Well, I decided to go to a regular .050 x 3/8 on my 261. I like sharpening the bigger chain better, and wanted to get away from the smaller chain, good or bad. I mounted a new Tsumura lightweight 20" bar and 7 point driver, and put a 3/8 x .050, full chisel, skip tooth chain on it. I like the skip tooth, and I like less teeth to sharpen. My 362 does alright with it, and I can't see how skip is any slower just because its' on a shorter bar. I took it out and cut some with it, and I think it cuts just fine. I don't know if it's slower or faster and I don't much care, it's fast enough for me regardless, since I am not into production cutting or in a big hurry to pile up a lot of wood at one time. And if I end up wanting to change back, it's easy and this new bar will fit my bigger saws if I want to use it on one of those. But for now, I am going to give it a good try, since I much prefer sharpening the bigger chain, and a lot less teeth compared to .325 full house chain.
Yes, I had to change to a 3/8" x 7 tooth sprocket. And I hadn't really compared sprocket sizes before. The 3/8" is a larger diameter, so in theory, I should have lost a little power there, but I think I probably gained chain speed and with skip tooth, maybe I am about even. I will have to cut more with it to really get a good feel for it, but it's hard to really notice a difference with it. Maybe if I had two identical saws to switch off on, I might detect some difference.
I don't know, I don't do much bore cutting. I will have to check it out. I have trouble seeing the smaller chain, when sharpening. But at any rate, I am just fooling around, and I just want to see for myself how well it works, or not.
I like having this option, anyway. Whether its better or not, I don't know. It may be an acquired taste. I like it so far. I went out and done some cutting with it, after my first string of posts, and it was still cutting ok, but I knew I had dulled it a little, with two tanks of gas, so I sharpened it afterwards and it's ready to go again. I certainly do like that part of it, a heck of a lot better then the ..325 low kick back chains I was running.
How many teeth on that chain? I run my 261 with the .325 and 20" bar with non skip chain. Wondering if they even make full skip in .325
I had a little time before dark, so I decided to go find out, on the bore cutting. I had this old Oak log from a tree that used to be in my yard, and it's solid in the middle but pretty soft on the outside, so not sure how good a test this is, but it seemed to do alright, but then again, I have not done a lot of bore cutting. In the last picture, I am buried up all of the way in wood.
I don't know, I will count them and get back with the answer tomorrow, but know there are quite a few less even on a 20" vs. the .325 non skip. I have never seen a full skip .325.
I doubt it exists. The only full skip ive ever ran is on the 36" bar for my 460. Rare occasion i need it.
I also decided to take down an Osage Orange tree, tonight, which I wanted out of my field. I am cutting up what wood there is out of it. I know Osage Orange is supposed to be good firewood, but I don't much like to cut it. The limbs have thorns and there are a lot of small limbs to deal with, for the wood you get. These trees are a pain to process. Usually, I prefer one of my saws with a longer bar for reach on stuff like this. However, the saw did good, but it got dark on me, so I didn't finish.
Saw looks good. Betting you’ll really like that bar after some use. I found these “boutique” bars aren’t just all show. They are better steel and require less rail dressing.
I like the full skip on my 361 with 24" bar, pretty good. So far, I have only ran full comp on my 462 with 28 inch bar, but it has more power to pull it. However, I have a full skip chain for it, just haven't tried it yet. I am cutting a lot of stuff that dulls chains pretty quick, sometimes, and do like having less teeth to sharpen. And they seem to stay sharp about as long as anything else for me.
I just looked at my first pictures, I posted and I only count 18 teeth visible, so my guess is there probably can't be more the 25 teeth total on that chain.
