One sharp chain dull in 1-2 rounds on dry 32 to 48 inch mystery hardwood

[singinwoodwackr]

Sounds like some sort of Eucalyptus. I've cut plenty of old, dry Euch that seemed like I was cutting petrified wood. The worst was the Blue Gum.
Chisel chain is a waste of time...semi-chiz only and I still wind up sharpening every other round sometimes.

 

[Fabb]

Sounds like some sort of Eucalyptus. I've cut plenty of old, dry Euch that seemed like I was cutting petrified wood. The worst was the Blue Gum.
Chisel chain is a waste of time...semi-chiz only and I still wind up sharpening every other round sometimes.

Yes it looks like the wood is glacing or something, it feels very slippery after you have cut it. I'm testing out soon with a new X-cut chain over a sharpened one. At least an Oregon wasn't beat up for long against it.

 

[SCHallenger]

When you put the chain to the wood, does it want to "skate" sideways unless you use more pressure than you normally would in order to make it start cutting? If so, you are dealing with some species which is a LOT harder than box elder. Bone dry locust can be like cutting glass! I haven't cut Mesquite, but I've heard some stories about it being very tough stuff. As others have mentioned, you may be dealing with something petrified or which grew in a sandstorm!?

 

[cookies]

sometimes you get a tree someone used as target practice for hundreds or rounds and you likely will never see a slug when cutting, some trees contain more silica in their wood and others will be loaded with sand in their bark esp on the edge of fields.

 

[maowwg]

If you think there’s a possibility of metal in the wood how about taking a round out of the other end for comparison?

 

[singinwoodwackr]

Pics?

 

[chipper1]

Pics?

 

[chipper1]

I need a

Pics?

Some box elder from today, I need someone to show me how to file the chain back to spec now .

 

[buzz sawyer]

For starters, the bar is on upside down. Were you cutting in Australia?

 

[OM617YOTA]

Any time I think there might be dirt or sand in the bark, I'll try and enter the log in one area, and then cut with the bottom of the bar exiting the wood, all the way around. It can be a PITA and you do what makes sense for the situation you're in, but the idea is that dirt or sand gets flung away from the saw, not grabbed on the far side of the cut, and drug through the kerf with the chain.

 

[chipper1]

For starters, the bar is on upside down. Were you cutting in Australia?

Today I saw out and I dulled another chain, I need more help... Where you at @Fabb , I like how you edited your post too BTW.
It was like I was in Australia, even the stump was scared of the snake we saw, I swear, everything is trying to kill us .

 

[chipper1]

@jt4265 did you make it back out there to give it another go yet, curious as to what you find out.
I've been burning up the chains lately, but at least I know the cause. Another good thing is it's been chains at the end of their life, I hate sticking a new chain in the dirt, but sometimes that's what pays the bills!

 

[Jza]

Sounds like some sort of Eucalyptus. I've cut plenty of old, dry Euch that seemed like I was cutting petrified wood. The worst was the Blue Gum.
Chisel chain is a waste of time...semi-chiz only and I still wind up sharpening every other round sometimes.

I was sharpening almost every tank or 2 bucking up a 50"ish bluegum . This thing was huge near the stump .

And yeah semi chisel seems to do very well in bluegum. I feel like in pine I could go all day and not sharpen

 

[MGoBlue]

Boxelder isn't hard at all. You should be able to cut a long time w/o filing or swapping chain. Hitting the ground will certainly kill an edge.

This was a blow-over I cleaned up.

 

[chipper1]

Boxelder isn't hard at all. You should be able to cut a long time w/o filing or swapping chain. Hitting the ground will certainly kill an edge.

This was a blow-over I cleaned up.

Always cuts better when wearing a Michigan sweatshirt and with a husky .

 

[Long Bar 60]

So, am I reading this correctly? There's a wood out there that's harder than steel? Wow, learn something new every day (or maybe there are other factors causing the steel chain to dull besides really super hard wood).

And chain right out of the box is sharp? Guess I've wasted a lot of hours grinding new chain when I already had factory perfection. LOL I don't know about every single type of chain manufactured but I have never seen factory chisel/chisel that came ready to use. It always required bit grinding and usually the rakers needed to be ground down too. Oh, and just by myself, I go through about 100' of chain per year... for the last 46 years. That's 4,600 feet of chain just for me. Gosh! No wonder I'm tired. LOL

 

[scut207]

So, am I reading this correctly? There's a wood out there that's harder than steel? Wow, learn something new every day (or maybe there are other factors causing the steel chain to dull besides really super hard wood).

And chain right out of the box is sharp? Guess I've wasted a lot of hours grinding new chain when I already had factory perfection. LOL I don't know about every single type of chain manufactured but I have never seen factory chisel/chisel that came ready to use. It always required bit grinding and usually the rakers needed to be ground down too. Oh, and just by myself, I go through about 100' of chain per year... for the last 46 years. That's 4,600 feet of chain just for me. Gosh! No wonder I'm tired. LOL

if you dont mind educating a cherry, what specifically do you do grinding wise to a brand new chain?

Do you do it specifically because the species of tree that you tend to cut?

I thought I read that west coasters can increase the cut depth a bit b/c the wood is softer which makes a lot of sense.

Would you make the same grind changes if you were felling and bucking wood like oak, maple and and ash?

Does the power of the saw matter in your sharpening? say a 50cc vs a 70cc?

 

[Long Bar 60]

if you dont mind educating a cherry, what specifically do you do grinding wise to a brand new chain?

