How long on a fresh Chain ?

[basswidow]

Well - I am a first time chainsaw owner. I just bought a Dolmar 5100 with a 20 inch bar and I love it. After cutting 29 rounds, the chain's gone dull. I am going to point it up with a saw file per the manual and I will buy a couple more chains as spares to get ready for next weekend.

I would imagine hardwoods dull a chain quicker than soft woods? I cut 20 (soft wood) and 9 red oak (hard). Is that a normal amount to dull the chain? Or did I get alittle frozen crud and dirt to dull it? The Oak was at a construction site and some of it had frozen debris on it. I was surprized it went dull so quick. I thought I could get a whole day in and fill my truck. I must have dulled the chain somehow?

With a fresh chain, how much wood can you cut - (hardwoods like oak)? There's a good 2 cords of hardwood that I left behind - that I want to get this saturday and sunday.

This is the first time I've ever cut and split firewood. It's enjoyable. Too cold for me to fish, so scrounging for wood, cutting it, hauling it and splitting it - is fun. There's something nice about the crisp cold woods and the sound of turkey's down along the creek and bottom land calling to each other. The sound of the maul when it strikes the wood - echo's down the hallow at my house. It's really fun.

So - what's the run life on a sharp fresh chain ?
Any tips to sharpening?
Any splittin tips? I've got a sledge and wedges for the big rounds. I am also going to make me a short platform with a tire - to aid in splitting - keeps you from having to keep proping the pieces up. What about this Fiskar axe? Any particular maunal splitting devise that is a must have?

 

[savageactor7]

In log loads? They're an easy take, if I had the stamina I think I could go all day 500, 1000 rounds I dunno. Mostly maple ash and elm here, thankfully I done with the locust trees that plagued us.

No offense but unless you hit unseen barbed wire buried in the tree it sounds like operator error to me. It's easy enough for any first time user to do. If you can I would advise that you hook up with a wood cutting buddy to learn the ropes.

The most common saw abuse I see from learners is 1... they try and cut all the way threw the log and when it starts to pinch they nose it into the dirt pulling it out. the fix...just cut half 3/4 way threw and roll the log over. Sounds like more work but you make more production in the long run.

2 They use the grab handle together with the spiked bumper to torque the saw threw the log...that a big no go. the fix ... just let the saw do the cutting when you find yourself horsing the saw....the chain was dull 10 minutes ago. I've taken my spiked dogs off 20 years ago...if your joe homeowner cutting in the back yard ya don't need 'em, a sharp chain will easily pull it way threw any notch or falling cut.

I told a couple of guys a long time ago...just try cutting with half or a little more throttle when they're bucking. Many times they told me that was the best advice they ever got. Truthfully I don't have a clue why that should even make a difference but it does.

Unless I hit something buried in the wood I can't remember the last time I dulled a chain by cutting wood and had to stop production to swap chains...maybe sometime during the Bush1 administration. But that's not saying I don't touch up my chain.

Take the time and learn how to hand sharpen. Unless you hit something usually 1 proper draw is enough.

A chain saw is a great labor saving device so working slower will yield more production. At the end of the day sharpen, dissemble and clean with some compressed air...you may have to take a flat file to the bar too. It's 20 minutes well spent.

Read the book again so you really understand it and good luck to you.

 

[KarlP]

Chain life depends on the wood, my luck, and my skill that day.

In a typical day, I'll lightly sharpen or swap the chain after every two tanks of gas. Sometimes I'll hit a rock or nail buried in the wood and not make it through one full cut. In clean wood off the ground so I never hit any dirt, maybe 5 tanks of gas and several hundred rounds. With a hard high mineral content wood like mulberry that's partially buried in mud so I hit dirt, maybe 15 rounds.

In a 40" diameter stump with a wire fence grown through it that HAD to come out, maybe 10 chains for a single cut (actually 5 chains sharpened 1/3 of the way through and then dulled all 5 again to finish)...

 

[Bigg_Redd]

Well - I am a first time chainsaw owner. I just bought a Dolmar 5100 with a 20 inch bar and I love it. After cutting 29 rounds, the chain's gone dull. I am going to point it up with a saw file per the manual and I will buy a couple more chains as spares to get ready for next weekend.

