Carbide tipped chain
Back to the carbide, I'm under the impression that it can't take any buried debris at all; the 'contaminants' I thought it could handle was just dirt, etc. I thought it was really really brittle and shatters the VERY VERY expensive tips if you hit anything.[/QUOTE]
According to Stihl the chain and bar kit they sell to the fire department is used for cutting into anything wood walls etc, in the brochure it shows a fireman cutting into a roof on top of a building.
In the picture, it shows only the tip of the bar being used as there is a limit stop fastend to the bar, leaving only the top 8 inches showing.
I suppose they don't worry about the tips when they are trying to cut a route into a building for the fire hose, expense goes to the tax payer.
I have used this chain only a couple of times before, once for cutting through a very old apple about 28 inches across, I hit a huge metal shackle, probably knocked into the tree a hundred years ago, it measured 3/8" thick and 4 inches long, this is why I always keep the tipped chain handy.
One good thing with chain is you can always replace the damaged tips when needed, the other time the tipped chain come in handy, was when milling a big old Yew, a boulder the size of a melon had grown into the fissures, out of sight, the tipped chain soon made dust of that, so I could continue cutting.
