What Kinda Chain is This?

The folded portion can easily be ground off and it will perform much better.

 

Yessir, that’s SOP for me once it’s time to sharpen them. I grind the extra width off and also thin the front of the raker to reduce weight further. It’ll never make good race chain but anything that I can do to reduce drag/mass will help.

 

Seems clamping in a vice and using a grinder would do the trick too? Seems I remember having a chain like that in the past and gave it to one son to use as a stump chain,don’t think I ever ran it.

 

One of the guys on the saw forums (Cole) made a very very fast chain outta that. Never say never.. He posted a vid of it but I can't seem to find it. Let me keep looking (for schlits and giggles).

 

Wow... I can believe that. I was running one of my 18" Vanguards on my 61 last month, square ground with low filed rakers. Even cutting black locust I was impressed with how fast I was ripping through logs with it. That's why I keep scarfing it up when I find good deals on it; most people don't want to fool with it and yet it works just fine for me.

 

I got my eBay chains in the mail this afternoon. The short one (50 DL) was put together with a master link but the rivets were never spun down. Good thing because the link was upside down I still got my money’s worth, no doubt about that.

 

Dumb question but how would the upside down link affect performance?

Used mine the first time yesterday on the 462. pretty smooth. Doesn't need a sharpening yet.

 

Good question. I imagine as the chain goes around the nose of the bar, making that sharp bend there would be problems. Instead of the bearing surface being across two small lands of metal, it’s now riding on one surface, somewhere in the middle but really there’s nothing to stabilize it. Something would have to give. Either it would wear the bar nose, or the center of that one link, or even force the chain to stretch. Maybe a combination of the three? I can’t say for sure.

 

Gave it a quick sharpening at my cut today. Used the Stihl 2 in 1. Seemed to file okay. Probably need a new flat file in the guide. Steel seemed a bit softer than the Stihl chain I mostly use.

 

You won't find a "harder" chain unless you go to carbide. If I could afford to use all Stihl chain I surely would.
After a bunch of sharpenings you may find that 2 in 1 might not take off enough of the funky depth gauge. If it starts cutting slower or you find your rpms up higher with it, you know why. I'd treat it like a redheaded stepchild.

 

LOL! If a chain doesn't bite as good after I use that I'll give each raker a couple strokes with the flat file. Usually does the trick.