I would imagine hardwoods dull a chain quicker than soft woods? I cut 20 (soft wood) and 9 red oak (hard). Is that a normal amount to dull the chain? Or did I get alittle frozen crud and dirt to dull it? The Oak was at a construction site and some of it had frozen debris on it. I was surprized it went dull so quick. I thought I could get a whole day in and fill my truck. I must have dulled the chain somehow?

With a fresh chain, how much wood can you cut - (hardwoods like oak)? There's a good 2 cords of hardwood that I left behind - that I want to get this saturday and sunday.

This is the first time I've ever cut and split firewood. It's enjoyable. Too cold for me to fish, so scrounging for wood, cutting it, hauling it and splitting it - is fun. There's something nice about the crisp cold woods and the sound of turkey's down along the creek and bottom land calling to each other. The sound of the maul when it strikes the wood - echo's down the hallow at my house. It's really fun.

So - what's the run life on a sharp fresh chain ?
Any tips to sharpening?
Any splittin tips? I've got a sledge and wedges for the big rounds. I am also going to make me a short platform with a tire - to aid in splitting - keeps you from having to keep proping the pieces up. What about this Fiskar axe? Any particular maunal splitting devise that is a must have?

If the wood is clean and you keep your bar out of the dirt your chain will stay sharp a long time. If it's dull after 29 cuts you're either cutting dirty wood or your bar found the dirt.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Your first chain may not have been sharp when you started. However, the main reason I've seen that people dull their chains is just kiss the ground once with that chain and you'd best stop and sharpen.

For many, many moons I sharpened using just a file. When my hands went so bad I could no longer do that, I bought a handy little tool for sharpening chain saws. It is nothing more than a dremel tool and makes extremely quick and easy work in sharpening a chain. Oh how I wish I'd bought this thing much sooner!

The tool comes with a long cord with clamps at the end. You simply clamp the cord onto a battery, be it truck battery or as I do, on the atv. Sharpening has never been so easy! Not only that, but it is cheap. $20 gets you all you need so you will save many dollars instead of taking your chain to someone else to sharpen it.

The only thing you have to be careful with is to watch the angle (there are guides on the tool) and not hold it on each tooth too long lest you lose the temper which will tend to wear the chain faster.

btw, I never take an extra chain with me. When one chain wears out, then I go buy another.

It does not hurt to touch up a chain after each tank of gas or at least after every other tank. By sharpening often, you actually sharpen much less and save much time. It's a poor man who goes to the woods with a dull axe. Same with a chain saw.

 

[vwboomer]

I'm pretty new to this myself. I've been using a chisel chain and it doesn't hold up very well. The logs I'm working on are a mix of box elder, probably popple, and a little ash. All with snow/ice on them. I brush off what I can and rap the log with an axe but the embedded ice must do a number.
I was filing by hand with a guide, but I wasn't doing it evenly. Now I have a clamp on guide so we'll see how that works out. You know you messed up when the semi chisel you just bought cuts circles around the full chisel you think you sharpened

 

[basswidow]

Thanks guys - I think you nailed it. And no offense taken - I am a rookie and learning each time out - hence me asking. I appreciate any tips that will shorten my learning curve.

These logs had been dragged and piled at a construction site and there was dirt and debris within the bark. I also made a cut just below a Y and when it fell, the two sides broke open to show a mess of ice and dirt that I had cut through. I must have dulled it in a hurry by not making sure the cutting area was clean. Plus they were laying in a pile of frozen sawdust that was all over the logs too.

I guess I'll learn how to sharpen it now! I thought it went dull rather quickly after just 29 rounds.

I will mind the dirt in the future. I want to get back to those logs by Saturday - it's good wood - if I can get it without dulling out again.

Thanks!

 

[lexybird]

dont feel bad all rookies go through this problem ,just like all rookies end up with not enough wood and /or its way too undeseasoned and wont burn the first year .as you get more saw time under yourbelt ,youll see what works and what doesnt .

 

[savageactor7]

basswidow OK since your working on a dirty site it's a perfect opportunity to learn hand sharpening....unless you do it Savages way cause that'll work too.

Get a stump vice so you can field sharpen the chain. Using the saws manual keep reading over all the steps to do this until you fully understand them.

Take a black marker and blacken the cutter you'll start at.

You'll going to do one side then the other.

