Chain sharpening

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jackjcc

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For a bit of fun, got a coworker who thinks there shouldn’t be any cup to the gullet when chain sharpening. No idea where he got this division from, but he is gonna bring me the literature the supports his style. See pics below, in one sentence rate the filing work he has done please, I will be sharing them with him.
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Arborists can be so stubborn with their chain sharpening [emoji23]. In his defense he claims not putti be a proper gullet in the tooth means it will stay sharp longer, I think he might be right but when it doesn’t cut fast does it matter how sharp it is?


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Sorry but i cant see much detail in the pictures so i cant give an opinion on them

But if it shouldn’t be there (the “cup”)then why do they come like that from the manufacture? [emoji848]

And is he using the correct diameter round file? It looks a but odd from what i can see. But im no pro.

Sent while firmly grasping my redline lubed RAM [emoji231]
 
Not a whole lot of detail I can make out. But from what I can see the tooth doesn't have any hook at all, and the gullet needs to be seriously cleaned out.

Not enough hook will make the tooth blunt and not cut well at all. The gullet needs to be cleaned out for chip clearance.

Here's a few pics of a decent work chain.
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Spot in, for the life of me I can’t convince him that chains need to look like what you posted.

Sorry the pics are bad, I use tapatalk and now they require “VIP Access” or something to upload high quality photos.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
In his defense he claims not putti be a proper gullet in the tooth means it will stay sharp longer, I think he might be right but when it doesn’t cut fast does it matter how sharp it is?

He is right about the blouter angle wearing slower, but at the expense of cutting speed and self feeding. He's carried it to the extreme. I sometimes quit filing before getting the sharpest edge to pinch a few pennies, but realize there is a balance between that and fuel consumption, comfort, and safety.
 
gonna be blunt, your friend is wrong. without the top plate cutting into the wood first the sides will do nothing. that chain probably spits dust the entire time. the top plate in combination with the depth gauge/raker determines the amount of wood to cut, the side of the tooth just cuts the side to get the chip to through better clearing the cut as a result. no gullet means that the top plate probably never has a chance to cut anything and just through dust as a result.
 
I'll admit, a couple years into using saws and sharpening my own chains, I ran my Makita with a similarly 'sharpened' chain. (Though it did have a little more hook than the ones the OP showed.) It would cut, not great, but you had to really lean on the saw. It would wear you ass out. After a couple of cuts, I switched the chain out with a new one I had brought along. Now that new one cut much better. It self-fed itself into the wood.

Later, I read up on proper sharpening (thanks AS), by adding hook/cleaning out the gullet. I sharpened that first chains cutters to the profile of a new out-of-box chain. That sharpened chain cut like new again.
 
The gullet cuts. Place a straight edge against the side of the chain, and you will see the chain is proud of the rakers.

I wouldn't argue with him. Let him be happy with his chains and his superior sharpening skills.
The gullet doesn't cut, examine the chips and you will see this. Some of the side plate does.[emoji111]
 
That is what I was trying to say. I'm not sure about the gullet that Buckin Billy Ray promotes. Get the Gullet? I figure he must be talking about the side plate, so that it what I call it.
Billy mostly means the gullet. Billy knows what he's doing, and does it effortlessly, lots of muscle memory there.[emoji106]
 
That chain could cut, but not well. The gullet helps to clear the chips.

He will eventually blame the poor performance on it being a "safety chain".

Best thing to do is to take a properly sharpened chain of the right size, and have him compare cutting with both of them side-by-side.

Will do more than words.

Philbert
 
Can't argue with the results Billy gets. Myself, I have no patience with files, and use Stihl stones and a dremel. I hit the rakers so that I hardly have to put pressure on the saw during a cut.

Right, we're supposed to comment on the first pictures. Well, if you can't say anything good........you know the rest.
 
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