chainsaw sharpening tips

[Jamie]

-find the shortest / most damaged CUTTER

-file it back so that its sharp

-sharpen ALL others to match (unless you like banana cuts:thumbsdown:)

-make sure the gullet is correct shape,

-towards the end of the chains life i normally hit the raised areas around the drive link and opposite tie strap.

-dont let the file ride too high

-dont give big saws to noobies to sharpen

-dont let a noobie sharpen my saw (i hate having to resharpen it)

-get rid of all guides and learn to do it by hand eye and feel

-dont take the rakers down too much

 

 

my personal favorite dont hit the ground

 

Jamie

[Steve Bullman]

oh, when learning to sharpen make sure you always use a sharp file. struggling with blunt files will throw your technique out before you even learn it

[Marc]

 

 

my personal favorite dont hit the ground

 

Jamie

 

 

Also if the saw is a little blunt, then sharpen it, its far easier to sharpen a slightly dull saw than a totally f'ing munted saw. DON'T BE LAZY, just cause it kinda cuts o.k does'nt make it o.k.

[High Scale]

Knock the burrs off the cutting tooth after sharpening with the wooden handle of your file.

[RPA]

Always filed by eye but got used to these now and would not be without them.

Bloody hate doing rakers (with a vengeance ). Any tips to make it easier?

[bill]

always wear gloves. when i first started i slipped and had to put seven stitches in my finger. make sure you round the depth gauges off, dont make them square. get a vice. i always use guides, makes it easier.

[Marc]

always wear gloves. when i first started i slipped and had to put seven stitches in my finger. make sure you round the depth gauges off, dont make them square. get a vice. i always use guides, makes it easier.

 

I might be wrong here, but different chains work best with rakers filed flat, Stihl for example their raker wear marker is flat and when you file the rakers you want to keep parrell to this.

 

Husqvarna and oregon are best done at an angle, there raker gauges are set to do this, just as Stihl raker gauges are set to do them flat.

Husky/oregon gauges also have different settings for soft or hard wood.

[Marc]

Always filed by eye but got used to these now and would not be without them.

Bloody hate doing rakers (with a vengeance ). Any tips to make it easier?

 

I always liked those depth/raker gauges on those guides, but not so keen on the cutter guide.

 

My only tip is this: I always like to keep my cutters accurate, I have a verneer to help with this, if your cutters are accurate than filing the rakers is easier.

Using the the raker gauge eye how much you need to remove, take away the gauge and run the file across put the gauge back to check, usually 1 stroke is enough, sometimes you need 1 1/2 or 2. Then just do 1 stroke on each. I use the gauge only to check i'm taking enough off, I don't file with it in place.

Depth gauges only take me a minute to do, providing everything else is accurate its easy.

 

 

Also very important is dressing the bar, i've had saws severly bannana on me with new chains and what looks like a new bar (poorly sharpen'd chains will run to one side and wear the rails), if the rails are uneven it'll never cut straight. And if you don't sort it soon you'll wear the groove then the bar is scrap.

[MattyF]

if sharpening without a file guide dont go to deep on the cutter pitch as it will truly mangle the cutter if you hit anything..... to shallow and it wont cut fast enough, keep all the cutters the same angle and pitch and length unless like jamie says you like bannana cutting....... when filling the rakers 1-2 strokes on them for every 5 on the cutters but how you like your saw pulling into a cut is all down to preferance....i have worked with people who will file them right off and just try and hold the saw back in the cut ...not nice!

[treejumper]

When you are filing remember to put the chain-brake on - it will give you the stability to create a great edge to each cutter.