Who sharpens there chains with a file still?

[Andyshine77]

I've had a 511 grinder for a few years now and I just don't care for it. I can hand file the cutters better, and just as fast by hand. Small grinders under $1.000 remove to much materiel, and no matter what you do, you still end up overheating the teeth.

I use one of these guides to keep the file at the correct height.

 

[MR4WD]

I have my best luck with a husky roller guide. I put my bar in the vice and and a vice grip at either end of the file. If it's been rocked (most times on doug fir even if it hasn't been rocked, it looks like it has) it still only takes 3 passes on the file. The vise grips let you really pull on the file to actually remove material.

I bring extra chains when I'm cutting. Unless that was my profession, I wouldn't bother sharpening "in the field"

Even with a 40" bar and a bad chain it still doesn't take more than 15 minutes.

 

[motoroilmccall]

I'll have them ground if I happen to find some barbed wire or the likes in a tree and I wreck all my cutters, but usually I just hand file them. If a buddy borrows the saw, (usually a small husky) I give them RM chain and tell them to have it ground after they're done with it, $4 is a cheap rental.

If you can't hand file, you shouldn't be running a saw.

 

[ASEMASTER]

round file

I only use a file it's easy and cheap, just like sharpening a drill by hand some times you got to go back and try again but when you get it right it cuts awsome. the square works good in softer woods but not as well in hard.
My problem is keeping the files sharp

 

[woodbooga]

Unguided hand filing for me. Taught by my FIL years ago.

 

[wdchuck]

I've had a 511 grinder for a few years now and I just don't care for it. I can hand file the cutters better, and just as fast by hand. Small grinders under $1.000 remove to much materiel, and no matter what you do, you still end up overheating the teeth.

I use one of these guides to keep the file at the correct height.

Those are the guides I use, and when you have to use a shallow cut in a stump as a bar vice, the guides make field sharpening that much more productive, for me anyway. It took quite a while before stumbling across a 3/16" guide for .325 chain, what a difference the correct setup makes, and the higher grade file that came with it is nice too.

Many have brought up the value of hand filing versus owning an inexpensive grinder, at $1.75/file, or more, the cost of files adds up, and a machine with better than original wheels can do a fine job.

Once the files get shiny looking, or require much effort to cut, they get tossed. I used to push hard on files to get the most out of them, and all it did was take more out of me, and without a vice, a marginal file will only make things worse. It really is more about technique than anything else.

 

[Jaberwky]

Must be lucky

I bet most of you would consider me a serious newbie but last season I finally got a round file and guide and it's worked wonders. I pulled about 6-8 articles and threads from the net and tried it myself. Every 3 tanks or as needed I sit down and run the file 3 passes on each tooth. It seems to be working great because my chains are sharp and lasting a LONG time. I'm careful to watch the angle and pitch, and clean the file on my pantsleg every 10-15 teeth to clear out the wood dust.

So far so good!

 

[Joshlaugh]

I hand file my saws at home and also the ones I use at work. As others have already said, cheaper and I can do it while I am out in the field cutting.

 

[Mkarlson]

Hand filing seems like it would be the perfect thing to do while we wait the 10-15 minutes for the saw to cool before refueling.(I'm sure we all do that)

I mostly have mine ground but do carry couple files for touch ups when I'm close to done for the day and dont wanna change out the chain. Also makes me look like I really know what I'm doing when the wifes around.

 

[slofr8]

Been hand filing for almost 30 years. I file one side right handed and the other side left handed.
Only thing that I've changed is now I have to take my glasses of to do it!!!
Dan.

 

[gallegosmike]

Husky File Kit

A Husky File Kit is what started with. Ive now moved onto doing it without the roller guide by hand. The chain I am using pretty much guides me for the right angles.

 

[Jon E]

Used to watch my dad run a chain until he threw nothing but fine sawdust, dull as a bowling ball. He only ever had one or maybe two chains for his saw, and when it got dull enough to burn through the wood he'd take it off, bring it to the local saw shop and they'd sharpen it on a grinder.

When I bought my own first saw, I bought a couple extra chains and a Stihl filing guide. Learned that way, but what really got me to learn how to sharpen was when I bought a Logosol mill and had to hand-sharpen rip chains.

