Newbie (part 2) how to sharpen a blade

[hammerfall]

Hello,

I want to know how to sharpen my CHAIN with the right techniques and/or tool.

i currently use a round thingy (FILE) to sharpen it.

i dont control the angle.

Here's my questions

Question 1: Is it the same sharpening for a SOFT wood (spruce)?
and hard wood (sugar maple and red oak)?

Question 2 :Should i buy a kit to sharpen at my local store (like a universal kit?)

Question 3: What interval should i sharpen the blade


Thanks for your help guys, you can type a bible if it's good info that can help other members!

Thanks again!

 

[SawTroll]

This could be a help:http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=20072&highlight=roller+guide
Do a search yourself, there is lots of info on this in the archives.

1). At least in theory, the top-plate angel could be steeper, and/or the rakers lower, in soft wood. You will have to try it with the saw and chain in question to know.

2). The E-lux roller guide mentioned in the link above is good helper.

3). About every or every second tank is what I do, and of course if you hit something other than wood (the ground , nails in wood , etc).

"Blade" is not the correct expression. What you sharpen is the chain, which are guided by the rail in the bar.

 

[alanarbor]

Hello,

I want to know how to sharpen my blades with the right techniques and/or tool.

i currently use a round thingy toi sharpen it.

i dont control the angle.

Here's my questions

Question 1: Is it the same sharpening for a SOFT wood (spruce)?
and hard wood (sugar maple and red oak)?

Question 2 :Should i buy a kit to sharpen at my local store (like a universal kit?)

Question 3: What interval should i sharpen the blade


Thanks for your help guys, you can type a bible if it's good info that can help other members!

Thanks again!

The round thingy is a file, and the "blade" is a chain. The long flat piece that the chain spins on is a Bar. Now to your questions;

1.)There are different filing angles if you're cutting softwoods vs. hardwoods, but unless you're a pro cutter, it really won't make a difference to you.

2.)Yes, definately puchase a filing plate, and file guide.

3.)When it's dull. A quick way to check is to look at the chain head on (with the saw off!) If the leading edge of the top plate reflects light, then the saw is dull. If you hit dirt, rock, or you hit metal in the wood you're cutting, stop and sharpen...you just dulled the saw. Continuing to cut with a dull chain, just beats hell outa the saw, and increases your risk of injury

This link below should tell you all you need to know of the basics and will save us all a lot of typing.
Oregon safety and maitenance manual

 

[Lumberjack]

CAN SOMEONE SCREAM TROLL LOUD ENOUGH??????


If by some chance on Gods green Earth your for real, then do a search. Around her we call dem blades "chains" and them things they sling around on "bars"

Your an electical engineer??


Where the hell is rocky?

 

[Lobo]

Here is a link to sharpening 101.

Good sharpening takes lots of practice and is just as important as safety equipment and safe working techniques, so go ahead and spend lots of time on it, the better you get at it the more you want to improve and this never seems to stop even years down the road.

With experience you will know it is time to touch up or sharpen,
the saw no longer pulls itself in to the wood, you need to lean in to the saw, the chips become saw dust, things just don't feel right

#1 tip, get a vise to hold the saw this will make the task far easier.


http://www.kadcousa.com/email/2000-10/2000-10.html


Good luck

 

[Lobo]

Here is another excellent one from Stihl.

http://www.stihllibrary.com/pdf/SharpAdvice061301final.pdf

You can also get some info on just about every chainsaw manufacturer site and chain manufacturer site.

Good luck young fellow,

 

[Stumper]

Hello,

I want to know how to sharpen my blades with the right techniques and/or tool.

i currently use a round thingy toi sharpen it.

i dont control the angle.

http://www.arboristsite.com/attachment_8308.php

 

[hammerfall]

CAN SOMEONE SCREAM TROLL LOUD ENOUGH??????


If by some chance on Gods green Earth your for real, then do a search. Around her we call dem blades "chains" and them things they sling around on "bars"

Your an electical engineer??


Where the hell is rocky?

Excuse me mister perfect!

First im a newbie in chainsaws and also im french so my english is a bit bad... I dont know all "technical" words on a chainsaw.

at least i try!

so you should respect a bit more poeple here... maybe your an old regular here but give a chance to the newbies.

 

[geofore]

newbie, Canada, eh? So it's not that you don't know the technical words, you did not use the search feature at the top of the page to search for blade, sharpen and angle. In the search you would have found the technical terms. While it would be good for all newbie's to do a search first, few do a search before asking questions. The search funtion is less likely to impose it's personality on you as members would. The search function is more or less neutral whereas members have personalities which they show. So to avoid the personalities go to the top of the page and click on search and type in your word/words and read. While reading you'll pick up on the personalities that are here but the search feature will not test the thickness of your skin. It will however prepare you for the skin thickness test you are going to get from members when you do post. I'm French is not an excuse for the thin skin approach you are using. I failed to realize the search button works is not an excuse that works either. "I'm a newbie" only askes for the skin thickness test to be administered along with the troll litmus test. The search button does not administer these tests and newbies fail to realize this and avoid the search button. They jump in with both feet and ask for skin thickness test in an effort to avoid doing a bit of reading. So your options are do a little reading (use the search button) or jump in and get the skin thickness test and troll litmus test. It's up to the newbie whether he jumps in for the tests or does a bit of reading. eh? I sharpen my chains by hand.

