John_Mc
Elite Member
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2001
- Messages
- 4,567
- Location
- Monkton, Vermont
- Tractor
- NH TC33D Modified with belly pan, limb risers & FOPS. Honda Pioneer 520 & antique Coot UTV
I've said this elsewhere on the forum (and probably in this thread): I've met many dozens of people who think they are top-notch at freehand sharpening with nothing but a bare round file. I've met exactly 3 who actually can get excellent results that way (one was a retired machinist, one was a competition chainsaw racer, and one was a pro logger). Most of them only think they are getting great results, when really the best you can say is that it cuts somewhat better than before they sharpened it.
Having said that, it is not at all difficult to sharpen a chain and get equal to or better than "new out of the box" performance if you use one of several types of handheld chain sharpening guides that are available. Using those guides properly, you can generally beat the cutting performance of even a highly experienced person using a grinder to sharpen chain (and you are WAY better off than trusting your chain to some hardware store flunky who had all of 15 minutes of training on operating their chain grinder.)
I did have a little fun with a guy who was quite proud of his freehand sharpening skills. I could see that most of his filing was too shallow on the tooth, resulting in a poor tooth profile when he sharpened. He was also "rocking" the file during each stroke: mostly up and down, but occasionally also left and right as well. This can do bad things to the cutting edge of the tooth. He borrowed my saw to finish up some cutting when his saw ran out of gas and we were far from the fuel can. When he handed it back, he commented that my 50 cc saw seemed to have "more power" than has 60cc saw. I told him that it had been "modded", and that I could do the same mod to his saw right here in the woods, it would only take me a few minutes. I sharpened his saw for him using a guide (and endured his snide comments about my needing "training wheels" to sharpen a chain, and ignored is claim that he had just recently sharpened it, so it was "good"). I handed him back his saw and asked him to make some cuts in the Red Oak he had just felled.To make a long story short: he no longer freehand sharpens his chain. These days, he's using a guide.
I don't claim any super-human skills, and I'm not the fastest at sharpening. It's just that with a little practice, using a guide makes good sharpening almost a no-brainer. Just about anyone can learn to do it well, and with a little bit of practice get results that beat new out of the box chains. The guides are also a boon for those of us whose eyesight is not as good as it once was.
Pet peeve: a few years back, Oregon made a big deal over "sharp right out of the box". Yeah, its sharp, but they are not following their own sharpening guidelines. They are putting way too much hook on the tooth. This makes the chain cut much more aggressively at first, but the point on that long, thin beak is very fragile. It just does not hold up, so you have to resharpen far sooner than you would if they sharpened it properly. I suspect they do that because first impressions carry a lot of weight in the eyes of a user. When they first put a new chain on, they think "wow, this stuff is really good!" They don't tend to notice that it doesn't last as long as it should. However, they remember that impression, and go looking for that same chain next time they buy. With a good resharpening, you have a chain that lasts as it should.
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