How often do you sharpen your chain?

[AKDoug]

Whether U choose to sharpen in the field or at home is a personal choice, but I can not imagine anyone who cuts on a regular basis not knowing how to sharpen their own chain!

I cut on a regular basis and haven't filed a chain of my own in years. I change when they slow down, sharpen them with my grinder at night. I don't even think I own a chainsaw file other than the one that's by my sharpener to show customers how to properly hand sharpen a chain if they desire. I doubt that I could actually get a chain sharp with a file these days. I get absolutely zero pleasure out of hand sharpening a chain.

I pack two sharp chains and the one on my saw if I am in the field. I don't buck in the woods and move them in log length, so I rarely even get to one of my spare chains in a day.

 

[calebng15]

Providing you don't saw the soil, do you sharpen after every fuel fill or more

Most of the time every tank. Sometimes I just do it every other! Depends on wood.

 

[kz1000]

This is from one sharpening after cutting one small green pine.

 

[bnmc98]

You talking about the filings? That looks like you cut it with a rocked chain and then filed the roll-over out. Or is that the wrong picture?

 

[MustangMike]

Doug, how U sharpen is a personal choice, but U sharpen it!

 

[Venomvpr900]

If you have CAD you skip the sharping and grab the next chainsaw in line.

 

[Chris-PA]

I sharpen both sides so if it gets dull I can just turn it around.

 

[kz1000]

You talking about the filings? That looks like you cut it with a rocked chain and then filed the roll-over out. Or is that the wrong picture?

Sorry, it was an attempt at humor. The picture is from post on porting saws by Randy.

 

[AKDoug]

Doug, how U sharpen is a personal choice, but U sharpen it!

When I cut for a living, I just carried spare chains. I sharpened at night back then, too.

 

[1 stihl nut]

Whether U choose to sharpen in the field or at home is a personal choice, but I can not imagine anyone who cuts on a regular basis not knowing how to sharpen their own chain!

You obviously don't have a vivid imagination. Wood it help if I sent a picture of myself?

 

[bnmc98]

Sorry, it was an attempt at humor. The picture is from post on porting saws by Randy.

Sorry, that one completely flew over my head. Must be the whole getting 4 kids to bed thing when I read it. I was kind of like "Whaaaaat??????"

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

I do that often, or find one with gas in it.

If you have CAD you skip the sharping and grab the next chainsaw in line.

 

[bnmc98]

When I cut for a living, I just carried spare chains. I sharpened at night back then, too.

I have thought about doing that but reality, I am pretty fast at sharpening and run a skip chain, so it doesn't justify the extra items. I figure I carry enough crap and the truck is usually not that far away if one is not salvageable. I'm not running a 3 footer and larger anyways.

 

[1 stihl nut]

If you have CAD you skip the sharping and grab the next chainsaw in line.

The trailer I use for hauling my saws out to the woods is bigger than the one for hauling my wood back in.

 

[lambs]

A good sawyer can do this in 10 to 12 minutes with the bar over his left shoulder.

How is this accomplished? Anyone got a picture?

 

[MustangMike]

I find the little Stump Vice device to be very useful. In the field it works on any decent size log or stump, and I even use it when at home to sharpen the saw on a bench.

When doing square file I like to have the saw lower than when I do round file. It helps me to get the angles right and to keep the corner of the file in the corner of the tooth.

 

[Gologit]

Even the best loggers file sharpen their chains in the field while working, even with 36" bars. Cutting really big logs, they sometimes have to do this after every buck cut or large felling cut, and especially when clearing trees killed by floods. A good sawyer can do this in 10 to 12 minutes with the bar over his left shoulder.

Nebraska loggers might do it that way but most of the guys I work with on the Left Coast will swap out a dull chain for a sharp one and do their sharpening when they get home.
On long bars it's more efficient to spend a couple of minutes changing chains than it is to be filing.
That time spent sitting on your butt with a file could be better spent getting wood on the ground.

 

[MustangMike]

I noticed that on the West Coast they mostly change the chain and on the East Coast they mostly sharpen. Like U say, the bar length likely has a lot to do with that, and I would guess it is also a likely due to an increased use of square file chain on the West Coast.

 

[treesmith]

Carry these in my lunch bag every day, just sharpen as necessary

 

[singinwoodwackr]

Providing you don't saw the soil, do you sharpen after every fuel fill or more?

when it gets dull. can be half way through the day, can be 3 sec into the first cut.