chainsaw

[williamwright]

Why should you do any work if your wife works? Use her pay to get a man in.

Bill

[williamwright]

No, you sharpen with the chain on the machine.

Bill

[williamwright]

Some chainsaws you can pull the blade round by hand, dead easy.

Bill

[williamwright]

I wouldn't be without one of these.

Bill

[williamwright]

Ha! Bill

[The Natural Philosopher]

?? you can move the chain without using the motor.

[Tim+]

Which one though? ;-)

I have the Stihl 2 in 1 file. Seems to do a pretty good job.

Tim

[John Rumm]

Petrol ones have a centrifugal clutch - so there is no need to pull the engine at the same time as the chain.

[John Rumm]

IME, its easier than doing it off the saw when using a hand file (unless you have a vice or bench mounted cradle to hold the chain)

No need to run the saw at all - just mark the first tooth, pull the chain along (with gloves) to the next tooth with the same orientation, rinse and repeat until back to the start. Now repeat again for all the teeth angled in the other direction.

Yup you soon accumulate a mass of oily wood gunk otherwise :-)

[John Rumm]

That's fairly long - will need something on mid range power level to drive it. Plenty more choice about if you can cope with 40cm/18"

e.g.

I juts ordered a DUC306Z 12"/30cm 36V top handled saw, so will have to see how that compares to my petrol one :-)

[T i m]

<snip>

We had a cheap one of those (Lidl type pole pruner) and it was handy (while it lasted). ;-)

Understood. The pole needs to be made of a carbon fibre tube so that it's both stiff and light as the shape and weight of the saw itself should do most the work?

Cheers, T i m

[NY]

Maybe it's different with an electric (battery) chainsaw, which mine is. If I grabbed hold of the teeth to pull the chain round, I think I'd rip holes in my fingers before the chain moved at all. I wonder whether there is a reduction gear between the motor and the chain sprocket which makes it very difficult to drive it "in reverse" by pulling on the chain.

When the chain has got embedded in the wood (which happens occasionally), it takes a lot of effort to pull the blade back to unwind the chain from the notch that it's cut so far, to free the teeth. So there's definitely not a freewheel action.

[Chris Green]

On my mains electric chainsaws you certainly can pull the chain round by hand, safer if you use a gloved hand, but quite doable. This is on a very old B&D, and a newer Makita.

[newshound]

The ones I have had from Lidl and other places have been made from hardened carbon steel which stay sharp but can crack if abused. They cut on the push and pull stroke but it is best to put most force into the pull, to reduce bending.

I've had well-used ones break (perhaps from fatigue cracks) before they have lost their sharpness significantly.

[newshound]

+1. Mark the first tooth sharpened with a permanent marker. I usually grip the handle in a workmate so that the bar is presented at a convenient height.

IIRC the chain pulls round easily enough on my petrol chainsaw because the centrifugal clutch is disengaged.

[newshound]

I have the Stihl file too, which I find very good. I'm still on my first files (although I admit I don't do a vast amount of cutting). The first choice electric one seems to be cutting square to the chain, which is wrong.

[Andy Burns]

The dremel one looks like you can sharpen while leaving the chain on, but swapping chains is tool-less and quick on mine, so resharpening at home in downtime might be better ...

[John Rumm]

Mine is a three section Ali pole - not that heavy in itself... The saw is not too bad. The drawstring cutoff head however is quite a bit heavier.

[T i m]

Maybe that's still cheap to source in India / China. ;-)

Check.

Maybe they have gone the other way then, making them too hard or hardening them throughout, rather than case hardening them?

Cheers, T i m

[AJH]

It could well be wrong but chains sharpened for ripping can be square.