New chains or sharpen them all?

Learn to free hand sharpen, after a while you can just "feel" if it is right. After 3-4 times I put them on the grinder.

 

Not very good at it... yet... but freehand sharpen here. When I keep at it and don't get too dull, I can get a real nice sharpen with three strokes on each tooth. Quicker than doing it on a grinder, which is what I started with. Now, prefer the file.

 

I use Stihl's filing kit, or their basic file guide, which is just a piece of metal with two thumbscrews that clamps onto a file. Been using them for many years and I have tried almost everything else out there. I've had chains machine-sharpened by local saw shops and they almost always take too much off the chain, and half the time they blue the tips and take the temper out of the tooth. I've tried all kinds of file guides and even no guide at all, and I keep coming back to the Stihl guides (pretty sure they are marketed either by Oregon or under the Oregon name as well; you can get 'em at Home Depot). They're marked for 30 degrees so it's a nice easy line to sight. It only takes me a few minutes, including setup, to file a chain. My brother has owned a saw for years as a very infrequent user, and I didn't know until a few weeks ago that he had no clue how to sharpen a chain. I didn't think I could teach him anything but I did. If you really want to get technical, you can take a caliper or micrometer to each tooth and file them until each tooth is the same length. That's getting a bit too anal-retentive for me though.

If you were closer to me, I would be happy to give you lessons on filing a chain. Some people may hate it, some love it, but to me it's just part of the process. Cut for a while, gas up, cut for a while, file chains, gas up, repeat until you run out of something (gas, oil, daylight, strength etc.)

 

Sharpen them !!! I cut a lot of wood, and I if I bought new chain each time one got dull I could just buy oil instead of wood. Sharpen the thing and try it out, if you don't like it, touch it up and cut again. By no means is it rocket science. The first several times you likely will not get them quite as sharp as new, but each time you will learn more and get closer. It also does not take much time once you do it a few times. Be one with the chainsaw

 

Completely agree, just to lazy/illiterate to type it all up. Except my Oregon guides are different than my Stihl guides. But they work just as well.

 

I'm torn on this. On one hand, sharpen them because there is a ton of life left in them and it is just time that it will take you. With that, you have to buy a guide/ file kit $10-50, or a grinder of sorts lets just call it $100-150 for something decent. If you have nothing better to do on a rainy day or evening, that's great and you will feel accomplished with doing something by hand.

On the other side, I just got a Baileys ad for Woodland Pro chains (which is what I use) that I can buy a 10 pack of 20" loops for $10 each. I have to look at it like this:
I can buy a grinder that cost more than the loops to sharpen them to not last as long as the factory edges (true for the sake of argument, I don't care if I can shave with my hand sharpened chains, if you sharpen a chain, you are taking some of the factory hardness off of the cutter, I am cutting firewood and cleaning up blow downs, not racing or anything crazy). For the cost of the grinder, I just bought 10-15 chains which would last me about a year+ with still keeping some chains in reserve. (I usually keep about 6 or so of every size new in the box on top of the ones in my cutting equipment(another 6 or so there). I can collect my chains through the course of a year or so and then go over a buddies and grind a few or just give them to him to keep. I usually have one or two "good" "bad" chains for when I know I am gonna do something stupid like cutting stumps and stuff.

I own a business working 60+ hours a week, have a house that is completely torn apart and putting it back together during the week when I am home, another house on the weekends 2 hours away that I don't get to enough as it is, and all the upkeep on both, plus a girlfriend which every man knows, sucks the life and time out of you more than anything with projects or like mine loves, about a professional baseball or football game a month to just completely blow a weekend or at minimum an Saturday/ Sunday. Sitting filing chains is not something I enjoy doing nor want to do if I don't have to, when there are other cost equivalent options available to me.

