The Goofy Filed Chain

[Crofter]

I mentioned on another thread that the goofy file can be used to touch up a round filed chain for quite an improvement in efficiency and speed. It is a step in the direction of square filing but not nearly as critical. You can start by just giving a good round filed chain a few licks to remove that material in the very top inside corner that really crushes the fiber as the chip is severed. It also gets you a thirty or so degree side cutter angle instead of the fifty five or so angle of a round filed chain side plate.
Here are a few pictures of a tooth round filed then touched a few strokes with the goofy file. No difference in outward appearance of the cutter unless you look inside. You are not going to bother with this foolishness for a working chain but if you want to play around with something a bit faster on your way to true square filed chain it is an easy experiment.

 

[sILlogger]

i have a loop of square ground that i thought i would practice with....and i tried to file it again the other day...and i am absolutely horrible at it!!! ive got one of the 3 sided files. ive gotta do some more reading before i give it another try

 

[HELSEL]

Looks good Frank. Plenty of hood on the tooth.


Rick

 

[HELSEL]

i have a loop of square ground that i thought i would practice with....and i tried to file it again the other day...and i am absolutely horrible at it!!! ive got one of the 3 sided files. ive gotta do some more reading before i give it another try

They call it a 6 sided file they are very hard to get use to but once you get it it will realy cut. The good 6 sided files are hard to find.

Rick

 

[sILlogger]

They call it a 6 sided file they are very hard to get use to but once you get it it will realy cut. The good 6 sided files are hard to find.

Rick

yea...i got ya..cuz they have 3 longer sides and 3 shorter ones...but how the heck do you use them!?!?!?

 

[HELSEL]

yea...i got ya..cuz they have 3 longer sides and 3 shorter ones...but how the heck do you use them!?!?!?

It is good if you can file one side with one hand. Then switch and do the other side with the other hand. The main thing is to keep an eye on the corner ,plus try to get them all the same. It take years to get it down pat. I am not that good at it I can make them cut a bit better. I have a brother that is one of the best.

Rick

 

[PLAYINWOOD]

This will conquer one sharp learning curve but has its own idiosyncracies. Good looking firewood chain Frank....
Square filing is hard to master

 

[24d]

Frank,
Nice! Sure looks faster. Did you only use one file to do that?

 

[Crofter]

It is good if you can file one side with one hand. Then switch and do the other side with the other hand. The main thing is to keep an eye on the corner ,plus try to get them all the same. It take years to get it down pat.
It is awkward to file with the other hand but it allows you to eyeball the chain from the same position on either side and helps get the angles uniform so the teeth look like brothers not third cousins, Lol!

Rick

There is lots of hook in that chain as I deliberately left the outside cutter nearly untouched from the round filed profile. A couple of sharpenings would looze some of the snout. It might be too hungry for hardwood on a small saw. Yes it takes something like 40 hours of steady filing to start making anything half decent. Here is a pic of the triangular file in the tooth

 

[sILlogger]

There is lots of hook in that chain as I deliberately left the outside cutter nearly untouched from the round filed profile. A couple of sharpenings would looze some of the snout. It might be too hungry for hardwood on a small saw. Yes it takes something like 40 hours of steady filing to start making anything half decent. Here is a pic of the triangular file in the tooth

ahhh...thanks..i wasn't even holding the file right!!!

 

[Crofter]

ahhh...thanks..i wasn't even holding the file right!!!

It is just so much easier having someone there to get you started right so you dont practice doing something the wrong way. There are lots of little tricks that make things easier like where you place the lighting so the shadows work for you.

The triangular style file and the flat style both have six flats on them but the tri file is thicker top to bottom and I find I cannot get as much rearward angle as I want without really filing into the tie straps so you wind up with a side cutter edge with about a 45 deg angle something like the factory square grind which is not much more than about 15% faster than round. A little tougher though. Ok for work chain. Hard to get into a new Stihl chain with it too, for the first few strokes.

Below is another picture of the flat file in the tooth giving a fairly tender side cutter angle around 35deg. Notice some temporary marks on the clamp to locate the front of the tooth and the file angle for consistency. This is something I am playing with to see if it is quicker to get someone up to speed on square filing. When the file is touching the pieces tacked on, the bottom edge of the file is just barely nicking the tie straps.

In the grinder setup the stone will be just ticking the tie straps also. You have to get the angles well down and back or you will have a relatively blunt cutters. (still a lot sharper than round ground or filed though, just not as fast as they can be)

 

[24d]

It is just so much easier having someone there to get you started right so you dont practice doing something the wrong way. There are lots of little tricks that make things easier like where you place the lighting so the shadows work for you.

That for sure, I feel like if I could just watch someone for a few minutes, I could learn things that I'll just never get reading about it. Like I'm sure you have got to hold your mouth just right haha, just hard to get the big picture

 

[Jacob J.]

Frank- which file are you referring to as the goofy file? A goofy file here means a file that is round on one side and goes to a point on the other, so if you look at the end of the file it looks like a tear-drop. Those files are for filing the smaller planer blades at the local mills here and cutters use them to clean gullets and make mods to the chain.

The triangular style file I think you're referring to is called a "tri-corner" here and the flatter file is the "Oregon double-bevel".

 

[sILlogger]

yea..it would be nice to watch someone do it.. but im the only one around that i know of that has ever heard of square chain...i'm planning on prolly getting a silvey razur sharp II this summer

 

[Freakingstang]

They call it a 6 sided file they are very hard to get use to but once you get it it will realy cut. The good 6 sided files are hard to find.

Rick

Hey Rick, good to see you. Been busy this past year. Are there any new files out there that are readily available? I've got a few stashed away, but haven't had the time recently to devote to making myself better.

-Steve

 

[HELSEL]

Hey Rick, good to see you. Been busy this past year. Are there any new files out there that are readily available? I've got a few stashed away, but haven't had the time recently to devote to making myself better.

-Steve

There is only one good file out there and that is the half moon Oberg. They have not made the file since about 1960. The new files are made so cheap that you can't even file one chain and it is worn out.

Rick

 

[HELSEL]

This will conquer one sharp learning curve but has its own idiosyncracies. Good looking firewood chain Frank....
Square filing is hard to master

The grinders work good but they will not cut as fast as a good hand filed chain.

 

[PLAYINWOOD]

The grinders work good but they will not cut as fast as a good hand filed chain.

Very,Very debateable...depends on the stone and angles and whats done to them afterwards.
The beauty of a machine its makes every angle the exact same at the exact depth with the exact width.
It would be almost impossible for a human to replicate that with consistancy regardless of magnifying glasses and vernier.
The guys that can are true artists.

 

[belgian]

There is lots of hook in that chain as I deliberately left the outside cutter nearly untouched from the round filed profile. A couple of sharpenings would looze some of the snout. It might be too hungry for hardwood on a small saw.

Frank, just by the looks of those pics, that tooth hook seems a lil scary already to use on a firewood saw/chain. I would not recommend it for anything but cutting cookies by an experienced user.

Can you post a pic of a "goofy" file, I still don't get it really...

 

[Torquin]

Can you post a pic of a "goofy" file, I still don't get it really...

I second that.

Chris