Just draw the file over the cutters once...with the cutters on the right slightly twist the file between you thumb a fingers so the file is rotating up toward the point of the cutter. It's the points that do the cutting.

As you sit over the saw get comfortable cause staying steady helps you draw the correct angle.

Do 2 maybe 3 cutters at a time then use the file to draw the tightened chain toward you to to 2-3 more till one side is finished. Same same with the other side.

btw it's easier to do this in the garage using a vice...hey the worst that can happen hand sharpening is that the saw will cut down to the left or right. If it cuts down left it means that side is sharper, so you'll gonna just take 1 swipe of the right side to even it up.

By the 10th time you do this you'll be an expert and always be looking forward to cutting because it's easier. Of course there's a little more to it that's why you have to be a subject matter expert with your manual. Once you get the hang of doing it you'll find those chains will stretch out before you ever have to touch a raker.

Be determined don't get frustrated, problems? check back here someone will help you out.

 

[Bigg_Redd]

Thanks guys - I think you nailed it. And no offense taken - I am a rookie and learning each time out - hence me asking. I appreciate any tips that will shorten my learning curve.

These logs had been dragged and piled at a construction site and there was dirt and debris within the bark. I also made a cut just below a Y and when it fell, the two sides broke open to show a mess of ice and dirt that I had cut through. I must have dulled it in a hurry by not making sure the cutting area was clean. Plus they were laying in a pile of frozen sawdust that was all over the logs too.

I guess I'll learn how to sharpen it now! I thought it went dull rather quickly after just 29 rounds.

I will mind the dirt in the future. I want to get back to those logs by Saturday - it's good wood - if I can get it without dulling out again.

Thanks!

I use skiptooth round bit (semi chisel?) chains and cut right through dirty bark. Cleaning logs takes longer than filing chains.

 

[webie]

Here is another note , usually a chain will last its longest cutting green not frozen wood what seems to me to be the hardest on chains is actually cutting frozen or frozen and dry dead wood . It also depends too on where this tree grew . I have cut down city trees next to streets that you had to sharpen every second or third round because of how much dirt and grit had grown unto the wood over the years as this tree grew by a nearby street . I have also found that fence row trees by fields have a high amount of dirt in them too . I have 2 saws that I do most of my bucking with an 026 stihl with a 16inch bar and a MS 360 also with a 16 inch bar . Both are running .325 chains , most of what I cut is in a swamp . This past fall I cut 20 full cord with these saws and never sharpened the chains till the end of the season and yes at that time they needed to be sharpened but still cut well yet . Chain sharpness ability depends on where u cut how u cut and what u cut . The more you have to sharpen your saw chain the more you will respect those 3 things.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

I second Backwoods Savage's suggestion to use one of those little dremel type sharpeners.
I found that when I tried to use a file freehand I tended not to be able to keep the file straight and at the correct angle all the time, consequently the teeth never got filed straight. Using the clamp on guide for filing did a great job but was time consuming.
The dremel tool worked much faster, but even with it there were some problems I eventually found solutions too, I'll list them here .

One problem was that the little grinder actually works so well that if you aren't careful you can file too much off the teeth and wear them down too fast. I ate up my first chain in record time just by over using the tool.
Learning to hold just the right angle and pressure, and making sure you do it exactly the same way for each tooth is critical to maintaining uniform cut on each tooth on the chain.
The little grinder should spin towards the top of the tooth you are grinding, not away from the top. If you do it the wrong way you will get a metal bur on the edge of the tooth and you'll never get them as sharp as they should be.
I always work on the chain with the bar facing towards me. I use a red felt pen and mark one tooth and begin cutting that one and pull the chain though so the next tooth of the same right or left angle, which ever side you start with, comes under that spot and file it exactly where the last one was. This means you do every second tooth since the teeth angle alternates. I continue filing each tooth like that until the red tooth comes back and all the teeth on that side are done. To do the teeth that angle the opposite side I reverse the polarity of the leads on the battery so the tool spins the opposite direction, this allows me to sharpen those teeth from the same spot with the bar still facing towards me and the grinder spins towards the top edge of the teeth. If you don't change the polarity of the leads you'll either cut the teeth the wrong way, or you'll have to hold the tool differently than you did to do the other side.
Does this make any sense???
Takes me 2-3 minutes to do a 20" blade with that tool and I don't get sore or tired hands like I would by hand filing.

