Chainsaw sharpening, hand or grind?!

[ultrarunner]

Sorry to burst your bubble about your superhuman prowess and the wisdom of ages that has been bestowed upon you. A properly hand sharpened chain will work ok but there is no way it will perform like a factory fresh edge.
I suppose you can scrape babbit bearings and get a 80% surface too.

I've had excellent results scraping babbitt bearings... just takes a long time to do it right with Prussian Blue and Plastigage...

Never hand sharpened a chainsaw chain yet.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

1926 Model T Ford: Fitting the rod bearings - YouTube

Have to say scraping babbitt bearings was a new one on me. I remember as a kid dad taking out shims if he heard some rod knock.

The pouring and boring we when I worked in a took and die shop for a while before the Navy was on a huge rod out of a single cylinder compressor in a milk company before they sold to Dean Foods. We order a huge piece of pipe that was smaller than the crank journal and after pouring it we set it up on a mill and bored it to size so there was no scraping like in the video.

It is impressive to see how some can shape metal with hand tools.

 

[Coyote machine]

Great post Coyote & indicative of your many years of experience - nothing beats a hand filed chain !!:thumbsup:

Excellent post Coyote!!:thumbsup::thumbsup:

Sorry to burst your bubble about your superhuman prowess and the wisdom of ages that has been bestown upon you. A properly hand sharpened chain will work ok but there is no way it will perform like a factory fresh edge.
I suppose you can scrape babbit bearings and get a 80% surface too.

You can be as sarcastic as you want and make ridiculous accusations about things I never said; about bubbles and my superhuman powers etc. and wisdom coming from actual experience, but nothing you say will influence anything I do or the accuracy of my sharpening skills. Take your factory fresh edge and figure out a good place to store it - use you imagination, or better yet go over to the other thread that was closed and share your one note take on chains, and irrelevant bearing scraping nonsense.
If you have nothing positive to contribute or share just go away.

 

[catskinner]

I just bought a Timberline sharpener, and after reading over a ton of pages on decided it was for me. Not only does it do a great job sharpening, It showed me that my hand filing needed help on one side. Great tool.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Thanks for that report. It is the coolest thing I have seen. Do you only need one size mill or did you buy one of all four?

 

[ultrarunner]

1926 Model T Ford: Fitting the rod bearings - YouTube

Have to say scraping babbitt bearings was a new one on me. I remember as a kid dad taking out shims if he heard some rod knock.

The pouring and boring we when I worked in a tool and die shop for a while before the Navy was on a huge rod out of a single cylinder compressor in a milk company before they sold to Dean Foods. We order a huge piece of pipe that was smaller than the crank journal and after pouring it we set it up on a mill and bored it to size so there was no scraping like in the video.

It is impressive to see how some can shape metal with hand tools.

Looks like I might buy a timberline for myself this Christmas...

Most of my cars have babbitt bearings... don't put many miles on them these days... there was a time when I would think nothing of jumping in the Model A and drive from San Francisco to Reno and back for a meet.

The nice thing about the old stuff is most things could really be repaired with a few hand tools... kind of like the art of freehand sharpening a chain...

Bearing Shims, Water Pump Packing, Grease Cups, Adjustable Generator Brushes with no tools for the night ride home with the lights on...

 

[Gale Hawkins]

I do not think a lot of people today realize machine tools did not create the early industrial revolution but it was men with hand tools and a black smith shop. The tools came later to do repetitive tasks over and over at a faster and more accurate rate.

Those who can not do things with their mind and hand coordination have an emotional need to hurt those who can as we can see read.

I will keep my eye open for a used Timberline just for the heck of it. If we can get our steel table into the old garage this week and get the vice mounted on it I would like to test out the HF sharpener.

 

[ultrarunner]

Several of my friends have the HF sharpener and they really like it... the only thing is they are only ocasional chainsaw users of the homeowner catagory.

Just last week I was cutting a storm fallen heritage oak and the first cut with my new chain hit bob wire that was probably 80 years old or older... the boundary line of the old Spanish Land Grant runs through the property and trees were used as post where ever they could... post have old square nails just to indicate how old they are and made of old growth heart redwood...

 

[RalphVa]

The local hardware store takes ours and sends them to a shop. Costs $6 for a 14" chain. Do a marvelous job. After about a dozen sharpenings, the blades are about ground down. Time for a new chain. Used to do my own using various means. Often would end up with a chain that cut in a circle rather than straight.

Ralph

 

[newbury]

The local hardware store takes ours and sends them to a shop. Costs $6 for a 14" chain. Do a marvelous job. After about a dozen sharpenings, the blades are about ground down. Time for a new chain. Used to do my own using various means. Often would end up with a chain that cut in a circle rather than straight.

Ralph

Ay, there's the rub. Over on Arboristsite there are frequent reports of the "local" sharpenings ruining a chain. If you have a GOOD local shop that does it for a few $$ go for it.

The primary problem I have with tools like the Timberline is it doesn't do ripping chain.

It took me about ten or twenty times hand sharpening before I got to what I consider proficient. If you are the average cutter who needs sharpening only a few times a year you may never learn the motor skills to put a good edge on the chain. You have to pay attention to two angles, the pressure used, length of stroke etc. Like riding a bicycle or swimming it's real easy, once you learn how.

"Cutting circles" is common when you vary the angles and pressure when sharpening the different sides of the chain. I did that for a bit when I'd use my right hand for one side and left for the other.

The Granberg File-N-Joint takes care of the angles but not the pressure used. A GOOD grinder takes care of all.