Hardmetal tipped chains

[Puumies]

Are those HM-tipped chains (for example Sthils Rapid duro s) worth the price? My friend is a fireman an he says that they use only hardenet-tipped chains because those are cheaper in the long run.
Can Hm-chains cope with nails which are often in trees near houses?

 

[Urbicide]

Hello. You are referring to carbide tipped chains. They have their place for certain applications such as fire department use. For more traditional wood cutting they are not all that great and they are very expensive and difficult to sharpen. Bailey's sells a brand called injecta-sharp. They do not recommend it for nails.

http://store.baileys-online.com/cgi-bin/baileys/1281?mv_session_id=GkuAgX5E&product_sku=CB50 375


This is a link for another manufacturer of carbide chains called Rappco.

http://www.rapcoindustries.com/index.html

You might consider buying a metal detector and scanning the trees with it before you cut. I know it is very aggravating to come across metal in wood. I hit an occasional piece of fencing that farmers years ago tacked to convenient trees instead of setting fence posts.

Here is a link for the metal detectors that Bailey's carry.

http://store.baileys-online.com/cgi...ion/co=yes/sf=category/se=310/op=eq/ml=5.html

Take care.

 

[B_Turner]

The general consensus among the large scale professional burl and wood harvesters I have talked to is that they feel the price (like 8x) and sharpening issues don't make the carbide chains worth it for them. A couple of them do use carbide tipped chains occasionaly on certain really difficult root burls (like some madrone burl) when even with all the pressure washing in the world the high number of rock and sand pockets can make conventional chains nearly worthless. But in addition to the high initial price they are prone to chipping when cutting hard stuff, and that gets expensive in a hurry.

Obviously for firefighters the priorities are different and they commonly use them.

I confess that I've not tried them myself as I don't have the right wheels for my grinders.

 

[WRW]

Obviously for firefighters the priorities are different and they commonly use them.

I don't think they use them on trees much...just flooring and roofing and the like... 3/4"stuff.