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

[scut207]

and by the by to the OP there are some species of wood that will take up a lot of silica out of the ground. I know this from wood working, although the only real example I could find in your zone would be the following.

wood with high silica will dull tools very very fast.

https://www.wood-database.com/paulownia/

 

[Long Bar 60]

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

That is so funny that you caught that! I was going to say that my chihuahua was pretty good at it but changed my mind .LOL

 

[singinwoodwackr]

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

Yup, that’s the stuff.
and then try splitting it, lol
even my 8h Honda will stall with too big a bite.
burns great, however

 

[chipper1]

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.

Many of the jigs/guides like the one he's suggesting are great for teaching muscle memory.
It's also very important to know what you are trying to make the chain look like when sharpening, ie, what a sharp chain looks like.

 

[singinwoodwackr]

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.

Great advice!
I had one of the Grandbergs many years back and it wasn’t nearly as user friendly as the Stihl model…no longer made, I believe. I stihl use mine from the early 90s but have had to do some minor repairs over the years. I think Oregon still offers their version…also good, imo.
I picked up a mint Stihl guide off CL last year…original box, never used

they look like this
https://www.sharpeningsupplies.com/Tecomec-Super-Rapid-Manual-Chainsaw-Sharpener-P1868.aspx

 

[Long Bar 60]

and by the by to the OP there are some species of wood that will take up a lot of silica out of the ground. I know this from wood working, although the only real example I could find in your zone would be the following.

wood with high silica will dull tools very very fast.

https://www.wood-database.com/paulownia/

Wow, what a cool website. Book marked it already. Thanks!

 

[chipper1]

That is so funny that you caught that! I was going to say that my chihuahua was pretty good at it but changed my mind .LOL

I think I'm pretty good at sharpening, little slow with square filing, but faster on the grinder. A square grinding chihuahua may be something I should consider, haven't seen one of those on craigslist or ebay, must be a special breed .

 

[chipper1]

Great advice!
I had one of the Grandbergs many years back and it wasn’t nearly as user friendly as the Stihl model…no longer made, I believe. I stihl use mine from the early 90s but have had to do some minor repairs over the years. I think Oregon still offers their version…also good, imo.
I picked up a mint Stihl guide off CL last year…original box, never used

I sold my stihl sharpeners (except the USG), but they were the best jig style I've used, they do such a great job holding the chain steady.

 

[singinwoodwackr]

I sold my stihl sharpeners (except the USG), but they were the best jig style I've used, they do such a great job holding the chain steady.

The handle on the Grandberg is crap, imo…I never could get a good grip on the thing. With the Stihl and Ore style guides you use your own file handle.

ebay(Windsor) model…
same basic thing. The cheaper ones have too much slop in the part the file glides through. Even the Stihl one wore out after many years. It is just plastic.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/361535994093

 

[thenne1713]

I have found in CSM, that bench grinder lasts longer than filed; I assume a slightly less acute angle from bench grinder vs round file.