Keeping Your Chain Saw Sharp

1 / 8
Tips on keeping your chainsaw sharp for the homestead.
Tips on keeping your chainsaw sharp for the homestead.
2 / 8
A chainsaw blade up close. The teeth, known as cutters, bite into wood, while the depth gauges determine how deep the bite will be. Proper filing of both helps keep your chainsaw in good cutting condition.
A chainsaw blade up close. The teeth, known as cutters, bite into wood, while the depth gauges determine how deep the bite will be. Proper filing of both helps keep your chainsaw in good cutting condition.
3 / 8
A full-featured filing guide (middle) is a great tool for beginners. The simpler guide (bottom) demands more skill for success. The flat file and depth-gauge guide (top) are used on depth gauges every few sharpenings.
A full-featured filing guide (middle) is a great tool for beginners. The simpler guide (bottom) demands more skill for success. The flat file and depth-gauge guide (top) are used on depth gauges every few sharpenings.
4 / 8
Clamp your filing gauge in the middle of the bar, along the top edge.
Clamp your filing gauge in the middle of the bar, along the top edge.
5 / 8
Extending bar and chain life for chainsaws.
Extending bar and chain life for chainsaws.
6 / 8
Periodically filing depth gauges is one of the little-known tricks to maintaining saw-chain performance.
Periodically filing depth gauges is one of the little-known tricks to maintaining saw-chain performance.
7 / 8
To handle homestead chores, choose a chainsaw with a bigger bite. A larger chain cuts more aggressively.
To handle homestead chores, choose a chainsaw with a bigger bite. A larger chain cuts more aggressively.
8 / 8
Consistency is the key to a sharp saw: File each cutter with the same number of strokes.
Consistency is the key to a sharp saw: File each cutter with the same number of strokes.

Tips on keeping your chain saw sharp and how to buy the right saw.

Using a chain saw significantly cuts the time and energy devoted to homestead chores. But that’s only true if the saw’s chain is sharp. A dull chain saw is about as useful for cutting wood as a plastic spoon. To cut quickly and safely, saws must be sharpened often. With a few simple tools, here’s how you easily can do it yourself.

Successfully sharpening a chain saw involves three steps: shaping the chisel-like teeth that cut wood (they’re call cutters); adjusting the parts of the chain that regulate the bite taken by each cutter (called depth gauges); and fine-tuning the tension of the chain so it runs freely, with no slack, around the bar. Think of a saw chain as a linked row of small chisels. Each cutter is a chisel it takes a bite as it travels across the wood. If all the bites are crisp, equal and even from side-to-side, you’ve got a hungry, smooth-running and well- sharpened chain.

Keeping Your Chain Saw Sharp: Tools of the Sharpening Trade

While I was a university student during the early 1980s, I worked part time for a Mennonite farmer named Paul. His ancestors settled the land in 1816, and preserved a magnificent maple sugar bush while other pioneers slashing and burning like mad. When we weren’t making maple syrup, we cut firewood for sale from a forest that included century-old maples big around than trash cans.

  • Published on Oct 1, 2002
Comments (0) Join others in the discussion!
    Online Store Logo
    Need Help? Call 1-800-234-3368