As far as safety chain goes, Vanguard is the best cutting of the group. Adjusting the rakers by hand isn’t fun though.
You just have to know how to bend them properly
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I’m torn between Stihl RS and Oregon LGX as my favorite chain. I also have Oregon EXL but haven’t cut enough with that yet. Haven’t had the chance to try the Husky X-cut.
Stihl cuts well holds an edge longer than anything else. But it’s a bear to hand file, especially if you rock it.
LGX sharpens nicely with a file and lasts decently long. Maybe a bit faster cutting when really really sharp.
I like the EXL a lot, it's pretty hard compared to the LGX, as is the new husky x chain.
They also stretch a lot less which is nice.
I feel for all you guys. I must have the best Stihl dealer in the country. Discounts on new saws and buy 2 get one free on chains all year long.
I can get by one get one half off so the same deal basically, but that shop is about 30 min away and I rarely go that direction.
I can get the same deal on Oregon chain going into town.
Am no expert, but what scares me away from using grinders is heat. I used to take my chains to the other local stihl dealer (not my favorite one I always post about), and when I'd get them back, they would dull really fast in dry, dead ash. I wasn't hitting the dirt or anything either. I showed one of their freshly sharpened chains to my buddy, a millwright, and he saw the issue right away. The cutters had a blueish discoloration to them, which he said was fault of whomever was grinding on them, letting them get hot which changed the temper. He turned me onto hand filing freehand. Haven't had a chain sharpened by anyone since, save one I rocked pretty good and was too much for my limited filling skills to fix.
Heat is bad, but hard to avoid, as was said it takes practice. A nice CBN wheel will make a huge difference. Yes they are around $110, but that's a lot less than porting and it will make a stock saw cut a lot better than a ported one with a dull chain
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For heavily rocked chains or "case hardened" ones, use a flat file to file the cutter back beyond the damage/hardness and then use a round file. That will save you lots of time and files.
Another issue I've seen is case hardened depth gauges when they are done on a grinder, just as with cutters rakers should be ground in small increments so a few rotations around the whole chain rather than taking them down all at once.
Those are very good and some great deals can be had on them.
I like to use the cheap ones for grinding drive links that have been damaged by throwing a chain, they work great for that, otherwise they are junk.
Here's there whole setup, it will get someone on the right track for finding a deal, but I'm not sure if this is a good price as it's been a while since I saved it.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Chainsaw-S...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649
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