Sharpening angles for ripping chain

[blue beastie]

What angles are we all sharpening to?

Please state chain manufacturer, pitch & angles used (along with any other ripping chain sharpening tips)

 

Seems like there's lots of different ideas around on the net as to what's best, would be good to have a clear guide here.

[tommer9]

10 degrees instead of the normal 25 or 30. 90 degrees to bar. Not come across anything else in 13 years.

[Luke Quenby]

10 degrees is what I always do, think that's what's reccomended by the manufacturers, Rob D is probably the man with all the info on this

[Rob D]

Pretty much as above. 10 degrees is the norm. You can play a little with this if you wanted. I find 5 degrees is minimum. This gives less self feeding a smoother board. Increasing the angle say to 20 degrees gives you more self feeding but a rougher board and more chance of the saw bogging down.

 

Granberg chain has scoring cutters that can be filed to 20 degrees with the clearing cutters set to 5 degrees but for ease these days I tend to do the lot 10 degrees.

 

More important in many ways than the angle is the tooth length (getting all cutters the same length), tooth shape (which is more to do with the side angle) and consistant depth guages.

 

A more beaked tooth gives a more aggresive cut and faster chain dulling, a laid back tooth a smoother dustier cut and takes much more effort to push the mill up the wood.

 

More info on general chain sharpening is Guide Bar & Saw Chain Menu and there is also more info on sharpening ripping chain (although I wouls say keep the file flat rather than trying to angle it at 10 degrees).

[tommer9]

Very good points about tooth length there Rob. As you say, this is essential. I did find that for some softwoods the rakers could be left higher than normal which gave less grabbing.