My Timberline Review

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fields_mj

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A little back ground to start off with. I've been sharpening with a round file for about 15 years. I've used some form of every kind of file guide system that I've been able to find, and probably a couple that haven't been made in the past few decades. My dad bought an Arnold Precision Sharpener back in the 70's and used it until the carbide burr wore out. He couldn't find a replacement so it sat on a shelf for a few decades until he gave it to me. That was before the Timberline existed. I found some places I could have some burrs made, but it was cost prohibitive. When the Timberline came out, I thought about buying a burr or two to see if they would work with his Arnold, but it took a few years before I finally got around to doing it. The burrs almost work. They are the right diameter, but they shank needs to be about 3/8" longer. Instead of using the hand crank, I chucked the burr in a cordless drill because the chuck will grab onto a pretty small section of the shank. I started using that set up and it was FANTASTIC. So I decided to get a Timberline and see how it compares. Now to the actual review.

The Good: Timberline has done a really good job of simplifying the design of the Arnold so that it's less expensive to produce without loosing a lot of its functionality. The Arnold sharpens the top plate at 35deg. I like the fact that the Timberline does 30 deg, and new guides can be purchased to accommodate 25 and 35 deg. I'm aware of the Chinese knockoffs. I haven't tried them, but the Timberline is worth the cost so I'm not willing to send more money over seas. It's just as quick as the Arnold system and can give just as good of results if you set it up correctly. I have several complaints listed below, but they are all manageable. The tool produces sharp, uniform cutters very quickly. This has become my go to sharpener. I've already added a cutter to do my .404 chain. I will be adding another to do the small pico chain on my pole saw.

The Warnings: As others will say, start with a new chain. I started with a half worn chain on both sharpeners knowing that I would probably trash the chain as I learned how to use it. I did trash the first chain, but I wouldn't have trashed it as bad if it had been new. It was salvageable, and I just chalk it up to the cost of learning how to use a new tool. Things to watch out for are: Make sure you get the cutter set all the way down into the gullet, make sure you get it firmly clamped onto the bar, and make sure you get it set relatively parallel to the bar. Also NEVER turn the cutter backwards. Turning the cutter counter clockwise will damage it immediately. Lastly, never drop a cutter onto a hard surface. Carbide does not survive impacts.

The Bad: My 1st complaint is that the pawl is in 2 pieces. I've not yet figured out what benefit they were trying to do here, but I don't care for it. If you index the chain a little too far by mistake, you have to lift the pawl up to allow the chain to go backwards. Not a big deal, but having to lift 2 pawls at the same time is a little more tricky. I superglued mine together and that resolved this issue for me. My 2nd complaint is that the cutters need to be a little longer, as does the jig itself. Above I mentioned that the cutters were a little too short to work correctly with the Arnold system. Timberline should have kept that dimension the same. The reason is that with the Arnold system, I can pull the cutter back far enough to allow the chain to advance without removing it from the guide. This is a lot more convieniant. More importantly its cleaner. Having to remove the cutter all the way on the Timberline allows the cutting surface (and metal shavings) to come in contact with the ID of the guide which can become problematic. It's not intolerable, but it's disappointing that it wasn't fixed in the design. My 3rd complaint is the 3rd screw (center). I've seen several reviewers say that they don't use it. I've found that the screw is useful for cutters on the opposite side of the bar. It keeps them from deflecting out of the way BUT the spring steel that it pushes against likes to slide down out of the way. The hole in the spring steel is a slot. It should have been a hole so that the spring steel can't slip downward. My 4th complaint is the use of set screws, specifically on the hand crank. That should have been a wing screw, or at least a SHCS that could be grabbed with a set of pliers. Better yet, a slotted screw (or even a torx) that I could use my scrench on if I had to. I will be redrilling and tapping my handle to accept a different screw once I decide which one I want. My last complaint is the case it comes in. It sucks. The small pouch that's supposed to hold the handle, cutters, and little hex key is absolutely terrible. If I wanted to loose stuff, this is the way I'd try to store it. It's obviously an afterthought. I'm going to find a small hard-shell case to store the small parts in to keep them from getting lost.

Helpful Hints: As stated above, make sure you get the cutter set all the way down into the gullet, and that the guide stays clamped in place. If it comes loose, the cutter will ride up the tooth, remove quite a bit of the top plate, and leave a rake angle that's way too small. Don't get in such a hurry that you're not paying attention to what's actually going on. For any shooters on here, this is like reloading with a progressive press. When something doesn't feel right, stop and see what happened. It will save you a lot of work later on.

Burr/cutter life - I'm using this on 3 saws currently. All 3 of them run 18" bars with .325 RSC chain. I took all 3 to Kentucky to do clean up after the tornado and we ran the snot out of them for 3 days. I've used up 3/4 of one chain, and 1/2 of each of the other two. The 3/16" carbide burr is still going strong. I think it will out last all 3 chains, and probably 2 or 3 more. Ebay has American made carbide cutters for about $18 each (less if you buy in sets of 3 or 5). $25 isn't a terrible price from Timberline, but it is higher than it should be for a 1/4" shank carbide tool.

I used a file to make a witness mark (notch) on the face of the pawl's adjustment knob. This allows me to reposition the adjustment if I need to, and keep track of how much I'm taking off. I normally take off about 1/4 turn ever time I sharpen it. That's more than I'd take off with a file, but a lot less than they would remove if I took the chains to a shop and had them sharpened.

The left side and right side cutters will not likely be sharpened to the same length without adjusting the position of the pawl. I normally have to adjust by about 1/4 turn when I switch sides.

Mounting the Timberline jig parallel to the bar is a little more tricky than it is with the Arnold. The Arnold has some features that can be eyeballed against the chain that makes it really easy to mount correctly on the bar. The Timberline doesn't have any such thing. It's not super critical, but if it's not parallel, the resulting rake angle will change across the width of the top plate. In this regard, it's probably better to have the tip side of the jig a little higher than the power head side than to have it the other way around. That will ensure that you're sharpening the leading edge of the top plate and potentially leaving the trailing edge a little dull. I'm thinking of throwing in a $2 torpedo level so that I can level the bar in the vise, then level the jig. May not be that big of a deal, but I've been known to be a little picky at times....


Hope this is helpful to someone.
Mark
 
Nice review and very well written. It will give anyone an opportunity to use and possibly purchase one.
 
I bought one a couple years ago.
I found it was quite slow, too much cranking and little production if a tooth needed more than the slightest of touch ups.
I may not have given it much of a chance. Maybe a week, then gave it away.
Presently use the Stihl 2-1 with good results.
A friend gave me a progressive gage last week for the depth, when filing cutters past half length. Have yet to use it. When filing there is a point the teeth are sharp but don't self feed the same as the first half tooth. This should help from what I'm reading.
 
Good review. My experience is similar to yours.

I've used mine for 5-6 years...happy with it, but a bit time consuming to use it in the woods. File is faster for a touch-up.

Also, likely it's time for me to order a new cutter...they lose their sharpness, but not unreasonably quick...I've used it a lot.

...//Terry
 
Don't remember if I said this in the review or not, but you can buy the carbide cutters off eBay for quite a bit less. Still made in the USA. I suspect it's being sold by the folks that make them for Timberline.
 

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