Do you do it specifically because the species of tree that you tend to cut?

I thought I read that west coasters can increase the cut depth a bit b/c the wood is softer which makes a lot of sense.

Would you make the same grind changes if you were felling and bucking wood like oak, maple and and ash?

Does the power of the saw matter in your sharpening? say a 50cc vs a 70cc?

Regarding new chain I use almost exclusively chisel ground chisel chain and of that mostly full skip 3/8, .063. On chisel/chisel chain you want the grinder to create or should I say maintain the basic effect of two chisel surfaces at roughly 90 degrees to each other. The edges of those two chisel surfaces should meet at a corner or point. When chain is ground at the factory those two edges frequently don't meet at the corner that is made into the chain. The chain bits simply don't cut properly. Furthermore, the grind at the factory is done before the chain is assembled so the "sharp" bits fall into a bin where the surfaces dull just rubbing against each other as the various pieces of the chain come together for assembly. Much the same as a spare sharp chain dulls in a pants pocket, wedge pouch or just bouncing around in a pickup truck. So every professional cutter that I know grinds their new chain. My primary grinder is a Silvey SDM-4 and they have very little adjustments as to the angles delivered so what you get is what you get. Ray Silvey knew what he was doing and the angles are really good.
At work I cut almost exclusively soft woods although here in California's Sierra Nevada there are usually several different species of soft woods growing in the same stand and while some are harder than others most of us run our rakers at .035 and from the factory it is usually set at .025 so that requires grinding when new also. To heat my house I burn either oak (Quercus kelloggii) or Madrone (Arbutus menziesii). These woods can be pretty hard especially if dead so I run my rakers higher and also use full compliment chain.
As far as the power of the saw I use only bigger motors so my chain setup stays basically the same however on bars 28" and less I use full comp, 32" and 34" bars get semi skip and bars longer than that get full skip although I do have a few loops of full comp spun up for 36" bars on my old 084 that I use when cutting big hard woods. (My next door neighbor had a 5+ foot oak fall over in a snow storm last year and I got the wood- over 9 cords. Yea baby!)
Compare a new factory ground chain to a new chain that you ground before using. If you can't feel a difference then don't take the time to grind new chain in the future. I don't recommend filing chisel/chisel chain. It's just too hard for most humans to get the angles right. If you're using round ground/filed chain and don't have a grinder I HIGHLY recommend the Granberg File-N-Joint. I bought one of those when I was a teenager and until I started acquiring grinders that little thing was the single greatest chainsaw accessory I ever purchased and I'm 64 years old so I've bought a lot of stuff over the years.
Hope that helps. Happy new year! Be safe.

 

[chipper1]

I don't recommend filing chisel/chisel chain. It's just too hard for most humans to get the angles right.

Is there a species you could recommend to sharpen some for me .

 

[scut207]

Regarding new chain I use almost exclusively chisel ground chisel chain and of that mostly full skip 3/8, .063. On chisel/chisel chain you want the grinder to create or should I say maintain the basic effect of two chisel surfaces at roughly 90 degrees to each other. The edges of those two chisel surfaces should meet at a corner or point. When chain is ground at the factory those two edges frequently don't meet at the corner that is made into the chain. The chain bits simply don't cut properly. Furthermore, the grind at the factory is done before the chain is assembled so the "sharp" bits fall into a bin where the surfaces dull just rubbing against each other as the various pieces of the chain come together for assembly. Much the same as a spare sharp chain dulls in a pants pocket, wedge pouch or just bouncing around in a pickup truck. So every professional cutter that I know grinds their new chain. My primary grinder is a Silvey SDM-4 and they have very little adjustments as to the angles delivered so what you get is what you get. Ray Silvey knew what he was doing and the angles are really good.
At work I cut almost exclusively soft woods although here in California's Sierra Nevada there are usually several different species of soft woods growing in the same stand and while some are harder than others most of us run our rakers at .035 and from the factory it is usually set at .025 so that requires grinding when new also. To heat my house I burn either oak (Quercus kelloggii) or Madrone (Arbutus menziesii). These woods can be pretty hard especially if dead so I run my rakers higher and also use full compliment chain.
As far as the power of the saw I use only bigger motors so my chain setup stays basically the same however on bars 28" and less I use full comp, 32" and 34" bars get semi skip and bars longer than that get full skip although I do have a few loops of full comp spun up for 36" bars on my old 084 that I use when cutting big hard woods. (My next door neighbor had a 5+ foot oak fall over in a snow storm last year and I got the wood- over 9 cords. Yea baby!)
Compare a new factory ground chain to a new chain that you ground before using. If you can't feel a difference then don't take the time to grind new chain in the future. I don't recommend filing chisel/chisel chain. It's just too hard for most humans to get the angles right. If you're using round ground/filed chain and don't have a grinder I HIGHLY recommend the Granberg File-N-Joint. I bought one of those when I was a teenager and until I started acquiring grinders that little thing was the single greatest chainsaw accessory I ever purchased and I'm 64 years old so I've bought a lot of stuff over the years.
Hope that helps. Happy new year! Be safe.

Thank you for the reply! I'll check out that jig. I am very new to running a saw, I spent summers splitting wood by hand with an go-devil but my dad never wanted me to run a saw, he was the type of guy that could cut or hurt himself himself wickedly and not be bothered, but would damn near pass out if he saw his kids get hurt and there was a tiny bit of blood... So I think he was too overprotective and by the time I was old enough to want to be in the woods a lot of knowledge died with him.