Now I hand-file everything. I bring extra chains if I'm out in the woods, and I have a huge maple round and a stump vise that I use with a round file, freehand, no guide, when I get back to the house. I have brought chains to the saw shop occasionally if I hit rocks or metal and find that they take way too much off the chain and blue them to boot. No thanks. Three to five swipes with a sharp file and I'm good to go.

Considering the price of oil or gas, any investment in wood processing is worth it, but I haven't put a chain grinder anywhere in my list yet. Hand filing is relaxing. A few hundred bucks worth of chain files will last me a lifetime.

 

[clawmute]

Round filing is good. Any light reflected from any cutting edge of a chain tooth means there is a radius there and it is still not sharp. No reflected light from a cutting edge (whether it be a chainsaw chain tooth, knife etc.) means you have a true edge and not a rounded (dull) one.

Like so many others have posted, once you get the feel of it it only takes a few minutes to produce a sharp chain. I would never use a grinder, there is always a tendency to take off too much material resulting in shorter chain life. I have a simple file holder marked with the angle to be held. A simple tool and a simple process.

JMO

Frank

 

[Moss Man]

Round filing is good. Any light reflected from any cutting edge of a chain tooth means there is a radius there and it is still not sharp. No reflected light from a cutting edge (whether it be a chainsaw chain tooth, knife etc.) means you have a true edge and not a rounded (dull) one.

Like so many others have posted, once you get the feel of it it only takes a few minutes to produce a sharp chain. I would never use a grinder, there is always a tendency to take off too much material resulting in shorter chain life. I have a simple file holder marked with the angle to be held. A simple tool and a simple process.

JMO

Frank

I would agree that running a file over a chains teeth is a fairly simple process, but from the beginning of that process you slowly start to lose the perfect angles and uniform tooth lengths. The human eye can not tell if the teeth are all the same length from there on and the file depth from the top of the tooth to the bottom is never perfect again either. Yeah, the chain might cut great and do the job you are asking of it, but when hand filing there is never the perfection that a grinder, like the one that originally ground the chain, can produce. And when I say ground, I don't mean by some haphazard guy at a saw shop who isn't even making enough money to buy gas and groceries.....I mean someone who knows how to grind properly and is willing to take the time to do it right from start to finish.

Don't get me wrong, I hand file because my financial situation states I have to, I would like to have a grinder just to bring everything back to uniform a couple times during the life of a chain, but life goes on.

 

[cjcocn]

Been hand filing for almost 30 years. I file one side right handed and the other side left handed.
Only thing that I've changed is now I have to take my glasses of to do it!!!
Dan.

Same here. Started out with glasses tho as my eyeballs was football-shaped since I been young. :monkey:

 

[SCOOTER]

I alway's hand file in the field, and only take the chain off for cleaning purposes. I touch it up every hr. or so,, and it only takes a stroke or two to freshen it up. Use the same chain till it's worn out.

 

[logbutcher]

Pferd

It's been said: hand file. In the field a stump vise or a cut in a stump for the bar.
Best tool: PFERD SharpForce made also for Husky sold at Baileys or good saw shops--the Pferd does the cutter and raker in one pass. And yes, change the files often. You never get burnt chains.

 

[flewism]

I have only sharpened chains by hand. I've never have had a chain sharpened by a shop or a grinder. I learned from a friend of a friend years ago. with lots of instructions from internet sources and practice. right now I'm rotating 5 woodsman-Pro RC chains, that I hand file when required. I sharpen them up and stick them in sandwich size ziploc baggies in my sawbox. chains in my sawbox that are not in a ziploc need sharpening.

I still have one brand new one in the box as a quick backup if I get caught flatfooted without a sharp chain.

 

[Jon E]

For those of you who hand file only, and 'accumulate' dull chains, how do you sharpen them while they're off the saw? I would think just clamping a spare bar in a vise and sharpening would work, but the chain tends to move on me and I like both hands on the file. Maybe a spring clamp?

 

[aokpops]

hand filed for years .bought 60 dollars worth of files . then a 10 dollar dremal the files are still like new . looking at a cordless dremal when in the woods . the dremal is a lot faster an easier on my hands.an don,t half to take the chain off