Sharpening chainsaws

[Suburban Plowboy]

More hard-earned wisdom:

Red Sta-bil doesn't work, so don't use it. Use Biobor EB, Red Armor, and ethanol-free gas. This kind of gas can gum up just like ethanol gas, but it takes longer.

Running your saw dry will not necessarily prevent it from clogging during storage. Old guys recommend running pure oil through the carb before storage.

If your saw doesn't work, the #1 move is to replace the gas. This has "fixed" many saws.

When you buy a saw, buy the carb rebuild kit that goes with it. Your carb will go bad eventually. In 15-20 minutes, with simple tools, you can replace the diaphragm and anything else that may be shot. Do this before going to a shop, where they will leave your saw on a shelf for a month while they take care of professional customers, and then they will charge you $150 per hour.

Buy a tachometer ($15) and learn how to tune a saw. It's very simple, and when your saw was new, it was tuned badly. You may need to pop off the plastic limiter caps the company put on the saw to prevent amateurs from burning saws up.

Your saw's exhaust is not to be taken seriously as sold. They are all choked up, and this causes heat to accumulate in the saw, as well as reducing the power. Some saws have parts that, wow, just happen to be easily removed in 5 minutes to make them breathe better. It's almost like...the manufacturers expect you to do it. Others can be fixed with a 3/8" drill bit.

Buy a bar grease gun, because the spur in the tip of the bar needs lube.

Finally, electric saws are superior to gas saws. The only advantage of a gas saw is that it's easier to deal with when you put in a long day. If you're only going to do short jobs, buy cordless. It will always start, and you won't need ear protection.

People should be paying me for this.

 

[dadohead]

The rollers make the filing stroke smooth, and they tend to help you hold the angle.

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A simple mod to Husqvarna's roller guide and it will snap right on Stihl's 3/8 chisel chain. My favorite setup.

When someone says they don't have success hand filing, often they are filing the limiters with a dull file. Change out the flat file and file the limiters again... watch what happens.

 

[WinterDeere]

Buy a bar grease gun, because the spur in the tip of the bar needs lube.

Note that Stihl and many others have gotten away from greasable sprocket bearings, over the last 20 years. I still prefer a greasible bearing, and choose that over a sealed bearing when I have the choice, but they're less common today than years ago.

 

[mark in portugal]

I use a cheap benchtop chain sharpening grinder. Some skill is required, not too much.
The chains get real sharp real fast.

 

[RayIN]

Check out the Stihl/ Pferd 2 in 1 files, makes quick work of filing and is pretty easy to do. As for carbide chains, if you dont enjoy sharpening you will really hate carbide.

Archer sells theirs for ½ the price.

 

[JasperFrank]

I didnt like it as well. Tried everything i could get my hands on, the Dremel works fast and makes them look sharp, BUT for some reason in my experience chain dulls really fast
Then i bough Pferd files, now i love sharpening chains and saws are happily throw long big chips and i need to touch up the chain not more often than every 3-4 tanks unless i hit a nail or a rock. And even then Pferd makes it easy task. I dont use any gadget, only a file with wooden handle, Ones in a while i tough up rakers with a flat file.
My wood it read oak 100%.

It dulls fast, because you heated up the metal with the dremmil, and that's, why one uses a hand file. Took me way too long to figure this out...

 

[Rockbadchild]

It dulls fast, because you heated up the metal with the dremmil, and that's, why one uses a hand file. Took me way too long to figure this out...

same deal with a bench grinder.

 

[RandyT]

same deal with a bench grinder.

Only if the loose nut behind the wheel doesn't know what they are doing. And that includes a professional shop that doesn't know how to not get too agressive with the grinder, which is the main problem with most people when it comes to electric chain sharpeners.

 

[BlackOps]

found this years ago and it saved me hndreds of dollars in sharpening and new chains. best way i have ever found and i tried them all.

just my opinion.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Granberg uses a lube on the grinding stone to keep it cool

 

[Rockbadchild]

Only if the loose nut behind the wheel doesn't know what they are doing. And that includes a professional shop that doesn't know how to not get too agressive with the grinder, which is the main problem with most people when it comes to electric chain sharpeners.

Your in title to your opinion
But here is mine;

A file still do a cleaner job (from a microscope view) which make it cut longer.

At my local shop they sharpen chain for industrial faller butcher they have two prices and option, by hand or by bench grinder same old man dose both, an retired lumberjack himself he knows what he is doing for both methods, 90% of the operator choose the hand filling method which is more expensive.

 

[eco88]

I freestyle it with a dremel and usually a diamond bit, sometimes a stone. Most of my trees are are on the softer side - pine, maple and cherry, so my sharpening is good enough - no need for some fancy guides or tools. Most my cutting is limbing and felling, not long cuts to get boards. But have done it, and that's where it makes bit of a difference. I noticed with a brand new chain I cut nicer and straighter boards.

But overall no need for any fancy contraptions. When I'm working it hard, I usually have to re sharpen every other day anyway. I get mid grade chains in bulk.

I have a small dremel like sharpener in the tractor with the cigarette plug in for on the go, and a 110v in the garage.
I'm too impatient with the hand files.

 

[Aggie66]

Airbiscuit, how does that husquvarna thing work? Is it just guide?

I have the husquvarna guide and that is what it is....it fits on your chain between teeth and provides the proper angle to file the tooth and the rake. There are youtubes on it's use...most of the times I'm lazy and I just look at the angle mark on the chain tooth(or take a guess at the angle) and file..

