Stihl RM or RS

Can someone post some pics of the different types (ie: RM vs RS) ?

 

Kind of hard to see the difference from Stihls pics. The RS is full chisel?

 

yes rs is full chisel, rm is semi chisel. i just bought 2 rmf (semi chisel full skip) chains as all of the stuff I cut is scrounged and has been in the dirt and I am hoping the chains last longer between sharpenings

 

closer up:
RS



RM

 

Same cutter on the RS3 & the RM3
Just have a hump on the link that comes up when the chain goes over the nose of the bar to reduce kick back potential.
Work good for liming & most cutting, works for bore cuts too, just not take as big of a bite.

 

and well have the green color coded link

 

Old RM with safety hump . safety chain ,
RM3 green chain now. different safety hump design now too.

 

That old chain shows why I started hand filing my own.
Took several to a local sharpener & got back burred & burnt cutter tips.
over heated the tips & took the temper out ,
ground them down fast & has bad burrs

 

That is what I file all my chains at: 30 and 0 offset. Some Stihl chain comes at 35 but I cannot get my files in there that steep. I always file at a 0 degree offset. What is attempting to be described above in some posts is called the offset angle.

 

That is RM2 in the photo there. Semi-chisel with the big-azz safety rakers. They do not make that any more. They make safety rakers now that overlap the cuter rakers on the flats and open up when they go around the tip to increase the raker length and hence the safety aspect (less kickback that way).

 

New it was old , RM2 eh. Not sure how long I've had it or where I got it
Still usable in a pinch, but burned cutter tips will prob dull fast.

 

I have several loops of it. Stihl saws here used to come standard with RM2. I use it for cutting potential naily yard trees, fence posts and the like. They used to make an RM with the same cutters w/o the safety straps, and that was good stuff. I still have some of that. The new RM is what was called RMC. The guys at Stihl like to really confuse things, especially when it comes to chain.

 

...so... how much faster does full chisel cut? If changing / sharpening loops is not a big deal, is the semi-chisel still the most effective solution?

 

I really can't stand that safety chain at all. I was cutting with a friend one day and grabbed his freshly sharpened saw and with the safety chain on it still felt dull to me.

I tend to run my rakers a bit lower than they should be also and feel I get a better bite on the log as long as the saw has enough guts to handle it. It can be a fine line between better and grabby but I am getting it dialed in pretty well.

 

Since I have 2 unopened 100' rolls of 3/8ths Oregon LGX and half a roll of spun up ones, I think I'll stick with the LGX. (got an insane price on it).

For skip, the JPX can't be beat.

 

For me & cutting 10 cord +/- per year,
I find the LPX (safety ) to cut as well as the LGX pro.
Might be a little difference, but not real noticeable for my type of cutting.
Price being an issue, I too like the LGX / LPX
Additionally LPX is easier to find here.
My last LGX was online order.

RS is good chain too, on the shelf at the Stihl store. higher cost though,

 

I wouldn't call LPX safety chain. The ramps before the raker reduce vibration and are way lower than the depth gauge so it really doesn't slow the chain down. I like LPX a lot in .325 where you do a lot of limbing. I run LGX in 3/8ths. This ramps makes JPX much smoother than JGX, (J designation means skip)

 

In theory, full chisel square filed is 10% faster than full chisel round filed which is 10% faster than semi-chisel round filed. In dirty conditions semi-chisel is the better choice, as it will stay sharp longer. Full chisel will just get dull too fast.

Madsens has good information on a lot of these issues here http://www.madsens1.com/muu_barchain.htm

 

So far, I think the loops that I have of RS and RM, have shown two things. The RS is much faster, and finds nails and dirt quicker than RM.