carbide chains

[Joe Wise]

Are carbide chains worth the cost, and when they do need to
be sharpened does it take a special wheel on my Oregon
chain saw sharpner?

TIA, Joe

 

[Crofter]

Generally no and yes to your questions. They are not good cutters even when newly sharp. Do a search on this site and I believe you will find a thread where they were discussed at great length and from every angle!
Frank

 

[Stumper]

If you have a bunch of old creosoted poles or cross-ties to cut then carbide chain may make sense otherwise-probably not. If you mean a handheld sharpener-you might be able to sharpen with the little E-Z lap diamond stones.

 

[Tony Snyder]

Except for some very special applications where only carbide will do, they are not worth the trouble.

They are sharpenable by diamond wheels which are generally only available in 1 1/4 arbor hole size.

I agree with Crofter, they do not cut well even when sharp.

Carbide saw chain does not offer the same huge advantage that it offers on circular saw blade.

 

[Ax-man]

I had a job once were we had to do some tree trimming and get rid of a pile of dug out stumps on a new home construction site.

The carbide chain worked very good for cutting up the dirty stump material. But after we dulled it, never could get it sharp again like it was new. I never had the tools to sharpen it myself, but the dealer I bought it from did, they could never get it real sharp either. I just kinda gave up on carbide after that.

Carbide chain will excel in conditions where a regular chain won't.
If you hit some metal or a rock it dulls like a regular chain, after that it is just about worthless, because it is so hard to resharpen.

 

[jokers]

I`ve got some carbide impregnated chain that I got from Jeff Sikkema. It sharpens with a regular file and only costs about double what normal chain costs, not too bad. Cuts a little slower than a well sharpened chisel chain but holds an edge alot longer.

Russ

 

[jsikkema1]

Some thoughts on carbide chain…

Carbide chain was developed for demolition and for fire departments. It has, as someone indicated solid carbide inserts silver soldered in place. Carbide chain doesn’t cut as fast as standard chain since it takes a larger kurf and the cutters take more width of cut than standard chain. The basic problem with carbide chain that people don’t think about is that is built from standard chain (on standard chain chassis). So the chain will stretch out WAY before the useful life of the cutter is realized. Plus people think that they can trench with it and you can just imagine how much stretch you will get in those conditions. Carbide chain is used on fire departments saws if they have to cut a hole in a roof and cut through asphalt shingles and nails (and such) and have no time to stop and change a dull chain. Carbide chain will cost you around $1.00 per drive link (about 5x the cost of standard chain) so for a typical 20” 3/8 pitch chain with 72 drivers it will cost you around $72. It does take a special diamond grinding wheel to sharpen and they cost around $200.

For the average guy it definitely isn’t worth the cost and remember- the chassis is still standard chain so you won’t see the life improvement of 5x as dictated by the costs of it.

If you have roots to cut rent or hire a stump grinder guy and you won’t ruin your bar and saw in the process…

 

[jokers]

I should have stated carbide clad rather than "carbide impregnated". It has small carbide chips on the outside like a hardfacing.

Russ