refinding best chainsaw file eva

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archibaldtuttle

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mc culloch file guide.jpg file closeup.jpg

i keep seeing these new fangled sharpeners and dreaming that someone has finally made the better mousetrap but after reading up down and around i realize that this 50 year old McCulloch bow sharpener is the best every made. but i have two problems.

This works a bit like a hacksaw with the blade supported by a back brace. But over the years i have worn the back support down to half its thickness but i cannot find new ones. the things i should have bought ten of when i could.

I keep looking at the various hinky new versions. The stihl EZ file has the back support idea but it isn't clear how you change or rotate the files and i'd have to cut off the outside back supports because the advantage of this simple bugger (if i had taken a lighter closeup would be easier to see) is you can roll the file upwards into the tooth and it sharpens the underside of the top of the tooth like no file guide i've ever used. The flat steel two sided run of the mill guides of the moment are OKish but they don't provide the same ergonomics between the file and the back support of the guide, maybe because the handle is on the file and not the guide. anyway it just doesn't rool up into the tool as well although it may be my next best solution when the mc culloch gives out (unless someone knows and old line shop where there are some of the old mccullochs in the closet . . .).

Back in the day when i was going through electronic ignitions on my olympyk 254 pretty regular i had the saw in the shop to double check i wasn't losing my mind since i had just replaced the ignition the year before and when they put the new coil on and went out back to try it out, the guy told me he never ran a sharper chain and it was just my standard hand filing with that guide! And these guys sharpened chains for a living. . .

Although i took a quick picture on a bar here, i keep a vice set up on the bench and take the chain off and do this in the vice set not tight so the chain moves as if it were on a bar but it is macro held still so i can use two hands on the file guide. this is similar to the idea of clamping the bar in a vice if you set that up on the back of the truck for field work although with the vice set on the bench the way i like it, perfect height and i can stand in ergonomically to get this done.

one other problem. it is still a pain to loosen two set screws and rotate the file (although i don't even know how you rotate the files on the Stihl easy guide). It would just plain be better if there were diamond file that lasted longer without needing rotating. The wearing of the file is really the most frustrating thing about the system i currently use.

as to better mousetraps, i kind of like the theory of the hand rotary sharpening tuner but is still more guide than freehand dependent, doesn't do well with smaller diameters (snapping sharpening bits) and isn't intended for significant takedown if you hit something bad.

then there is the powersharp approach. seems pretty clever. not really sure if a chain designed to be sharpened from the outside is easier to dull when hitting something from the the outside . . . experiential feedback appreciated here. maybe this is the next best thing since sliced bread, but nothing anybody has come up with in 50 years, so far, is better than this mcculloch guide. but i can't find any. and it has no model number. it just says "mc culloch file guide" on the handle.
 
You have avoided the word guide. Do you use it one hand and hold the bar/chain with the other? What part of the chain has rubbed the support? I can see it is a support. I can see there is a lot of rotation available so clogging with chips can be distributed hence longer between doing something to clear the chips. I just do not see how it guides at a specific depth like the 20% of file sticking above the cutting edge, or aids in stroking at a specific angle like 25 or 30 degrees commonly etched on the kind I use some of the time.
 
You have avoided the word guide. Do you use it one hand and hold the bar/chain with the other? What part of the chain has rubbed the support? I can see it is a support. I can see there is a lot of rotation available so clogging with chips can be distributed hence longer between doing something to clear the chips. I just do not see how it guides at a specific depth like the 20% of file sticking above the cutting edge, or aids in stroking at a specific angle like 25 or 30 degrees commonly etched on the kind I use some of the time.

reasonable point, "file support" or "file mount" would be a more accurate description. i did the angle by eye and feel. any minor variation that resulted never seemed to affect the cutting significantly. always cut as well or better than a brand new chain. I had a raker guard although i've been doing the rakers by eye with a grinder lately. again the issue is friggin files fill and wear. i can't get ones that cut reliably. i don't mind doing this stuff by hand and i think it does a better job without as much risk of removing too much material but i just can't get files that stay sharp and clean to keep cutting through a sharpening. that is why i'm interested in whether there is any better material technology for longitudinal sharpening vs. latitudinal, e.g. rotary.
 
cool. that is the closest i have seen. not identical but pretty similar. any recommendations on file that actually lasts. i see short diamond files on web searches but i don't see any full length that would mount in this file holder. but obviously web searches are imperfect as i've been searching the web for years looking for a guide similar to the one i have and never saw this. and i used to get bailey's stuff in the mail before the internet. funny that, maybe if the internet hadn't come along i would have seen this in a paper catalogue.
 
I really like the one shown in the link from Baileys. The problem i have with them is that if you let the triangular guide ride on the raker, the soft metal its made of peels away in little curly cues. Its not long before the rakers cut a trench in into the file holder which can cause you to lose your "up and down" angle as you push the file across the tooth. I really like that Baileys metal file holder but wish they would make them out of steel.
 
I really like the one shown in the link from Baileys. The problem i have with them is that if you let the triangular guide ride on the raker, the soft metal its made of peels away in little curly cues. Its not long before the rakers cut a trench in into the file holder which can cause you to lose your "up and down" angle as you push the file across the tooth. I really like that Baileys metal file holder but wish they would make them out of steel.

so the one i have which had a round rather than triangular back support i rest the support on the top of the tooth and twist the handle so the file is pulled up into the underside of the top of the tooth. i attempted to illustrate that in the closeup photo above but didn't succeed that well. maybe the triangular format disallows this approach necessitates working off the raker which obviously is more prone to wearing the guide (at least until the raker itself gets filed down a bit . . . it was how tight the triangle comes to the file that is my only pause on this design although it would be easy enough to grind some of that out of the way and then use it on top of the tooth which has a broader flatter surface. as i mentioned, mine old mcculloch wore also, but over 50 years so it is probably better material, not a pot metal casting as may appear in the baileys version. too bad. need someone to make this design in better quality. or gotta find someone who has a couple hundred of the mcculloch's in a closet somewhere . . . .
 
any recommendations on file that actually lasts.
Files are a consumable: like sandpaper. Take good care of them - they have to be hard to cut the steel of the cutters - which makes the edges brittle. But toss (recycle) them when used up. Like sandpaper.

So don't toss them around or into a tool box. Wrap them in cloth, paper, or store in soda straws. About a buck to a buck-and-a-half each if you buy them by the dozen.

Philbert
 
As for file 'support', you should be pushing the file along its axis, not applying so much side pressure that it flexes.

The file 'guides' are intended to position the files to obtain consistent, and intentional angles.

Philbert
 
As for file 'support', you should be pushing the file along its axis, not applying so much side pressure that it flexes.

The file 'guides' are intended to position the files to obtain consistent, and intentional angles.

Philbert
phil . . . bert
i have better results balancing the pressure so there as a little bow to the file, esp. when you are at the center of the arc for obvious reasons, because the same amount of tension there will displace the file whereas not where your are near the supported ends.

my sharpening is virtually all done on the bench. file never chucked in box. know too well that its time for new file when edges wear. i'm maybe just wondering if material physics has improved with diamond embedded tooling and i might be able to get a 'file' that lasts longer. you can feel as soon as thing doesn't cut and then i rotate and when that don't work, i throw it out.
 

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