How Does Dirt Dull a Chainsaw Chain?

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Also learning the difference within a tree in compression or tension really reduces the stress a chain is put in during routine felling & bucking !

How would you ever know?

The only way to evaluate that claim would be to wear out a chain only cutting compression wood, and then do the same for tension wood.

I suspect that getting partially pinched all the time from compression wood might be a factor.
 
I wonder about doing that to lawn mower blades? Feasible?

It is very resistant to being ground to a sharp edge, its rather brittle like hardened steel, think of a file hard.

Don't bother. I tried it many years ago. I coated each cutting edge with tube borium. It works great, but then ruins the blade at the same time.
Here's what happens:
  1. You change the temper and hardness of the blade when you braze that stuff onto your mower blade.
  2. It holds the edge quite well, but is so hard that it cannot be sharpened with a conventional grinder.
  3. When you hit a rock, it shatters and the supporting steel gets a giant chip knocked out. It ends up getting a much deeper gouge taken out than if your blade had never been modified, and it doesn't take much of a ding to do it, either.
  4. The very hard metal gets undermined by the supporting steel abrading away. Presto! Your brittle hard-face material no longer has any strength, and it chips off destructively.
  5. Once you get that large fractured chip taken off the leading edge, it predisposes the blade to cracking. This is very bad, 'cause those blade tips do some serious damage when they fly out from under the mower deck.
  6. If you decide that you need to sharpen, it is impossible. Grinders just bounce off this stuff.

... But I'm curious to know the SCIENCE behind it.

Dirt is soft, wood is much HARDER, then how come dirt dulls a chainsaw chain (almost) INSTANTLY?
...

Hardness is a physical property that science measures for most solids that are consistently formed. Diamonds are a 10 on the Mohs hardness scale. This is applied to most minerals, whereas metals get graded on the Rockwell hardness scale.

1676329217467.png 1676329685493.png
Quartz is about the most common mineral you find in dirt. At a hardness of 7, it's a bit harder than steel, and dulls hell out of your saw. As you can see from the simple chart above, carbide comes in a lot harder, and doesn't dull nearly so quickly.
 
Don't bother. I tried it many years ago. I coated each cutting edge with tube borium. It works great, but then ruins the blade at the same time.
Here's what happens:
  1. You change the temper and hardness of the blade when you braze that stuff onto your mower blade.
  2. It holds the edge quite well, but is so hard that it cannot be sharpened with a conventional grinder.
  3. When you hit a rock, it shatters and the supporting steel gets a giant chip knocked out. It ends up getting a much deeper gouge taken out than if your blade had never been modified, and it doesn't take much of a ding to do it, either.
  4. The very hard metal gets undermined by the supporting steel abrading away. Presto! Your brittle hard-face material no longer has any strength, and it chips off destructively.
  5. Once you get that large fractured chip taken off the leading edge, it predisposes the blade to cracking. This is very bad, 'cause those blade tips do some serious damage when they fly out from under the mower deck.
  6. If you decide that you need to sharpen, it is impossible. Grinders just bounce off this stuff.



Hardness is a physical property that science measures for most solids that are consistently formed. Diamonds are a 10 on the Mohs hardness scale. This is applied to most minerals, whereas metals get graded on the Rockwell hardness scale.

View attachment 1057636 View attachment 1057637
Quartz is about the most common mineral you find in dirt. At a hardness of 7, it's a bit harder than steel, and dulls hell out of your saw. As you can see from the simple chart above, carbide comes in a lot harder, and doesn't dull nearly so quickly.
I suppose thats why I haven't heard of anyone doing this.
 
