Safety Chain

[Highbeam]

Picture time. What does a safety chain look like? What do I remove to make it a non-safety chain? I just bought a stihl with the safety chain and it seems to cut pretty well.

 

[smokinj]

Picture time. What does a safety chain look like? What do I remove to make it a non-safety chain? I just bought a stihl with the safety chain and it seems to cut pretty well.

if its cutting good i wouldnt mess with it unless your real good with a grinder

designed for longer cutting edge life resulting in less frequent sharpening. Especially suited for cutting dirty wood, treated wood, roots and hardwoods. This chain must be resharpened with a formed diamond grinding wheel.
I cut with a magnesium wheel thats "state of the art" they say, i wouldnt want to touch it

 

[Henz]

you have to use a grinding wheel to sharpen a safety chain?????????

 

[smokinj]

you have to use a grinding wheel to sharpen a safety chain?????????

thats what sthil is saying


"designed for longer cutting edge life resulting in less frequent sharpening. Especially suited for cutting dirty wood, treated wood, roots and hardwoods. This chain must be resharpened with a formed diamond grinding wheel"

 

[Henz]

thats bs man. I dont mind charpening my chain...I dont understand why some have a problem with it?

 

[smokinj]

thats bs man. I dont mind charpening my chain...I dont understand why some have a problem with it?

I dont thats what it says on the stihl site you can sharpen how ever you want its your chain

 

[DiscoInferno]

That sounds like instructions for a carbide chain, not low-kickback ("safety") chain.

 

[smokinj]

That sounds like instructions for a carbide chain, not low-kickback ("safety") chain.

it was the full chisel chain low kick-back safty "that what i was thinking as well doesnt make sence unless that chain is hard as heck but if you didnt have to sharpen it very offten what the heck

 

[Gooserider]

I don't know about Stihl chains and their sharpenning requirements, but I can't think of anything that would make a machine sharpenning approach either required for a safety chain, or unique to them - I would expect the sharpenning requirements to be based on a combination of the metallurgy used in the tooth, and possibly the way it is designed.

What I would suspect is that Stihl feels (probably correctly) that the person who purchases a safety chain is likely to be less knowledgable and skilled in proper chain care, thus would be more likely to go for long periods without sharpenning - so there is benefit in using an ultra high durability steel, and designing for the longest possible cutting edge life, at the cost of needing a machine to sharpen the chain, and possibly less cutting performance.

OTOH, the pro-chain user is percieved as more likely to want ultimate performance, and to be more willing and able to sharpen the chain frequently in order to maintain it - and want to be able to do it in the field, probably using hand files. This would call for a different metallurgy, capable of being hand sharpenned to a razor edge, but possibly not capable of holding it as long...

Different designs for different customers with different needs...

As to the difference between safety and pro chains, there are a lot of different factors, including cutter design, raker shape and design, possibly the presence of "bumper links" and so on. SOME of these features are even present on modern pro-chains. There are also non-chain factors, such as the design of the bar - note that modern saws have much narrower bars (measured top to bottom) than older saws, which is a kickback reduction feature by virtue of decreasing the size of the "danger zone" at the tip of the bar. Each chain maker also has it's own set of design "tricks" to get an anti-kickback design. As such, there is no "single feature" that makes a chain a "safety-chain" or a "pro-chain".

Since there isn't a single feature that makes a safety-chain, there isn't anything that can be pointed at as "remove this", though some folks might say to grind down the bumper links. Chain design is a complex field, and I wouldn't suggest trying to reverse-engineer a given design in an effort to convert it to a "pro-chain" Remember that chains are fairly cheap, especially for the smaller saws (under $20 / loop just about anywhere, closer to $10 from some of the online sources) so you would be far better off to simply purchase a Pro-chain instead of spending a lot of time and effort modifying the chain you have, and possibly creating something that is signifcantly dangerous...