 

[bambam]

Most people don't realize that all those sharpening service guys (a.k.a. my dad) go around during the summer when ho one is around and drive small nails into the trees.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Must be related to our tire dealer who goes around throwing tacks in people's driveways...

 

[ansehnlich1]

I had a new chain when I started bucking this last load of log length chestnut oak. I sawed 5 cord before sharpening, and then all I did was touch it up lightly with a file and it's back to cuttin' like new.

 

[LLigetfa]

I sawed 5 cord before sharpening...

Sounds about right. ISTR only sharpening my chain a couple of times last year on a 12 cord load. This year I started a log (aptly named firewood.log) to keep track of how much gas and chain it will take to buck and split this year's 12 cord.

 

[ansehnlich1]

I sawed 5 cord before sharpening...

Sounds about right. ISTR only sharpening my chain a couple of times last year on a 12 cord load. This year I started a log (aptly named firewood.log) to keep track of how much gas and chain it will take to buck and split this year's 12 cord.

Yeah, I ain't tryin' to make fun of nobody (cuz I'm guilty as charged) but chains last a long time if you're not cuttin' dirt, nails, rock, blacktop, concrete or otherwise.

 

[LLigetfa]

Ja, I figure there would be around 100 cuts or more to a cord so 5 cord = 500 cuts.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Yesterday I was cutting and got a bad pain in my back (happens often). The result was I jerked.....and the danged saw tried to cut the frozen ground. Oh well, I needed a rest and in 2 minutes the chain was sharp again. The atv sit only about 10 feet from where I was cutting so clamping the wire onto the battery, sitting the saw on the atv and grind away.

I too, like, Carbon_Liberator will do all the grinding on one side before doing the other. I also stand behind the saw and not in front. I was about 60 years old before I saw anyone standing in front of the saw while filing. Really looked strange.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

Dennis, the standing in front of the saw is because I usually sharpen the saw with the truck hood open and the saw body sitting on the front sill under the hood above the radiator, next to the battery with the blade sticking forward. There is probably a better way, but that's the way I started doing it years ago and have been doing it that way ever since and since it takes only a couple minutes to do there doesn't seem to be any reason to change my system now. %-P

I buck 99% of my wood in the bush where it falls, so it's not much of a shock if I find my saw could use some sharpening after cutting only one cord. Of course I'm not just bucking the rounds, I do a fair bit of limbing too.
My hat is off to you guys who manage to cut 5 cords between sharpening.

One of the things we contend with in these parts is burned bark on older trees where a fire may have burned through the area sometime in the past, the fire can singe the bark on the lower trunk but doesn't harm the tree. The charcoal in the bark is very hard on chains and even though after many years the visible charcoal may disappear there is still enough of it left in the bark to dull a chain a lot quicker than just cutting through pure wood.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Hey Carbon. I'm not knocking it because it works! It just looked strange the first time I saw someone doing it.

 

[basswidow]

Wow - 5 cords without a sharpening! You guys have given me a new benchmark to shoot for. That's all I need for the season is about 5. Still not sure if it was the frozen wood or the dirt - probably both. But we hit 65 today and tomorrow is gonna be nice too, so I'm gonna give it a work out!

 

[LLigetfa]

This year I started a log (aptly named firewood.log) to keep track of how much gas and chain it will take to buck and split this year's 12 cord.

I'm about a third done now and went through 4 tanks of gas and the chain has yet to need a touch up. I should pass the 5 cord mark tomorrow.

 

[LLigetfa]

I should pass the 5 cord mark tomorrow.

I think I passed the 6 cord mark today.
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/36542/

Seven tanks of gas in the saw and 6 cord bucked so I felt compelled to touch up the chain. It wasn't really slowing down much but it starts nagging on my mind that maybe the degradation is so gradual that it goes unnoticed. Anyway, I did notice the difference after sharpening.

 

[Flatbedford]

I give my chain a quick once over with the round file just about every time I fill the tank. I figure that if I do it often, I want have to work very hard at it and I won't lose or mess up the factory edge, but just keep it nice. I file freehand from the front with the saw on the tailgate. This has worked pretty well for me for about 12 years now.