Layne

I've got some 35-40" rounds, 30cm thick, to split from a recently felled large Sitka Spruce tree. I've been looking on forums, youtube etc for advice on how to deal with them but haven't found anything that seems definitive yet. I see there are lots of ways to go about this (by hand, I don't have a large mechanical splitter, only a small one for when I've broken them up a fair bit), and lots of different types of maul, weights of sledgehammer and different styles of wedges - straight, twisted, grenade style etc. I'd be really grateful for some advice on what would be the best equipment to buy and how to deal with these. Unlike lots I see being split on youtube videos, these are very large and don't have any visible cracks in them at all as a first way in to splitting them. Thanks guys! Layne

@Rough Hewn thankyou! Any idea why my cutting tooth is ending up curved rather than straight? Seems I need to get myself a professional metal grinder.

@Rough HewnOk thanks for that; mine are currently the other way around so that won't be helping I'm sure, I'll correct that. When you say that the sharpening is all over the place, where do you see I've gone wrong? I sharpened a load of my crosscutting chains on my bench grinder yesterday, and when I looked at the angle of the tooth (I've seen Rob from chainsawbars say it should be around 60 degrees) they were much more like 80 or even 90 degrees, which I gather is not good. I'll add a photo tomorrow of that. Do you guys get the correct 60 degree angle on your teeth with your bench grinders?

@Rough Hewn I've got the Stihl depth guage device in the tool roll, I tried this time using granberg rather than with the gauge and file but yes it felt like it took them way too low to me. I'm a bit confused about the teeth length for the two different types of teeth on the granberg ripping chain, people seem to call them different names so to make it so I can understand - should the half width ones be longer or shorter than the full width ones?

Hi guys, I'd really appreciate your insights. I had a go at sharpening my granberg ripping chain with the granberg precision grinder. I felt like I got the teeth lengths set pretty well using the gadget trigger_andy recommended, with the cutter teeth set longer than the rakers and I set everything to 10 degrees. The depth of the raker teeth are a bit all over the place from a previous attempt at sharpening, when I felt like I was taking way too much off so backed off after a few. I took it out to the logpile and stood a log on end to cut down it to see how it went. It seemed to cut fairly well but after intiially cutting straight it started to run off, not as severely as before. I haven't tried it on the mill - got a 24" alaskan mill on the way so I'm trying to improve my sharpening in the meantime. I've attached a few photos of the chain. Cheers!

@Rough Hewn cheers I've used the ladder before for my first boards and it seemed to work well, I'll cast an eye down it for trueness. I'm thinking because I've already recently bought the 48" Panther with a 48" bar for the 661, and most of the trees I'll be milling in our forest are more in the 12-20" range, I'd go for the 24" mill to be a bit more manageable to carry off into the woods, and I've got the Panther for anything over 22".

@trigger_andy thanks again!

@alandurrant thanks! I'm just getting a 24" alaskan mill to improve my smaller milling setup. I'm going to move up to using my 661 for this as well when I can get the bar I'm after - the Sugihara Pro solid bars look like a good option for milling, what do you guys use? That's a great tip to drill through the ladder (so you can screw it to the log right?) and I'll be attentive to wedging it as needed. Thanks for all the advice, I'll look into the grinder you mention.

@trigger_andy yes definitely better than my hand filing When you lower the grinder it does pinch and clamp the chain in place so that doesn't seem to be an issue. I find there is a little bit of play from side to side in the arm that swings down, which made me go for the granberg precision grinder as I thought this would be more accurate in terms of getting the length of the teeth bang on? I clicked on the link but it only seems to take me to an amazon home page.

@trigger_andy @Rough Hewn thanks guys I really appreciate all your advice. Ok 10 degrees, keep things simple, use a ladder, I'll do all that. I'll get a bar and ripping chain for my 661 to go with an alaskan mill and get working on my chain sharpening. I looked at the ripping chain in the photo with a friend's jewellery making magnifying lense and I could see that the teeth are if I'm understanding the term correctly a bit laid back i.e. the angle at the point is more than 60 degrees. So I imagine that's because I've filed with the round file not low enough on the depth setting? Is there a good way to know exactly how deep to set the file? I've read people say things like have 20% of the file sticking out above the top of the tooth. The grinder we've got in the workshop that I use for all my crosscut chains is a Portek Maxi Mk II. It has a grinding disc that you hinge down onto the tooth rather than a round file. Seems to work fine for my crosscut chains. When you guys refer to a metal bench grinder for using in the workshop, which do you recommend? Sounds like I might want something better than the granberg precision grinder for sharpening my chains in the workshop.

Another question - it is possible with the granberg grinder to tilt the file to various angles as well as the 10 degree/30 degree etc swivel setting. I was watching an experienced tree surgeon hand file his chain recently and he was holding the file at a slight upwards angle towards the teeth as he was sharpening. Does anyone adjust this setting or it better set to 0 degrees?

@Rough Hewn thanks I like to take care of things so I'll switch to using the 661 with a bigger alaskan mill than the small log mill, which I think I'll pass on to someone else. So it sounds like I'd be better off switching back to taking a ladder out into the forest with me to do the top cut rather than the 6 by 2. Ok I'll go with standard 3/8 chain. I've got the low pro on the 48" Panther mill we just bought, I was wondering how delicate that chain might be. I heard great things about skip chain from someone else recently; he told me he'd found it cuts just as fast as regular chain but is less work for the chainsaw, so it seems like a good way to go. I just read that it comes into it's own on longer bars - would it be worth getting if I went for a 30" bar for the 661 or only if I opt for a 36" bar? With your tips for the angles on the granberg chain - I've seen the teeth referred to as scoring cutters (the half width ones with a recommended sharpening angle of 20 degrees) and clearing cutters (5 degrees). So am I right in understanding that you are referring to the scoring cutters as the cutting teeth, and you grind these to 0 degrees? Another beginner's question: when you say you drop the clearing teeth lower than the cutters that means that you sharpen them back more so they are shorter, is that correct? I'll get to work on improving the quality and frequency of my sharpening. @Toad thanks for the heads up, I'll check that

@muttley9050 cheers yes that sounds like a great smaller setup. After beginning to do some milling with the 48" Panther Horizon it felt not ideal to be using a mill with the bar only attached at one end. Ok yes I'll get onto the chain issue and report back on my progress. Thanks again everyone!

@trigger_andy ok cool that sounds like a great way to go about milling with the 2-3 chains and hand filing during the day, I'll do that. It's so valuable to learn how you guys with experience do things, thankyou! And yeah it seems a shame to have the 661 now (a recent addition) and be milling with the 241.

@openspaceman thanks yes I can see that. What does the more pronounced score on the nearside top plate tell you?