Don't bother. I tried it many years ago. I coated each cutting edge with tube borium. It works great, but then ruins the blade at the same time.
Here's what happens:
  1. You change the temper and hardness of the blade when you braze that stuff onto your mower blade.
  2. It holds the edge quite well, but is so hard that it cannot be sharpened with a conventional grinder.
  3. When you hit a rock, it shatters and the supporting steel gets a giant chip knocked out. It ends up getting a much deeper gouge taken out than if your blade had never been modified, and it doesn't take much of a ding to do it, either.
  4. The very hard metal gets undermined by the supporting steel abrading away. Presto! Your brittle hard-face material no longer has any strength, and it chips off destructively.
  5. Once you get that large fractured chip taken off the leading edge, it predisposes the blade to cracking. This is very bad, 'cause those blade tips do some serious damage when they fly out from under the mower deck.
  6. If you decide that you need to sharpen, it is impossible. Grinders just bounce off this stuff.



Hardness is a physical property that science measures for most solids that are consistently formed. Diamonds are a 10 on the Mohs hardness scale. This is applied to most minerals, whereas metals get graded on the Rockwell hardness scale.

View attachment 1057636 View attachment 1057637
Quartz is about the most common mineral you find in dirt. At a hardness of 7, it's a bit harder than steel, and dulls hell out of your saw. As you can see from the simple chart above, carbide comes in a lot harder, and doesn't dull nearly so quickly.
When we build cutting edges back up on earth moving gear we don`t even attempt grinding it, I have burned in 25 lbs of rod on the bucket of a 22 ton excavator , doing the cutting sides and wear bars on the bottom side, as for the teeth we just replace them but there has been times I needed to replace the sockets/ bases the teeth connect to. Miller Trailblazer out in the field and a Miller 300 at the shop.
 
You should try some tube borium on one of those corner teeth. Compare to the other side, and see if it is worth the effort. It requires a substantially strong base metal beneath it, but it is so hard that a grinder wheel turns to dust when you try to grind it. Literally, almost no sparks! Lots of dust from the grind wheel getting eaten up by the hard-facing material.

This stuff is made just for ground engaging parts, although it doesn't like anything that gets serious shock loading. It's more commonly used on the non-replaceable wearing parts like the sides of a bucket, skid shoes on mower decks, etc.

You put it on with a brazing tip on an acetylene torch. If there is another way of applying it, I'm not aware of it.
 
I suppose thats why I haven't heard of anyone doing this.

Until you hit foreign objects, it works pretty damn well. We put it on the leading edge, along the bottom of the blade. That thin layer stayed quite sharp, and didn't wear down like the rest of the blade.

Unfortunately, it's a bit tricky keeping the blade sharp while getting it cherry hot for the brazed material. Once on the blade, the tube borium holds that edge until broken off. The steel above it erodes away.
 
When we build cutting edges back up on earth moving gear we don`t even attempt grinding it, I have burned in 25 lbs of rod on the bucket of a 22 ton excavator , doing the cutting sides and wear bars on the bottom side, as for the teeth we just replace them but there has been times I needed to replace the sockets/ bases the teeth connect to. Miller Trailblazer out in the field and a Miller 300 at the shop.
Have you ever welded up track rollers/idlers for a crawler? Many will not do it anymore
 
Have you ever welded up track rollers/idlers for a crawler? Many will not do it anymore
Not with a stick. My BIL does it with a mig wire on a turning fixture at the shop he works at. Too much work doing it by hand, cheaper to buy new replacements.
 
I think it is nothing but a conspiracy by file manufactuers to sell more files to gulible people
Thats right! never buy another file, and for the love of mike, keep plunging that bar nose into the garden.......we only deal in bars, chains, and bearings.......files are a gimmick...........
 
I hired a guy once that thought a chainsaw was a hand held trencher. I was in the tree and could see that he was getting into the dirt. He complained that the 036 was dull. I told him he was cutting into the dirt and hand brushed away some wood chips and showed him the multiple small trenches that he had dug with my saw.

You learn something new every day.
 
To the OP please get someone local to show you how to use a chainsaw. Before you get hurt.
no no no let darwinism take care of this for us all... not to mention if we get lucky we might get to see youtube videos...
 

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