Back out with the 660. What an awesome saw
Bucking Large Australian Hardwood!
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The 064 and 066 are fun saws as long as one don`t have to carry them too far over rough terrain, the lighter saws are better suited for carry around. Cutting big wood in a woodyard is where the fun is at with the big saws.
Spot on Jerry! The most strenuous part for me in a wood yard like this is trying to move these logs rather than use the saw haha. Thanks for the sharpening advise over the years. Though for ease, speed, consistency and not requiring any thought, especially when my body is spent / exhausted I’m using the stihl guide, which actually works beautifully even in this timber.
If I can manage to cut for a tank before having to sharpen, it’s a success here. Dust, sand, termites, stones, metal and just the hard, knotty timber means the chain isn’t lasting long between sharpens lol.
Last week I was cutting up a large hard rock Maple that had been wind felled when hurricane Fiona blew through here Sept 14,2022. It was a very old tree that had grown close to a dirt road where plenty of dust from the road had settled into the very rough bark and many crevices, a couple of limbs had broken off over the years leaving cavities in the stem. I had to sharpen the chains on my 044 Arctic and the MS362 several times on each saw, the grit took its toll on the Stihl 3/8" chisel chains. The temps were below freezing and the ground frozen rock hard,good conditions for woods work. I have not had the 064 or either 066/660 out for a cutting job , probably been 3 years or so, last cut was with a 36" bar that just made it on a large old oak , still burning wood from that tree.
Tom, you could use a peavy or felling lever with the attached hook, saves the back muscles a lot of strain. I have one with me on just about every cut. What size chain are you using, .404 or 3/8"?
Ah yes, I believe we call them a cant hook here. If I make it a regular thing bucking up wood, I’ll buy one. Something like this?
I’ve ran a couple of gallons since the rebuild and wanted to check all the hardware was tight and that there was nothing untoward internally so far. Everything seems good. I could probably take the Amsoil saber from the 40:1 I’m currently at to 32:1 without any issues of spooge, but at 40:1 it decent in the hand held trimmers and blowers so it’s a compromise.
Log jacks are helpful but unwieldly and a cant hook is used in a lumber mill on a plank decked floor or on the log carriage to roll the log over. A peavy has a heavy pointed spike like extension from the main stock to make it more useful for prying out in the woods.
https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/sho...ing-tools/log-handling/111054-log-peavey?item
https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/sho...ing-tools/log-handling/111054-log-peavey?item
I run 40-1 in all my saws ,always have and never an issue ever. I have never needed to pull a spark screen or decarbon an exhaust port either. Run em hard , WOT .
Ah that makes a lot of sense! Nice, thank you
Around here that point comes in really handy, when logs are piled up on the brow they often freeze together after a snowfall that melts and refreezes, to break individual logs free from each other the peavy point comes real handy, the point can be wedged in under a log laying tight to the ground and the handle lifted like a lever to sort of skid a log around. The more you use a peavy the more uses you will develop uses for one. Back in the days we used horses in the woods, we used log dogs driven into the log to pull them out of the woods to the brow. To remove the dog the peavy point would be driven in under the shank of the log dog prying it up out of the log, most often two dogs would be driven in at the site the tree was felled, connected by a chain with a ring in the opposite end that then would be connected to the traces coming back from the horse harness, oh the good ole days working the woods.Ah that makes a lot of sense! Nice, thank you
I have plowed with a single horse myself and watched my father and grandfather plow with a team, fine looking animal in your pic. The heavier the horse the better I liked working with them. The Clydes were the best I worked with in the woods, Belgians were also good patient and steady workers.
That’s awesome, thanks for sharing the horse ploughing!
Grandpa had a team too, the other horse was black, Blackie and Whitey. The farm didn't have electric until the 1940s so was heated with wood, they got used to pull logs also. He also had horse drawn implements. Sickle bar mower, hay rake, manure spreader, wagons, sleds, ........... I wish I had more pictures
Tom glad you're having fun with the 066. You are sharpening the same way I do, the vice is nice, except I'm using an Oregon file holder.
What are the plans for the wood? Firewood?
When I was younger we'd split up rounds that size by hand. Needed a bunch of steel wedges, mauls , and some big sledge hammers.
Now, get an AU, high output oiler on it and a 42" and find some bigger wood 
I long ago stopped using guides of any sort but if they are useful to you then by all means, use them. I would never fault anyone for using a guide or device to get the chain as sharp as possible doing so. I do believe I was born with a file in my hands and was sharpening chains for woods workers by the time I was around 10 , my dad was cutting timber for the local mills and he could file all the blade saws ever used in the pursuit of harvesting wood, but never learned to file chain. He just could not switch over his talents nor did he understand the functions of the various parts of a chainsaw chain so it sort of fell into my lap to file the chains on his Pioneer 600 which ran .404 Pioneer chain, I will admit all I knew was to copy what the factory chain looked like for angles and for a short time I did not know the relationship between the cutters and the depth gauges, my understanding came from how a new chain cut and how it did not if the depth gauges were not lowered as the tooth was filed back. My uncle had a bit of understanding of chain function and between us we figured out how to balance the height of the depth gauges and the cutters. There was no internet back in those days, the 60`s and we were far from any settlement so trial and error came naturally to me back then, even the mill owner did not know the ins and outs of how the chains cut back then. The sawyer and the millwright was of some help, they sure could file a rotary blade but again chain did not have much in common with solid cutters. I seen an awful lot of poorly filed chains so between the millwright and myself we actually held an individual cutter and pulled it manually holding it between our finger and thumb with the cutting edge against a length of plank with the depth gauge providing the angle the cutting edge approached the wood with. I knew hand plane blades and the angles associated with the different plane bodies, my mind could comprehend how the cutters acted upon the wood from that relationship and from then on I could set the depth gauges with much more understanding.
Horses and oxen had done all the draft work on the farm before I was born and continued to do so up until I was about 15, My grandfather preferred oxen and had a team of huge team of Hereford oxen. His farm was located on a hill and the main road past his farm was just a gravel road back then, often during snow storms vehicles would get stuck on the grade or slide off into the ditch, granddad would hitch up the ox team and often pull the vehicles up the hill and many times recovered vehicles from the ditch with them. On the other hand I never got used to the stubborn beasts but liked the horses much more. A big team of Clydesdale could move a lot of weight, their hooves were rather soft for working rough ground but our woods was closer to farm land than a gravel pit, I was chosen to make certain no sharp sticks including small diameter wood stumps were anywhere near where the horses would travel or be working around, occasionally the horse would cork itself with a steel shoe and some blood wold flow, we carried horse lineament and clean rags for them along with bailing wire and pliers to hastily repair harness breaks.
I learned freehand filing too. Used to use a piece of hardwood branch for a file holder. Jamb the file tang into the branch's pith.
I still freehand but it's easier for me to be consistent on cutter angle with the holder, and also not getting too much hook.
