Broken teeth on chain

[mikeyne]

Hi, I need some advice.

 

I was cutting up a thick old wooden beam for firewood today when I seemed to find every hidden nail and screw in it! Took a few restarts but I managed to find a clean way through eventually but not before blunting the chain a fair bit.

 

So I started to resharpen it to find a couple of teeth had snapped clean off the chain!

 

Is this bin time for the chain or can I carry on using it after doing a lot of sharpening?

[treequip]

If the cutters are all off one side you might have trouble getting it to cut straight, sharpen it and see how it goes

[5 shires]

No if only a few it'll still have life left in it.

[mikeyne]

Thanks! It's just two but both on the same side. I'll get it sharpened and see how it does.

[Stubby]

Thanks! It's just two but both on the same side. I'll get it sharpened and see how it does.

 

When it becomes a skip chain you might find it cuts faster if its on a longish bar !

[Marc Lewis]

It should be fine. You can have up to 3 missing even if they are in a row. This is the 'official' for want of a better word, amount, but I dare say you could get away with more missing.

[wisewood]

If it's a new chain you could try and get someone to break the chain and replace the busted ones.

[mikeyne]

Thanks for all the advice. It's not new but it's been pretty well looked after until today, just cutting lots of round wood and felling a few trees.

 

I've been sharpening by hand and it's not needed too much doing to it, but today it got hammered (I hate nails). I started sharpening on the saw but it was taking a while so I put on a new chain while I decide what I'm going to do with it (find the time to sharpen it properly).

 

One thing I noticed was how amazingly great the first cut was with a brand new chain but also how it seemed to lose maybe 1-2% of cutting power within the first cut. I was cutting through a 15 inch Hawthorn ring so not the softest of wood. It really felt like hot knife through butter for the first few seconds and then it settled down into great but not amazing. I probably imagined it!

[harvey b davison]

I have an old chain with missing teeth, i normally use it on rubbish wood or where i know there is a good chance of hitting something.

[fergusonforestry]

broke 4 teeth of before hitting a lump of railing didn't even have to sharpen it i.e every tooth that hit it had flown off!