Opinions on Forester chain compared to Stihl

[Hermio]

X-Cut when factory filed is faster than STIHL chain. X-Cut is "race chain" for the masses and well-thought. It holds an edge quite well and is quality chain. It is incredibly smooth cutting, and however one analyzes it is great looking, great performing chain.

STIHL has highest quality chain I've seen. It has a high chrome and nickle content giving it great wear resistance (to filing also), resistance to rust, and has the optimum balance of speed to longevity so is "the most productive chain for general use." I understand that's why STIHL bars & chain are commonly seen on Husqvarna saws. --To that point though, Husquvarna brought X-Cut in-house (Oregon was making it), and STIHL bar prices are getting pretty spendy, so I'm seeing fewer STIHL bars on Husquvarna saws and more X-Cut chain being used, including on STIHL saws.

Mind you "what's best" depends on your preferences, I run different brands of chain depending on the use and am not saying one is better than another in all cases.

A local small engine repair shop told me something interesting. Bars can be made to last much longer when they are wallowed out or worn unevenly. He swaged and ground my bars for about half the price of a new bar. That works at least once; sometimes even twice.

 

[Brufab]

I've bought a few loops LP chain because it was full chisel S52. I save them specifically for bucking clean wood. Seems to be decent but like others have said it's just rebadged chain and could potentially be Chinese at times.

 

[Brufab]

In my expereinc3e, Oregon chain is soft and will not hold an edge as long as Stihl. It also stretches more. I won't use it anymore.

I've cut 7+cords of mixed hardwoods that were dirty and had to brush off. Log pile that sat a few years on my dad's build site so lots of dust and leaves. Chain was still cutting decent too and yes it was same loop

 

[Cliff R]

To date haven't ran into any "soft" chain from Oregon. Just about everything I cut here is "dirty" being skidded around moved with my grapple and left over from logging operations. Full chisel doesn't cut it in that environment, so I'm using semi-chisel on most of the saws and it does fine. I also "touch-up" all my chains after every fill-up, unless they go dull sooner from hitting something, then I just side-line that saw and grab another one. It's a HUGE advantage to have a lot of small fast cutting saws in the arsenal as I can spend more time working and less time fidling around with a saw.

I think I mentioned it earlier but recently I bought a loop of "Lazer X" off Ebay dubbed as "German Steel" in 3/8" LP. Cheap enough, but wasn't worth two squirts of duck poop. I was lucky to get 2 or 3 cuts in the log pile by the boiler before it was throwing dust and going crooked in the cut.......

 

[Hermio]

To date haven't ran into any "soft" chain from Oregon. Just about everything I cut here is "dirty" being skidded around moved with my grapple and left over from logging operations. Full chisel doesn't cut it in that environment, so I'm using semi-chisel on most of the saws and it does fine. I also "touch-up" all my chains after every fill-up, unless they go dull sooner from hitting something, then I just side-line that saw and grab another one. It's a HUGE advantage to have a lot of small fast cutting saws in the arsenal as I can spend more time working and less time fidling around with a saw.

I think I mentioned it earlier but recently I bought a loop of "Lazer X" off Ebay dubbed as "German Steel" in 3/8" LP. Cheap enough, but wasn't worth two squirts of duck poop. I was lucky to get 2 or 3 cuts in the log pile by the boiler before it was throwing dust and going crooked in the cut.......

Everyone has different experiences. My wood is dirty also. But the full chisel cuts at least 20% faster than semi when sharp, and still cuts at least as fast as semi when dull. I sharpen about every 2nd or 3rd tankful (about 1 cord), and it takes me about 5 minutes to do so with the Pferd 2 in 1. So I still come out ahead on time spent per cord.

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

To date haven't ran into any "soft" chain from Oregon. Just about everything I cut here is "dirty" being skidded around moved with my grapple and left over from logging operations. Full chisel doesn't cut it in that environment, so I'm using semi-chisel on most of the saws and it does fine. I also "touch-up" all my chains after every fill-up, unless they go dull sooner from hitting something, then I just side-line that saw and grab another one. It's a HUGE advantage to have a lot of small fast cutting saws in the arsenal as I can spend more time working and less time fidling around with a saw.

I think I mentioned it earlier but recently I bought a loop of "Lazer X" off Ebay dubbed as "German Steel" in 3/8" LP. Cheap enough, but wasn't worth two squirts of duck poop. I was lucky to get 2 or 3 cuts in the log pile by the boiler before it was throwing dust and going crooked in the cut.......

Try filing them at less of an angle and bring the file up so there's less of a point--it'll cut slower and dull slower, maybe it'll still be useful. I do this with my Oregon chain for dirty/snotty wood, it cuts unbearably slow until the third cut where it's just as sharp as the first cut and keeps going strong to somewhere between the 25th and 50th cut (which is a lot better than 3!!!). Agreed that a few small cheap saws are awesome for some dirty wood situations.

Another Brad (local, oddly) told me at a get-together use .404 X-cut chain because .404 goes through everything (he cut right through a nail at last year's GTG and kept going). The wood I'm cutting is not the wood-burning quality stuff he's cutting, it's landscaping snotty/rotty cleanup, so I got a .404 hardnose and Carlton chipper chain (imported from Australia). We're still frozen up here in Wisconsin so I haven't yet tried it, but will keep the oiler on full and see how it goes this Spring.

 

[Cliff R]

I file by hand, almost 50 years of experience and tend to pull the angle back a tad so good advice there. I drop the rakers a tad lower as well since I'm running shorter bars and better power to bar length ratios. Most of the cutting right now is dead/diry Ash that's either starting to go "punky" or petrified and hard as nails. There doesn't seem to be any in between with it. I made the mistake of leaving most of it standing, figuring it was just standing firewood and would be fine when I got to it. Some rotten in place, and most of it started dropping limbs out making it pretty scarey at times to walk in the woods on windy days. I should have dropped ALL of it the first year it died, live and learn.

These days 95 percent of my cutting is done at the wood pile in front of the boilers wood shed. It's all been brought up with the grapple and no matter how hard you try some dirt gets in the bark or brought up with it stuck in the grapple teeth. Full chisel is useless in that environment as it just dulls too quickly. Semi-chisel .325" on the smaller saws works best out there unless I get into a pretty big log then I have one 24" bar outfitted with semi-chisel to speed things up some.

If and when I cut clean wood I'm reaching for a bigger saw with 3/8" full chisel on it. It will cut all day and not grumble much if you don't get lazy and stick the nose in the dirt along the way........

 

[NSEric]

I've been bucking dirty skidded logs for the last few weekends helping my buddies out with their firewood side job. My saws have 16 inch .325 bars/chains.
I started using semi chisel sharpened at a 35 degree angle with the depth gauges 1 swipe past the softwood setting on an oregon depth gauge.
It cuts almost as fast as full chisel but last way longer. Im saving my full chisel for my wood pile, it's a lot cleaner.