanks for the grinder chains.

 

[savageactor7]

Very pleased hand filer here...

...I do take an angle grinder to the rakers though...a lot faster that way. What's a couple thousands of a inch? I'm cutting wood not turning a cam shaft.

 

[STIHLMAN83]

I hand file and has been working well, do not like grinders. Take the rakers down every third file with a flat file.

 

[Kong]

I really have to chime in here, but before I do please understand that I am a hand filer too.

Here are the arguments for getting a grinder. You know them but let's say them out loud.

There is no contour that can be achieved by hand filing that can not be duplicated by a properly set up grinder. From there if you have a grinder that doesn't have any slop in it it follows that the grinder can duplicate with precision and unlimited repeatability the best that can be done by hand on a single link - and remember the grinder can do it time after time.

Then there is the question of burning metal. Maybe the reason people find themselves taking too much metal off when they use a grinder its because they didn't use the grinder early enough or often enough. If you use the grinder in place of hand sharpening entirely you shouldn't have to take off any more metal than with a quick hand touch up. See what I mean? Its not the machine's fault, its the operator waiting too long to get around to doing it right.

So those are the arguments I give myself. I don't try to kid myself into thinking my hands are steadier than a well-fitted machine or that somehow I've developed some sharpening wisdom that has been lost to the engineers at the big chain making manufacturers either. Sorry, I'm just not that good. But, like I said, I still do it by hand. Maybe this year will be the one when I buy a sharpener. I see it as along the same lines as buying a splitter, just one more thing I know I should do but haven't got around to yet. I will though. I'd suggest you do too for just the reasons above.

 

[logbutcher]

Hand filing WITH a guide; if you need to do it in the woods :greenchainsaw:, then a stump vise will keep the B&C steady.

Search PFERD... it's the one guide that does it all. Simple, foolproof
( an ape can ), reliable tool. Better than silicone :monkey: .

 

[mile9socounty]

I dont have any pictures. And if I did, this Inet connection is way to slow to upload pictures. When I free hand. Its either in a bench vice or in my lap. When I hold the saw in my lap. Im sitting flat on the ground, legs bent up. One or the other arm wrapped around the power head and the other leading the file. Pretty simple. File with your saw standing on the rear handle. Thats a tricky one.

 

[stihlcountry]

I,ve been hand filing for many years and do as good a job as any I,m told. I was allways afraid of getting the teeth too hot on a grinder. It wood be like putting my pocket knife on the bench grinder I guess. :greenchainsaw:

 

[banjobart]

Hand filing is best once you learn to get the correct hook, mostly by look and the feel of the file in the gullet. Always clamp the bar in a vise. I have a nice vise at home and one in the shop plus a portable for the truck tailgate.

 

[bullseye13]

I agree that a vise is the best way to go. Either clamp the bar on the saw in it or clamp the drive links in the jaws. I use one of those small file guides you get from Stihl, and i like it. When i used to get chains sharpened on a grinder, i would never be quite happy with them and file a few strokes afterward. That would definately help.

Now im at the point where i can get a chain as good or better than new with a file. Even on chains that are severly rocked out, it only takes 15 strokes a tooth or so.....

 

[willt1981]

alright, i'm curious now. whats with the vise? i've never used one but i'm always open to ideas for improvement. is it easier to get sharp? maybe im just holding my bar still enough with my hand? - don't know. i don't have a problem getting really sharp hand sharpened chains as ive said but somebody tell me whats the vise for?