Re: Hardened Chainsaw Chain?

A guy who has had formal Game of Logging training and experience certainly views this differently... adds lots of salt. ;~)

Too many saw, chain, skill, training and use variables are left out of this narrative to make any good decisions based on it...

For instance: Take on a 28" dead but sound white oak. Run, say a 50 CC consumer or farm/ranch saw (3.25-3.5 HP class) with an 18" bar. Run a full house Stihl Rapid Super chain with the rakers cut down "quite a bit" and you'll likely stall the saw in the kerf... The chain would be too aggressive for a physically hard wood when the bar is buried in the log... Such a chain run on a bigger saw, say a Stihl MS461 (about 6 HP) may grab like crazy in that oak log but work just fine with the rakers filed to proper depth using a gauge.

Me, I run 4 HP and 6 HP pro-saws with Stihl Rapid Super chains and I file the rakers for the target wood using a gauge. For example, the Husky raker gauge lets you choose hard or soft wood raker depths. If I know I'm going to be in a bunch of pine, cedar, or hemlock for at least a couple chain sharpenings I'll run the rakers lower. Most of the time I'm in mixed hardwoods... maple, oak, ash, cherry, mulberry, walnut, hickory, etc. with the occasional softwood, so I file for hardwoods. At that, there are times when dead dry hardwoods are like iron and saw slowly even with a freshly and properly filed chain.

Anyhow... all that said, the low kick back chains are not a bad way to go. They are generally safer to use and are more forgiving of those who lose track of the upper quadrant of the bar nose.... For example, kick backs can happen when you are clearing leaf covered storm damage or cutting firewood from piles of logs and the upper quadrant hits something. Those chains might save a guy with an older saw that lacks any anti kick back features a nasty scar.... Years ago my uncle had a kick back that came up and hit the bill of his ball cap (nobody wore hearing or eye protection, forestry helmets, or chaps back then). Fortunately the visor folded down and kept the saw off his face... except for his nose. The end of his nose was chewed off... even after plastic surgery it is apparent that the end of his nose was chewed up.