As I started this post on appropriate applications of Chain I seen not to have related all of the information, I hope this post will help along with my prior post.In my business I get this question constantly and for me to answer this question I really have to explain it in depth so no one gets confused.In my business I get this question constantly and for me to answer this question I really have to explain it in depth so no one is confessed about the difference between Chain. Hope this doesn’t confuse anyone.Semi chisel for a guy learning his skills, really is the best choice for several reasons.Until you learn to file your chains yourself, you are better off with a chain that will take a few dips in the dirt without trashing the chain.The leading edge is rounded and is not so reliant on a full point to cut efficiently.A little dulling will hamper your efforts but will not kill your cutting teeth.By keeping your chain out of the dirt,semi chisel can often go several tanks of fuel before needing a touch up with a file.I find that I actually get more done with a semi chisel than a full chisel,I spend more time cutting rather than sharpening.The only exception is a climbing saw which is always rigged with a full chisel. A Full chisel however is faster but much more tempormental.Once the leading point is gone,it takes a good bit of effort to file back to a good solid point.Any rounding of that leading point will render the chain worthless until its restored. Safety chain generally has a semi chisel tooth behind the rakers, and is often falsely labeled as "anti kickback".There is no such thing as any chain that is "anti kickback",but it does have a longer raker that will dampen the efforts of the cuttingtooth from grabbing and kicking the nose of the bar up and back.If you are new to the game and work unsupervised by an experienced woodcutter, stay with the safety chain until you are not only comfortable with your skills but have learned to recognize pinch points,front nose clearance,and a wide variety of other obstacles that can result in kickback.The trick is to recognize a kickback situation before it even gets going and tackle your cut in a different fashion. Skip and semi skip are worthless on small horsepower and short bars.The whole point of a semi or skip tooth chain is to allow you to pull a longer bar/chain by minimizing the drag on the engine with fewer teeth.Generally speaking you dont find any skip chains on any bars less than 28 inches. Again people get confused on RSLFK (Full Chisel Full Skip) and it’s application, it’s good Chain but again it’s for bars 28 inches of greater. Hope this explains the difference in application of Chain in there appropriate differences by application.The idea behind a half or full skip chain is to keep the speed of the chain moving fast when you have a longer bar. There is only "so much power" with the chainsaw motor... And the more teeth you have cutting at the same time, the more of a load on the engine. And with longer bars, you have more teeth cutting at the same time. If the chain speed slows down, then it will take forever to make your cut. So basically the idea is to remove some teeth, then there are fewer teeth cutting at the same time, then the chain speed remains FAST. Your cuts are therefore fast even though you are using a long bar! For example on a 32 inch bar saw and on a 36 inch bar saw, these use full skip chains. But on a 20 inch bar saw and on a 14 inch bar saw, I have regular non-skip chains (full comp). Another thing to consider is the wood shavings building up between teeth. With a longer bar and cutting a large diameter tree, the tooth starts cutting at one end and keeps cutting all the way through. Thus you have more shavings. And need more "room" between teeth for all those shavings. So another reason to use half or full skip chains. Then I suppose the type of wood you are cutting would be another factor. And the depth of the "depth gauges" (rakers) you have on your chains. A softer wood would be easier to cut and the chain speed would remain fast. A harder wood would slow the chains down. Higher depth gauges (rakers) would make a more shallow cut and keep the chain speed fast. Lower depth gauges would make deeper cuts and this would be more of a load on the engine. So I guess if the chain is slowing down (depending on bar length, type of wood, etc.), you would want to go to a chain with a larger skip. Don’t be confessed on ( RSLFK) and it’s application on bar lengths hope I didn’t confuse anyone.Have a nice day. Stumper
Chain speed and cutting speed. . One reason I like full and semi skip is to keep the chain speed up. Within a reason the more chain speed a guy can maintain, the better everything will be . High rpm helps keep the bar groove cleaned out and pumps more oil to the chain. Helping both the bar and chain to run cooler.
Cold Trigger Finger you are absolutely correct... That’s what I was trying to relay in my Post... Thank you for reading my Post... Have a nice day... Stumper
