Chainsaw Sharpening - Thanks TD!!
Mike Rubes, Apex, NC
>Hi all,
Thanks to Terry's great descriptions and pictures, I stopped by my local Lowe's and picked up the Husqvarna Sharpening jig and a couple of files to fit my particular blade. The saw I use is actually my dad's as he bought it, used a couple of times and declared his chainsaw days are behind him :) It's a low end Husky, the 141 model. It's really a pretty nice saw. I've used it a few times and it always starts right up and seems to slice right through whatever I put in front of it.
Anyway, this is about sharpening :) The directions that came with the jig are, as Terry said, less than great. Not that bad, but all Euro with no words, just drawings. However, and I don't know if this was just a user-error or something with the saw/jig, but I could not get the jig to fit over the chain so I could use it! The upside is that between Terry's directions and the directions on the package, I could "wing it" and sharpened it by hand without the jig. The blade was pretty dull, and after about 15 minutes with the correct sized file, it seemed sharp enough to easily grab and/or prick my finger, so I took it outside to work over some goodsized dogwood logs I had in the pile. The biggest was about 18 inches across, but unfortunately rotten about half way across, so not a really good test of the blade. There were also some sections about 9 inches across with no rot and about 6 months from being cut. I don't know how great a sharpening job it really is, but it sliced right through the dog wood with a minimal of effort on my part.
So, long story short, the basic sharpening seemed to go pretty easy just doing it by hand, but I am a little dissapointed that the $12 jig did not fit. The handle part is fine, so I guess I have a $12 file :) Secondly, however, I still don't really understand the "second" part of sharpening. I got the "C" part fine, but am still not sure about the other "nib" part. The jig provides a way to adjust that height as well, but that fit even more poorly than the first part :) Looking at the chain, that part was still slightly lower than the top of the "C", so things seemed OK and it certainly cut fine.
So, I'd give my sharpening experience two thumbs up and hopefully will be able to keep the blade at least servicable. I did also (just in case, you know :)) buy a new blade while at Lowe's. Next time I have to cut something, I may cut some with the blade that ons there and then put the new one on to see if there's much of a difference.
Thanks again, Terry, your pics went a long way to explaining things.
Mike
Chainsawing and Bandsawing in Apex, NC!!
