After sharpening, do you run your finger against each tooth to feel it's actual sharpness? It should "catch" your finger and feel similar to a very sharp knife. Here a close up of some damage. When that happens, you have to file off enough metal to make any signs of that damage disappear. That pic^, the working corner (most important part) is dinged. It needed filed back to remove all that damage.
Even when I've rocked a chain or hit a nail in wood, there's never been a time i didn't get a good sharpening with the 2 in 1 sharpener. There have been times it's taken two rounds of sharpening with 6-8 strokes each time but they always came back. I am not a pro at sharpening! I've found that the 2 in 1 was not taking the rakers (depth gauges) down enough on my 241 chains when it was down to the last sharpening and worn out. But it always cut good. Again, I'm not a pro, just a firewood guy...
I still like my Granberg File-n Joint for getting my chains sharp with the proper angles sometimes ten to fifteen strokes if very dull (I try not to let them get that bad) then follow with filing the rakers using a raker depth guide. I also use a 2 n 1 if just touching up.
Yawner The last time I looked, Stihl made 3 2in1 files. Two of them were for 3/8 chain and the third was for .325 chain. Are you using the correct 2in1 sharpener? just read you checked the 2in1 for being the correct one.
"Some" damage? Ouch, looks like a screw or a rock. Hate it when that happens. Post up a pic of that chain sharp if you have it Jason, might be very helpful reference.
Get a grinder so you can have consistent reproducible results. Then just practice practice practice. Maybe even have a log where you sharpen so you can touch the newly ground chain to it so you can see how you did. Nobody taught me how to sharpen chainsaw chains, so even with a grinder, it took me a lot of practice until I got good at it. Then once you master the grinder, you can try your hand at hand filing. I ca do both but prefer the grinder cause it is a lot quicker for me, especially if I have a lot of material to take away after hitting a rock or something. Keep a new chain for reference so you know what result you’re looking for with each sharpening. YouTube and many of the members here are great resources as well. You’re off to a good start. Every one of us has been or are where you are right now
I hit some dirt a Month ago and the chain quit cutting, after looking at the damage later I pulled it off saw took it to my dealer for $8 dollars in five minuets it was again ready for cutting wood again but no rocky dirt again.
http://www.razzorsharp.com is it. Franzen machines and those machines are 25 grand or so. Each. And he has several, lol? This is the one I have seriously considered. Best bang for buck is sending quite a few for bulk pricing. He has a good online reputation for good service from what I have seen. And that's going on a few years now.
Might not help round filers as much but here's another showing damage. A couple swipes with a file just won't do in this situation. You have to make sure you file back and remove all that damage. And the nice crisp straight fresh edge.
I have the 2 in 1 sharpeners for both 3/8 and .325 chain, and they work, but I feel like you still have to know a couple of things, like getting the gullet out, and being mindful of raker height, as I have managed to take the rakers down so far with the 2 in 1 that the chain became way too grabby and would hang up and stall in the wood pretty bad. I have now learned to sharpen a saw free hand and use a raker gauge and I think I have it figured out now. I can take a pretty bad chain and bring it back to a good smooth and fast (fast enough, anyway) cutting chain. This has been said before, but I have watched the Billy Ray Smith you tube videos on chain sharpening extensively, and it's helped me more then anything, to fully understand how to hand file a chain. I highly recommend watching some of them, whether you every plan on hand filing or not. I can even make one of those green safety chains cut good, but I don't plan to buy anymore of them, probably. On those, it takes some time, but I eventually end up rounding the leading edges of the rakers and also thinning them out, seems to help. But like I said, I plan to get away from them, after I use them up. However, I like the semi-chisel tooth chain, because it does keep cutting longer in dirty conditions. On another note, however, skip tooth chisel is fast becoming one of favorites. So far, I have had really good luck with it on my 24" bar, and there is of course, less teeth to sharpen, and because there is less teeth to sharpen, I am inclined to take more pains with each tooth to get the best edge on it.
Generally on longer bars, less drag & more room for chip clearance with the bar buried in big wood. My 32" & 36" bars I run skip tooth on for that reason. Also I guess on the 28" & 24" now that I think about it.
I had a new Stihl skip tooth, I bought when I bought my 462 with a standard .050 gauge 28" bar, but I never used it, and when I swapped out for a lightweight bar that was .063 gauge, I took the skip tooth back to the Stihl store and swapped down to a skip tooth for my 24" bar on my 362. To answer you question, I have been cutting everything with it, small limbing, large rounds in the 22" to 25" diameter, and bucked up about all sizes below that. I just wanted to find out for myself how good or bad skip tooth chain was. I even cut a big stump down really low with it, and I have done a bunch of noodling with it. I think it works better then full comp for noodling, as I think the extra distance between the teeth, gives more room to drag out the shavings when noodling. I had heard and read how grabby and rough skip tooth ran, compared to full comp, on small limbs and small wood, etc, and how it was only good for big saws on long bars in big wood. Personally, I find that to be total BS. It's cuts just fine on everything I have tried it on. But the bottom line is if it's on the bar, I am going to cut everything with it, however, I do keep a semi-chisel on another saw for the really dirty cutting.
My shop has the same machine. $6.50 per chain I think. The several I took there over the years did come back at least as good as new.
I'm very slowly figuring out how to sharpen my own chains, but haven't quite figured it out I use my dad's old stihl rotary sharpener with the grinding stones, works ok I asked my dad how to use it, he grabbed it, turned it on, ground away and says like that. And that was it, no explaining why or what Usually his way of saying figure out what works for you
Stihl & some others have a 12V round stone dremel type sharpener that mounts on the saw bar with an angle & depth setting that works pretty decently.
Where so much needed to be removed from that one tooth, do all the other teeth need to be ground to match?