 

I use the Stihl 2 in 1 (pferd) filing guide. Like a few others. I was brutal at sharpening using a few other methods but this one works well for me. My local shop wants &15/chain to sharpen and about $25 for a new one. The few minutes it takes to shapen the chain is way less of a hassle then dropping off then picking up chains at the dealer that would be 10 minutes out of my way.

 

I agree with Oldman47 the Granberg file-n-joint would be my choice.

 

Takes 5 minutes or less to touch up a chain. Very cost effective, even for someone running a business. Just set the saw on a stump or a tailgate and have at it....done.
Don't let 'em get so dull they won't cut. When I can no longer get the saw to cut straight, I take 'em to the local hardware and the owner charges $4. I MIGHT do that once a year.
A chain for someone cutting up his own firewood should last quite a long time, even touching up every tank.

 

I'm a grinder and use an old Foley-Belsaw,,,

 

Nobody's yet mentioned the big reason to KEEP your chain sharp- it makes things much easier on you, the b&c, the saw's mechanicals, your fuel jug. It's also psychologically beneficial as a change of pace, to drop your pulse rate for a few minutes while you file cutters and assess the situation.
A grinder is a good thing for restoring rocked chains. The one NT often has on special for $100 is a good option, waaaaay better than the HF cheapo. My NT grinder gets used for reworking buds' chains, when they do some rototilling. They need a session in the ultrasonic cleaner first.

 

Find the right one of these for your chain (.325 or 3/8). They help a beginner tremendously. It's a Husqvarna file guide and can be had @ Lowes or any big box store that sells the brand.




About $15
Shop Husqvarna Chainsaw Sharpening Kit at Lowes.com

 

Yup, for the price of a chain you can sharpen effectively with this tool. There are better sharpening methods but for $15 nothing will work better for a beginner.

 

I'd suggest that Granberg clamp-on-bar guide is preferable all-around. With change of file, works on any "round-ground" cutters. You can set it to any height and angles you wish, so you can file a given chain for normal cross-cutting or any ripping spec you choose. Slip in a flat file, set it, and do the depth gauges to whatever spec you wish.
$27 right now @NT: Granberg Bar-Mount Chainsaw Sharpener, Model# G-106B | Sharpeners Grinders| Northern Tool + Equipment
They finally show it mounted right-side-forward, instead of bass-ackwards. Of course their second graphic shows it stupidly reversed.
I demoed this tool to a few folks: "Where can I get one?" Been using same one since '78 or thereabouts, and a recent version that can grab NK LP bars.
Really simple to use, if you're capable of a little conscious thought; too bad their directions don't help. Every other fillup, bada-bing. Depth gauges, almost never needed.

 

Sharpen definitely ! !! unless your a weekend warrior on a suburban lot that only dulls a chair once a year or so and just clean up trees when they fall in your yard you need to learn to sharpen. Best deal on chain I ever got on a 72DL loop of 3/8 was $10. That's a lot of cash for a one time use!! I sometimes might dull 2 chains on a wood cutting excursion.

 

I use to have the HF geinder. it is acceptable. mine was in the sun and got brittle when it fell over and knob busted off. But that was after a few years . It will work great for your needs and not that hard to use. you still have to understand angles and what does what when you change things up.

 

A quick way is to take a Cresent wrench. set it till snug on the tooth you want to match and use it as a gauge on all the others. Your usually around your bench if in the shop or a tool box so you can just pull one out or even buy a cheapie at Walmart just for this to leave with the saw stuff

 

I bought my grinder which is a Northern tool Oregon knock off for like $90. It saves me tones of money. I sharpen my chains and it also allows me to get free chains from my loggers after they trash then hand filing them. I have tons of loops that are anywhere from 50 to 90% of the tooth left that they just give me . 10 Mind on the grinder and it's a's good as a new chain (well almost as you say). It will take longer if I have to file down the rakers, which the shorter ones is the case.

 

The file-n-joint works like they show here. Ignore the instructions that come with the tool. This guy tells you what each adjustment does.