First file guide I bought was a oregon clamp on the saw bar, granberg type. I hated it as it just didnt slide well on the guide rods. Keeping oil on it didnt help. I found it in the bottom of a box of other junk just the other day and threw it in the trash. I bought one of those cheap HF grinders, but they dont grind chisel chains with the 10*up angle. I gave it away and bought one of the NTool, yellow oregon clone grinders. It took a little fignigling to get it adjusted, but once set, it makes a rocked chain look like new. Worked really good if you have 20 or 30 24in chains to sharpen at one time. I gave it away just a few weeks ago to my stump grinding buddy simply because I got tired of grinding all his chains. I have hand filed for years in the woods. No guides or stump vises, just throw the saw up on a stump or the back of the pickup and huddle over top of the saw and file away. I did buy one of those sthil double file systems and really like it a lot. Keep it in the side door of the pickup. I keep a 20in bar and 3/8 chain on all of my saws and would keep several grinder sharpened chains in the truck when I head to the woods, just so if I dulled a chain, I could swap saws or chains and not fool with dragging out a file. I guess that now that I gave the grinder away, I will just used the sthil file system and sharpen as needed. I dont cut lots of wood anymore so when I do go to cut, its usually just one or maybe two small trees and I own enough saws You would think I would have at least one that is sharp. I reality, I think every saw I own now has a dull chain on it. I might should head down to my buddy and borrow my grinder back.
