What is most important when sharpening a chain

I was always taught, when sharpening a chain, that it is most important to count your strokes and give each tooth the same amount of strokes. Is this a golden rule? What if one or a couple of the teeth are in bad shape and takes twice the amount of strokes to bring it to a point again? Is it more important to make the teeth absolutely sharp, even if the stokes per tooth are different, or is it more important to keep the same amount of strokes per tooth? thanks

 

All teeth the same height in relation to the rakers. Need to be the same height across the board.

 

Yes and yes. I usually try and do the same # of strokes per tooth if doing a general touch up. If I find a tooth that is nicked or damaged it will get filed till I get it corrected. Hope this helps.

 

While it’s probably good practice, each cutter does not need to be the same length, at all. If you use a progressive raker/depth gauge, your chain will cut perfectly straight if 1/2 of them are at the end and 1/2 are new.
I think the most important aspect to sharpening is #1, raker maintenance and #2 the angles of the working corner. If you don’t have the proper “hook”, the chain is either going to cut like grease lightning for a little bit and get dull fast, or it’s going to cut slow for a long period of time. Finding that balance is key.

I’d post pics to show what I mean but unless you use square filed/ground they might not help.

These angles are for cutting clean soft wood. It’ll be fast, but won’t last long (this is by choice).


This pic would be the equivalent of raising your file up higher in the cutter, creating less hook. Much more durable.


So in retrospect, I’m going to say behind rakers, the position of the round file (up and down) is the second most important. This is why you see so many guides that position the files height on the tooth.
Too much hook.


Not enough hook.

 

Get the Gullet !

 

I do the same as i hand file too. Sometimes i find all the cutters on one side are shorter so ill give the longer side more strokes. At one time i took the time to use a micrometer to find the shortest tooth and make the others the same size. Dont have the patience any more. If its sharp with a good "beak" or "gullet" as mentioned before and it doesnt seem to cut ill check the rakers and lower them.

I was given a Harbor Freight "dremel" type of sharpener a few years ago as a gift and had never used it. Tried it the other day and its a game changer if the chain is really dull or rolled. Normally as soon as i dull a chain i stop so its seldom gets that bad, but nails and metal often like to play hide and seek in the wood i cut

 

Most important when hand-filing is that the file feels smooth going across the cutter. If it feels scratchy then file some more....if it feels smooth then no need to file any more. Counting strokes is silly...assumes all strokes are equal and they certainly aren't.

Next most important is keeping the angles the same.

At some point in time you'll need to true up your raker heights to even things out.

 

#1 Get the corner sharp on the cutter. #2 set the rakers to the right height.

 

Good Post The Wood Wolverine

The only thing I would add is making sure the raker maintains the same contour as the factory grind and of course the correct progressive angle. Not how the wheel was contoured with a diamond.

 

I never really count my file strokes and just sharpen each tooth until I like it, and then check individual raker height per individual tooth, when I am done filing the teeth.
Get the gullet, but not too much gullet. Watch the top plate angle, and I always try to follow the line on top of the tooth, except I have found that not all chain brands have a reference line to follow, and for those I have a wing on my file handle for reference. But I really like a nice reference line to follow on top of the tooth, so I don't know if I will buy the brands again that don't have it. Oregon seems to have the best lines on their top plates, for my eye to see and follow.

 

When looking at your top and side plate edge, they should not reflect light. If you can see a light reflection, keep sharpening.

 

How my doing?

 

IMHO, if your radius the raker, it will cut smoother and bore cut easier.

 

Sorry to confuse. This chain is for going fast in square wood. But I really cleared out said gullet.

 

I hand file and I do the file strokes, but if one needs a few more swipes I have no problem doing so.

 

The Wood Wolverine, I believe it was you who posted a vid a month or two ago about this very thing...no need to count strokes? I found it very informative, perhaps you could link it in this thread.

 

If you’re a buckin’ fan, ff to about 1:12

Go to 16:00 on this one.

 

I have watched and re-watched these videos a bunch of times, especially the lots of the Bucking Billy Ray vids. But I watch some of the others also, just to get a little different take on it. They have helped me greatly on my chainsaw journey. Some are better then others and some I take with a grain of salt.

 

As a life long machinist I call BS on stroke counting.
As for the "raker" which is not a raker at all, that's on a scratcher chain it's a depth gauge plain and simple. Doing it at a 10° angle like the manufacturer suggests is fine. The whole thing is already contoured properly by the factory and as long as the leading edge is lower than the trail blazed by the previous tooth your good.

 

The most important thing IMHO is to not cut yourself.