I have never messed with noodling big stuff, because I believe going across grain will wear the chain out fast. so, what affect does noodling have on the chain sharpness? Maybe my instinct is off, and I should noodle away.
Won't make a difference. What can happen is the ends of the logs often get dirt on them from sitting and being moved around, that will dull a chain right now.
I am with Andyshine. Dirt would be the culprit in making the chain dull faster. I noodle stuff all the time especially elm. I hate splitting it.
Great new information for me. Thanks. On another thread, I posted a photo of a log that split in two as it was brought to the landing it’s has mud and dirt all over it. I suspect it’s worth the trouble to clean off the spots where I set the chain to cut rounds?
Yes, cleaning the cut area will keep a saw sharp longer. When wood was manually cut with axe and saw it was common to use an axe to remove bark before a the saw was used to do the back cut when felling a tree. Same for milling lumber. Bark was usually removed. Only with automated blade sharpening and mass production did the practice of bark removal disappear. It's faster, easier to replace or resharpen a blade than add extra labor.
I got mine out last month for our GTG. Other than weight the guys that ran it loved it. As long as the wood is fairly clean it shouldn't dull/wear your chain any faster. just make sure your saw doesn't get clogged with noodles around your sprocket/clutch.
It's been my experience that going across the grain WILL dull a chain faster. I say this because the first time I tried to noodle, I did it wrong. I set the round on end and cut across the end grain going straight down. It dulled the chain much quicker. The next one I laid on its side and cut down the full length of the log (correct way which produces the long noodles). Much easier cutting and the chain lasts longer.
I have never noticed it getting dull faster? I can run tanks and tanks of fuel without it filling, the same as bucking. If you have real dirty bark it will fill faster as the amount of bark your cutting is larger in my opinion. I would have to take some theoretical measurements on say a 24" round. Figure the circumference of it and then figure how much bark you cut noodeling. My guess now thinking through it is that on a 40" round you cut more bark cutting rounds per cut that you would noodeling the same round. Now noodeling a 12" diameter log you may be cutting more bark noodeling. Bark is the key usually as it often has more dirt in it than abrasives in the wood which do not dull at anywhere near the rate of dirty bark.
I do not notice any difference in x-cutting vs. noodling when it comes to chain edge durability. One tip to make noodling more successful is to not have the tip buried. Let it stick out the end of the round, that way if the clutch cover area gets clogged, the noodles have a place to go.
Yep, bar's gotta be longer than the wood to be efficient. Also a bigger saw with a ceramic chain catcher between the bucking spikes really helps. My 4 big saws never clog with noodles that way.
Not to sidetrack. I guess I wasn’t for sure how to do noodling was. I always thought it meant cutting down into the round just like you were splitting it with an axe from one end. This thread infers it to be cutting along the side of the round. I guess like splitting of fenceposts? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Correct, cutting with the grain in order to knock apart big rounds for easier handling. Keep the bar tip down & head up & just rip 3/4 of the way thru. Then knock apart with a maul.
Cutting like that is slow going and hard on a saw, same as milling, it produces fine dust no matter how sharp the chain is. When you cut with the grain you'll get long shavings, we call them noodles.
