What are the pros/cons of square grind chain?

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Being somewhat of a rookie, this may be a dumb question. Can a regular type chain grinder be used to profile a chain to square grind? I hope that makes sense.


I suppose you could do an inordinate litany of modifications to make it work. But you'd be better off starting with a motor and a pile of scrap metal.
 
A big negative for square is price of grinder and availability. Down to one company making them and they're BIG money.
 
Out of the box oregon stuff can be downright trash. Oregon should be ashamed. Huge top beaks and dull edges...


I guess it all depends on where in the batch it is. Or how recently they changed or dialed the wheel in. I guess I've been lucky, all the Oregon square I've bought has been pretty good. I will admit that Stihl has superior QC. I think their steel is slightly better too.
 
Being somewhat of a rookie, this may be a dumb question. Can a regular type chain grinder be used to profile a chain to square grind? I hope that makes sense.


Which gives me an idea. I've got a .5 Hp, 400 watt, 3 phase AC motor in my garage... And a workshop. Next week off...
 
My Oregon loop was not even close to consistent on cutter length or angle. It really didn't look like they intended anyone to run the chain as it came out of the box.
 
stihl chain off the roll is just as bad as oregon . fresh loop of any brand needs tweeking. spool a loop , 5 mins with the file and grinder and all is well. then there is tuning the chain to what the saw will pull.
 
My last and latest loop of LGX was way too high on the depth gauges. They were at 0.021 out of the box. I do like the newer style blue cutters. They come close to the hardness of a Stihl cutter.
 
my experience with Oregon full and semi chisel(like I said,Ive never ran square grind),has been pretty bad.They seem to come out of the box dull.Oregon is softer and files a bit easier,but just dont hold the edge that Stihl does.Have had good luck with Carlton chain,but cant find it locally anymore.I never use a grinder,just hand file.But have spent a good 20 minutes just trying to get a new oregon chain to cut.Anyhow,bought a square grind today.Dealer seemed lost but found me one.Said he had never sold one .Gave me 1998s price at $12 for 18".Gonna run it on my old 290.3/8 pitch,same as my 034,will try it on it too. Its 4 degrees here today so I wont know the outcome until tomorrow,but im anxious to try it out.Thanks everybody for your comments and replies
 
So what do you call it when you have some square ground, it gets dull, and you have to resharpen round? I mean besides being lame and all, will the chain still work or is it ruined? Reason I am asking is, I have two long ones that go with my 36 inch bar, never used them yet, and most of my big wood here is either dead and down, standing dead, or big shagbark which comes fresh real dirty.
 
So what do you call it when you have some square ground, it gets dull, and you have to resharpen round? I mean besides being lame and all, will the chain still work or is it ruined? Reason I am asking is, I have two long ones that go with my 36 inch bar, never used them yet, and most of my big wood here is either dead and down, standing dead, or big shagbark which comes fresh real dirty.
round chisel, and no not ruined.
 
So what do you call it when you have some square ground, it gets dull, and you have to resharpen round? I mean besides being lame and all, will the chain still work or is it ruined? Reason I am asking is, I have two long ones that go with my 36 inch bar, never used them yet, and most of my big wood here is either dead and down, standing dead, or big shagbark which comes fresh real dirty.

this is a very common thing loggers do around here because of the cost of the square grinders ,chain is not ruined just different now from being converted to round

i convert a lot of my old round chains to square chisel on my grinder ,you lose a couple sharpenings in the conversion like was mentioned
 
I've made up several GTG cookie cutter chains out of old almost worn out round ground chisel chains. I put aggressive square angles on the cutters and massage the gullets and rakers somewhat. They cut pretty good on 60 - 92 cc chainsaws
 

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