Gooserider

 

[smokinj]

I would have to say the want the factory angels perfect to be a safty chain and that steel in the chain has got to be very hard and need to be ground cooler not to lose the temper sounds like a good chain to me

 

[smokinj]

My bad it is carbide didnt know they had a "full chisel low kick back safty carbide chain" wow

 

[Highbeam]

Okay, I'll just run it and sharpen it until it is dead just like the others. This is my first 3/8 0.50 chain so I hope to be making some serious chips. I got a second chain that is not a safety chain, not a skip, I believe it is the RM stihl chain.

 

[LLigetfa]

"designed for longer cutting edge life resulting in less frequent sharpening. Especially suited for cutting dirty wood, treated wood, roots and hardwoods. This chain must be resharpened with a formed diamond grinding wheel"

Ja, that clearly describes a chain with carbides.

 

[smokinj]

"designed for longer cutting edge life resulting in less frequent sharpening. Especially suited for cutting dirty wood, treated wood, roots and hardwoods. This chain must be resharpened with a formed diamond grinding wheel"

Ja, that clearly describes a chain with carbides.

still trying to get this whole chain thing down would of help if i had bi-focals the charts iam using are in small print slip a few lines as i went from left to right.

 

[Henz]

I don't know about Stihl chains and their sharpenning requirements, but I can't think of anything that would make a machine sharpenning approach either required for a safety chain, or unique to them - I would expect the sharpenning requirements to be based on a combination of the metallurgy used in the tooth, and possibly the way it is designed.

What I would suspect is that Stihl feels (probably correctly) that the person who purchases a safety chain is likely to be less knowledgable and skilled in proper chain care, thus would be more likely to go for long periods without sharpenning - so there is benefit in using an ultra high durability steel, and designing for the longest possible cutting edge life, at the cost of needing a machine to sharpen the chain, and possibly less cutting performance.

OTOH, the pro-chain user is percieved as more likely to want ultimate performance, and to be more willing and able to sharpen the chain frequently in order to maintain it - and want to be able to do it in the field, probably using hand files. This would call for a different metallurgy, capable of being hand sharpenned to a razor edge, but possibly not capable of holding it as long...

Different designs for different customers with different needs...

As to the difference between safety and pro chains, there are a lot of different factors, including cutter design, raker shape and design, possibly the presence of "bumper links" and so on. SOME of these features are even present on modern pro-chains. There are also non-chain factors, such as the design of the bar - note that modern saws have much narrower bars (measured top to bottom) than older saws, which is a kickback reduction feature by virtue of decreasing the size of the "danger zone" at the tip of the bar. Each chain maker also has it's own set of design "tricks" to get an anti-kickback design. As such, there is no "single feature" that makes a chain a "safety-chain" or a "pro-chain".

Since there isn't a single feature that makes a safety-chain, there isn't anything that can be pointed at as "remove this", though some folks might say to grind down the bumper links. Chain design is a complex field, and I wouldn't suggest trying to reverse-engineer a given design in an effort to convert it to a "pro-chain" Remember that chains are fairly cheap, especially for the smaller saws (under $20 / loop just about anywhere, closer to $10 from some of the online sources) so you would be far better off to simply purchase a Pro-chain instead of spending a lot of time and effort modifying the chain you have, and possibly creating something that is signifcantly dangerous...

Gooserider

thanks, that explains alot! Well said with jsut go and buy another chain that you want..that is exactly what I am going to do tonight on my way home!

 

[Gooserider]

Note when chain shopping - If you want a pro-chain, you need to either go on-line or to a saw shop... All that the big box stores will carry is safety chain, since they cater to consumer grade users, and have expensive / nervous corporate lawyers....

Gooserider

 

[Henz]

yeah I knew that..Heading to the saw shop where I bought the saw

 

[chachdave]

My neighbor told me about this webb site baileysonline.com. Igot 2 chains 2 files plus shipping was still cheaper than 2 safety chains at big box store. Warning they have alot of chain sizes. Still trying to wearout 1st chain and have been doing alot of cutting I got woodland pro chains.