Hi all
New to milling, so I read what I could find on these forums about ripping chain.
I bought an Alaskan mill mk III and was sold a Granberg ripping chain to fit it.
After very few passes in fresh hard woods it became dull and I looked into how to sharpen it. It is clearly very different from other ripping chains and actually reminded me more of crosscut patterns on handsaws with which I am more familiar, where the alternate left and right teeth are more like knives than chisels ( for those who don't know, see the very clear explanation at Welcome to Vintage Saw's Saw Filing Treatise ) which are designed to slice fibres across. There is no concept of clearing the cut material other than the normal channel created by the set. Traditional ripping patterns for handsaws have teeth left and right which are like chisels, not slicers
In the case of the Granberg ripping chain, the rakers for the slicers are set lower, indicating that this is what should happen first, and then the chisels should plane out the waste that has been demarcated by the knives.
If you hold the chainsaw at right angles to the log you are most likely cutting into the end grain, or first slicing a line and then just chopping off the end of the fibres. If you angle the saw, as I have seen some people do, then you are closer to chiseling along/down the fibres as a handsaw might do.
So, the questions are:- What is teh point of the slicers on the Granberg? And why are the cutting angles of the clearers different? And can anyone enlighten me as to what that design is all about? People say you should get chips and not dust. I wonder if you ever will, given that you are cutting off the ends of teh fibres?
As I didn't have the right files to sharpen the Granberg, I put on a sharp crosscut chain and found it went through easily and produced a good clean cut. Now I wonder what I am missing that makes ripping chain that much better.
Any ideas gratefully received
Andy
New to milling, so I read what I could find on these forums about ripping chain.
I bought an Alaskan mill mk III and was sold a Granberg ripping chain to fit it.
After very few passes in fresh hard woods it became dull and I looked into how to sharpen it. It is clearly very different from other ripping chains and actually reminded me more of crosscut patterns on handsaws with which I am more familiar, where the alternate left and right teeth are more like knives than chisels ( for those who don't know, see the very clear explanation at Welcome to Vintage Saw's Saw Filing Treatise ) which are designed to slice fibres across. There is no concept of clearing the cut material other than the normal channel created by the set. Traditional ripping patterns for handsaws have teeth left and right which are like chisels, not slicers
In the case of the Granberg ripping chain, the rakers for the slicers are set lower, indicating that this is what should happen first, and then the chisels should plane out the waste that has been demarcated by the knives.
If you hold the chainsaw at right angles to the log you are most likely cutting into the end grain, or first slicing a line and then just chopping off the end of the fibres. If you angle the saw, as I have seen some people do, then you are closer to chiseling along/down the fibres as a handsaw might do.
So, the questions are:- What is teh point of the slicers on the Granberg? And why are the cutting angles of the clearers different? And can anyone enlighten me as to what that design is all about? People say you should get chips and not dust. I wonder if you ever will, given that you are cutting off the ends of teh fibres?
As I didn't have the right files to sharpen the Granberg, I put on a sharp crosscut chain and found it went through easily and produced a good clean cut. Now I wonder what I am missing that makes ripping chain that much better.
Any ideas gratefully received
Andy