Since we have a stump grinder now and have been cutting blowdown trees from stumps, thought it might be a good investment to buy a couple carbide chains. We got 2 different brands, both 3/8", .050 84DL for the 25" bar. Forester from Amazon and Stihl Duro from eBay... The Forester chain has big carbide insert on front... It feels kinda dull...Haven't tried it yet Stihl Duro 3 had carbide insert all the way back, with a chamfered corner I know it's a green link safety type chain, but it felt sharp out of the box. It actually surprised me with how well it cut a big white oak crotch (almost like noodled) and then the log from the stump. The Forester chain (China) was $65, the Stihl was $105, this is with tax... I checked with Rappco, they make chains for emergency personnel and such...their prices were $199...... We'll see how they perform and how they last...
I'm curious to see how your Forester chains hold up. I bought a couple for cutting stumps, and the carbide teeth held up well but they "stretched" bad enough that I had to tighten the chain at least once every stump, sometimes more on the big ones. I started with a 70DL chain on my Echo, and before I was done with the stumps I'd run out of adjustment and then switched to a 72DL Stihl bar. I hate to run them much more because I feel like I'm wearing the sprocket prematurely too, since the drive tooth spacing is getting longer. And my saw normally oils well, but perhaps the dust from those dirty, crumbly half-decayed pine stumps just soaked up the oil. Or maybe the rivets or links are soft and wear more than they should. I don't know. Let us know how the Stihl and Forester compare. Good luck!
The downfall of the carbide chains is the sharpening aspect. They do cut a little slower but they hold up better to dirt. But honestly, I don't think they hold up as well as I'd like them to, which is why I just keep to regular chains....
Curious here too. Been thinking of getting one for dead BL and the dirty wood I buck at my "Disney" cut. My question is sharpening and if like circular saw blades do the carbide teeth chip or break off if they hit a rock of nail?
I hope these will hold up awhile. We have a lot of pine stumps to grind, and cutting them off will speed up the process. Plus these blowdowns that we're trying to get as much wood as we can.
Son has a carbide chain and seems to like it. He purchased a diamond wheel for use on my Oregon 520 grinder but has not used the wheel to date.
Well, what I will do is let you know how it works out when we do use it, provided I remember He has been very pleased with it and don’t think he’s taken it off his saw since he put it on. Says he can’t tell much if any difference from the Stihl RS chain.
Thinking if you check the cut area very carefully, removing rocks and dirt as much as possible it should hold up.
Carbide will stay sharp longer in clean wood, what carbide sucks at is interrupted cuts, (rocks, wire, anything with a change in hardness) if you are just cutting dirty stumps, they may be okay. You’re probably better off with semi chisel and adjusted round grinder angles for durability. I have a holy trash mess of stumps and partial trees to clean up, (Never let anyone use your property to make money and then promise to take care of the mess, ever….) I ordered a 25’ roll of Archer 3/8” .050” semi chisel to get it into manageable/burnable pieces, rather than me having to pay to haul off. I have a pretty good idea where to start with durability angles, but will post what worked the best when I get to this project later this year.
Very nasty stuff. A guy at my last job never wore a mask or turned on the suction vents on the grinders when sharpening carbide tools. He'd blow his nose into a paper towel and all you'd see is black carbide soot. I think within a year or two of retirement he passed away from lung disease. Definitely nothing to play around with.
They seem like they'd be good to have on hand if you live on a driveway where access to public roads is not assured in all conditions. Good chain to keep on hand for emergencies.
Well, put those chains to work...err...or they worked me...lol 3 of the stumps we cut off... That is some hard work...on me and the saw...running our Stihl XS400 with modified oiler turned up. It was using a tank of oil on 3 stumps and chains were still getting hot and stretching bad. They might work better on dirty logs. We didn't cut every stump off, but we did get 19 ground in a couple days...
Good to know Jeff, I know that stump grinder teeth are not “sharp” after grinding the first stump. They beat/grind the stump rather that “cut” it…
