Thank you, guys for the good words.
Yes, Karen cooks very good. In 19 years she has only cooked about 2-3 meals that I couldn't/wouldn't eat, and we were trying something new and it just didn't work, LOL.
The GB bar is actually kinda wore out, but its the only bar that I can close the rails on, because I have about 10 stihl bars that are kinda wore and the bar rail closer that I have won't budge the rails. It barely moves the GB rails, but yes, I love the GB bars, in fact GB and Stihl are the only bars that I will use, and I have no use for any other. I got a good deal on several Stihl bars and thats about all I have been using for awhile, this GB was sitting on a nail hasn't been used in about 1 year.
I did finally blow a tip sprocket up on a 28" GB bar about 1 or 2 weeks ago. First tip I've blown up on a GB bar, but it has been used on/off for 4ish years.
I think the GB bars are the only thing next to Stihl in quality for the money. I have a Cannon 36", but I don't use it enough to give a testimony on that, I just assume they are very, very good, LOL.
I use Stihl Semi-Chisel Full Skip for everything falling and bucking up, and 20" bars on up. This last job with hard dry hill hickory and hard maple has really proved to me that it is the only type that I want to use. I tried Carlton Semi-Chisel-Full-Skip and had two saws with 20" bars running a loop of Carlton and Stihl and the Carlton was easily sharpened 4-5x's more than the Stihl and that is a very conservative figure.
I tried full comp and full skip chisel chain in both, Carlton and Stihl and while the Stihl was again better than the Carlton, I just couldn't keep the sharp tips on the full chisel teeth, and I would end up with more of a semi-catastrophic failure, as in a crooked cutting that had to be fixed, as apposed to a semi-chisel that would just get a little dull, but then one or two strokes of the file and it was back working hard again, and for many, many trees. I'm really at a point with the full chisel that I don't see the point in it. I agree it cuts slightly faster, typically the "computer video races" show its about 1 second per cut faster, but it fails at much faster rate and it takes a lot more filling or grinding to recover a quality, useable edge that you end up just becoming an expert at hogging out a chain's tooth with a file, instead of cutting. An amish guy that I worked for use to say that semi-chisel works pretty good dull, because it starts out partially dull to begin with, LOL. Again, I agree it might be a second slower on cutting, but the overall chain lasts much longer and you don't suffer the larger losses of life when the tooth edge "falls off" in the harder woods like Hickory and Hard Maple or dirty wood at the landing after you have skidded the logs through the mud/dirt.
Karen ran a brand new Stihl chain bucking up dirty/dusty and some muddy logs for 8-9 hours and I only sharpened her chain 5 times ...... I keep track of these things.
I assume all of the above has no bearings on those that cut soft wood, LOL.
Around here you have to cut the trees off within about 6" of the ground or you won't work very long, on side hills you are very likely to be subterranean on the high side of the stump and then plunge cut down into the growth ring to "release the tree" on the backside. I believe I have read on here where some guys keep crappy chains around for "stumping" ......well, thats all I do all day is "stump" trees off, and in those conditions full chisel just isn't very efficient ............in my opinion, based on my research, LOL.
Below is me cutting a tree loose and it is some form of failure in placement. I don't remember how .... I think it needed to be more to the right, but it really wanted to go hard to the left.
Below is a partial failure.... I had notched it to go away from the camera and down the hill, but it ended up falling right where it wanted to anyways, to the hard left, LOL. I wanted it to go down the hill so the skidder wouldn't have to climb the hill to get it (there are rocky bluff's and harder to get to), if I drop it down the hill Karen can grab the top and go, but then she has to grab the top which isn't so good for dragging, "bassactwards". As it obviously ended up the tree fell to the left, like it wanted to do anyways, so now I will grab it with the cable skidder and pull it to the right by the butt, which will end up making it easier to drag up the next hill, so I couldn't really loose either way on this one, but overall it was a failure on placement, but these things happen, LOL......... It's just that on the last 300ish trees it seems I video all of the failures, LOL.
Here is my little logging trailer, the front holds my ATV with little side racks that hold the tires from wanting to roll off, once its loaded, since the ATV is longer than the 4 foot wide trailer. The gray painted L-shaped tank holds my diesel for my skidders. The gray box on it, holds the tools for the skidder's maintanence/repair/upkeep. The Aluminum Box in the back, opens down and makes a nice "tray" to hold or work on or prep saws for work. It balances pretty good that you can lift it by hand and it pulls around with the ATV that rides on it.
Later,
Sam