 

[dadohead]

I posted this a year ago regarding modding a Husqvarna roller guide to fit a Stihl 3/8 chain. It really beats the clamp-on file guides:

A year or two back I read on an Arborist discussion forum that most of the pros (when they hand file) prefer to use the Husqvarna roller guide more than any other. This peaked my interest. What surprised me was that a few of these guys even use them on their Stihl saws. They mentioned that only the 3/8 pitch gage works on the Stihl... one guy went further and said he had to "do a little filing" on his gage to make it work really well. None of the posters particularly liked the limiter portion of the gage so they don't use it. The guide was around $18 so I thought I'd try it. Here's what I've learned.

Yes, the Husqvarna roller guide snapped right on my full chisel Stihl 3/8 chain just like it was designed for it. The rollers were NOT parallel with the tops of the teeth though. "Ah, this is what the guy was talking about." Before modifying my brand new guide, I thought I'd better get some basic dimensions from my old Stihl 3/8 'clamp on' file guide. Stihl branded 13/64" files measured .202" diameter. The Stihl clamp-on guide holds them so .027" is above the tooth and .175" is below actually contacting the tooth. I made a little fixture in the mill and super glued it to the top of a tooth (holding a surface .027" above and parallel to the tooth). The "front" of the gage did NOT need changing; the back side needed lowering to bring the rollers parallel. I did this with a file on edge until I got this:

View attachment 3050782

So how much did I take off to get there??? Again, just the slots in the back side of the gage were modified.

View attachment 3051088

I ripped thin duct tape strips and covered the two front slots to protect them from the file (they show some bright marks where the anodizing has worn though). Both rear slots were filed to ~.254" between the slot and TOP of the tool frame. I think the new gage measured around .280"ish?

View attachment 3051446

Note the caliper is following the new angle of the rear slot made by filing.

View attachment 3051672

So how does it work? I LOVE this thing! Arborist boys are right on! I've only used it one season but I'm not going back. I'm posting to share what I've done and see if others have tweaked theirs differently. Hope this helps!

 

[WinterDeere]

It dulls fast, because you heated up the metal with the dremmil, and that's, why one uses a hand file. Took me way too long to figure this out...

same deal with a bench grinder.

Only if used wrong... which admittedly the teenager they put to the task in most saw shops will do. This was the basis in my final sentence about bench grinders a few pages back, "it's easy to wreck a whole lot of chain, real fast."

But in the hands of anyone who knows what they're doing, and using a decent stone, these problems are completely avoidable. You never lay into the tooth with the grinding stone, but instead it's a "tap-tap-tap" process, when sharpening teeth with a bench-mounted chain grinder.

A file still do a cleaner job (from a microscope view) which make it cut longer.

A file is a mighty coarse tool, when it comes to sharpening any blade. Do you sharpen your pocket knife with a file, or a stone?

And yes, I know the reality of the situation is there are a lot of crappy stones out there on a lot of cheap Horror Freight grinders, doing an absolutely terrible job of sharpening. But as a matter of principle, which technology has the potential to generate a sharper and cleaner edge, stone or file?

Me? I fell and buck my own 10 - 14 cords of wood per year, mostly oak, so I've got more hours on the handles of a chainsaw than most non-pros. I can tell the difference between a hand-filed chain and a bench-ground chain for about the first minute of mounting it on the saw, just basically until the fresh chain is "de-burred". But from there until it's ready for the next sharpening, I really can't tell any difference in a chain that's been well-sharpened using either method.

That said, I'm not letting the kid at the saw shop do my chains, either.

 

[4Liberty]

Good quality files go a long way, they do clog up with filings. If you use the plastic handle or golf ball method hold that lightly and wack the tip of the file on the bar halfway and at the end of a touch up works for me. Most good chains have a “no go” mark that’s conveniently at the correct angle. Match that with your file. When I’m touching up a chain in the field it usually only takes one pass with a good file unless you really buggered something. Sometimes the bar needs touching up too and can create some problems as well, even with a new chain. They need to be square.

 

[xyz123]

As we like to say in my group. Using grinders. You just kiss the cutter. No heat.

I think we have the biggest sharpener shop in US there with like 9 of these franzen and does it for everyone in US that ships him boxes of chains.

He lives about 40mins north of me and have met him. Great guy too.

He even came up with a better cooling cleaning spray for CBN and Diamond wheels.

 

[JsJs]

Files wear out in their mid section leaving both ends like new. Snap off the good ends using a vise and pipe then insert into your drill. Poor mans dremel but works surprisingly well

 

[WinterDeere]

Don't go snapping my vintage files! I get them re-sharpened. Usually better than factory, when I get them back.

I'm not sure how they do it, whether it's mechanical grinding or a chemical-etch process, but they come back damn near sharp as razors. Even the ones they mark as "reject" and don't charge me for, come back plenty sharp enough for my purposes.

I do recall they had more trouble with some of the older rasps, but it's honestly been enough years since I've had any re-sharpened, I forgot the what's and why's of all that.

 

[Bill601]

I've never been very good at sharpening chains with a file. My results were always mediocre.

However, I discovered using a battery powered Dremel tool with diamond embedded bits. Correctly sized to the chain, I can get very sharp chains with very little effort. It's almost fool proof. Just go slow, as the bits can be aggressive when new/ fresh. This practice has been a game changer for me. And it's fast.

View attachment 5248609

Good luck

I second this! There's also an attachment for Dremel tools just for chainsaw sharpening. It's kind of a guide to help you keep the angle and depth consistent. It makes sharpening quick and easy. I always notice a big difference in cutting after I sharpen my chain, so it must work.