 

[leweee]

Troll litmus & skin thickness test

Right on geofore. Newbies learn to use the search feature...you'll be surprised at what you will learn without embarasement and

 

[treechick]

Lumberjack beat me to it. Either this guy's a troll or he bought his way through engineering school. And just in case I'm being a total hard-arse, this site does offer a forum for posting questions of a very basic nature... if you're for real (???), then maybe try posting future, "I'm so new to this I can't find the "on" switch..." queries there. Sorry 'bout your luck.

Stumper, right on !!

Was this a dead give-away ???
"Thanks for your help guys, you can type a bible if it's good info that can help other members!"

True newbies always ask, "What's a troll?" Burns my butt to be treated this way. Someone got me on a "how to trim maples" thread... my gut told me the entire time it was a fake. My days here are very numbered... over it.

 

[Lumberjack]

Excuse me mister perfect!

First im a newbie in chainsaws and also im french so my english is a bit bad... I dont know all "technical" words on a chainsaw.

at least i try!

so you should respect a bit more poeple here... maybe your an old regular here but give a chance to the newbies.

I am not old for starters, and I am a regular.

I am also nowhere near perfect, I learned how to sharpen by talking to members here.

Your english is fine frenchy; calling a file a "thingy", admiting you dont hold any angle with the said thingy, and asking when you should sharpen a chain doesnt seem like someone who went to college to become an engineer.


Common sense goes a long ways.

You SHARPen a saw when its DULL. I already know your next questions is, "How do you know when its dull?". Common sense comes back into play, when it stops cutting well. "Whats "well"?" How it cut when the chain was new. Its just like a knife, except the edge to feel is the corner where the top and side plate meet. In a perfect world it should cut you. Also alanarbor told you how to tell based on how the saw feels in the cut, all that was good info.

Being the engineer that you proclaim, I would think that you would appreciate the angles and how they related to the chains cutting performance, even if your not a mechanical engineer.

So basically, I doubt that your exactly what you say you are, you sound uneducated.

Both of your post on this thread give me the impression that your a Canadian-Frenchy troll, who says he is an engineer, but acts like and talks like NO engineer I have ever met, either in person, over the phone, or via the internet.

Use the search feature and think before you write. If your an engineer, talk like someone who has a basic education, if you dont know an english word, then I would assume you know the french word, post it, we can translate.

Troll until proven innocent.

 

[Lumberjack]

Lumberjack beat me to it. Either this guy's a troll or he bought his way through engineering school.

He might be a troll AND bought his way through school, but then that begs the question of where the money came from??

 

[treechick]

Do troll's eat their own young ? I'd have to guess affirmative. I say the troll lives right under this bridge (AS staff)... And I'm all the way over it. B'bye. See ya's in the ee-tray ouse-hay ... Even ee-tray uzz-bay mo' betta than this crap.

 

[Lumberjack]

Aw chick, dont blow off AS just because of trolls.

There is ALOT of good info on here, and alot of good people too, I guess I am sentimental towards AS.

I like the tree house, and AS too!

 

[MasterBlaster]

Ditto that!

 

[alanarbor]

I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt.....we work with chainsaws day in and day out, and to us all this stuff is so obvious they we automatically assume only an idiot would not know these things. I've met smart people who thought their dull-as-a-rock chainsaw was cutting good. I've met people with college degrees who called a chainsaw bar a "blade".

But with the web links we've provided, this fella can't figure it out, then I agree, Troll/Shortbus windowlicker

 

[Lumberjack]

He is a troll.

 

[geofore]

Chain maintenance

After the LOBO comment in another thread I wonder why LOBO did not mention that the Oregon Maintenance & Saftey Manual for SAW Chain, Guide Bar and Drive Sprocket can be had in FRENCH, for free, by calling or writing to Oregon Distribution Ltd. Guelpgh, Ontario, Canada N1H 6L4 or calling (519-822-6870). You only need to ask them for it. Being he's from Canada, EH? Of course it can be downloaded from the Oregon web site also. Had hammerfall used the search button he would have eventually stumbled on it anyway. I have handed out copies of the Oregon Maintenance and Safety Manual free when asked for them. Then you have to read the manuals to find anything out. Just like when I joined here at AS, I went back to the begining and read all the way through the forums to get a feel for the site. Of course there is www.madsen1.com/mainmnu.htm but it takes all the fun out of using the search button. I'll put the words blade, sharpen and angle in this post to make it easy to find for those newbies who can use the search button.

 

[hammerfall]

thanks for all here that helped me.

i now have enough stuff to help my future post not to be too much "Troll"

sorry to have bugged some folks here.