Red Oak- Dust!

[JTM]

This might be a chain sharpening question. Cutting this old red oak has me confounded. My experience when cutting harder wood will give less cohesive chips as opposed to soft wood with a sharp chain. But I can’t understand why I get so much saw dust in big rounds, ones larger than a 20” bar that I’m using. I am using Oregon chains. Maybe take a little off the rakers? There’s a fine balance in cleaning up tops where your chain is hitting everything from 1/4” to wood larger than the bar.

 

[pdqdl]

Anytime your saw is throwing dust, it is almost certainly dull. Really sharp saws throw nice sized chips regardless of the hardness of the wood.

As to why dust is more prevalent on bigger cuts? That is a simple function of downpressure and how much area said pressure is applied to. When a saw cuts a small branch, all the down pressure is applied to only a few cutters, so each cutter engages the wood with a full depth pass, throwing chips all the way.

Change that scenario to a bar engaging 20 inches of wood. Now you have 20 or more cutters supporting the same down pressure applied by the saw operator. That means less pressure-per-tooth, and consequently less penetration into the wood. That means smaller chips and slower cutting (per tooth).

Now take that same situation and dull each of the teeth. The operator cannot increase the pressure too much, as the dull teeth will just stall the chain in the cut, the cutters barely scratch the wood without a lot of additional pressure. So now you are getting sawdust!

A badly dulled saw won't even make sawdust on the full bar width, but you can take the tip of the bar and run it back and forth across the length of the cut to still get the job done. Not the best plan, but it works in a pinch.

 

[Farmer_Nate]

Rock the saw up and down a bit, with light pressure. That will make the chain focus on a smaller region of wood as it's cutting instead of the whole diameter simultaneously.

That's what I do, but I'm no arborist.

 

[Squareground3691]

Here some chips on 2 year old dead ash take a close up look , that’s a hand filed square chain. That ash is almost 40 “

 

[Farmer_Nate]

Rakers may need filing down a bit to get a larger bite per cut?

 

[quahog]

I have a bunch of red oak. Cut and split almost four cords over the winter and cut a bunch up a couple weeks ago.

It takes the edge off my chain and starts making dust pretty quickly---before I even go through a full tank of gas. I'm convinced that is partially the wood's fault, but 90% my fault with sharpening and cutting methods. I'm slowly working on fixing myself.

I do love splitting and burning the stuff though.

 

[Farmer_Nate]

Get that gullet...ha ha

 

[quahog]

Get that gullet...ha ha

He probably gets some hate from professionals who don't do youtube, but that guy has a great approach and many of his videos are informative and fun.

 

[Farmer_Nate]

I use the "get the gullet" technique now when sharpening, and it helps.

 

[Farmer_Nate]

A closeup picture of the chain and teeth may help people see any issues with sharpening.

 

[Mad Professor]

Sounds like a dull chain and dirty wood.

 

[Del_]

On longer bars in big wood some of the chips end up getting cut more than once. Maybe even some pulverizing going on.

Red oak throws smaller chips than some other woods. It could be related to how easily some wood is to split.

And of course dull chains make dust as they friction their way through the log.