[AT] Fw: chainsaw ramblings part 2

[charlie hill]

Ok, it seems that part 2 didn't fly the first time around.  I'm sure it will 
show up as soon as I hit send again but here goes anyway.

Charlie


> As far as chain, we sold Stihl and Oregon.  Most of the chain we sold was 
> chipper chain or what we called "square tooth" chain.  I don't think we 
> ever sold a replacement "safety chain".   The Stihl chain was the best but 
> we sold more Oregon than anything else....and it is fine chain.  We bought 
> many rolls at a time and cut our own....more profit that way.  The only 
> complaint we ever had with square tooth was that when it struck a rock, 
> you had to grind the tooth way back to get the corner square again.  Just 
> getting the inside curve of the tooth sharp did not help...that square tip 
> did the cutting and it had to be sharp.  This meant that sometimes we had 
> to grind them way back and folks would complain that we ground off too 
> much metal.  I hate to think how many hours I have spent using an electric 
> chain grinder! We had customers that brought 30 chains in at a time for 
> sharpening.  When one dulled they simply removed it and threw it in a 
> bucket full of kerosene then when the bucket was full they brought it to 
> us for sharpening.  This kept it lubricated and helped get the tree rosin 
> off.  As far as chain life, it all depended on how much it was used.  I 
> guess if a homeowner just cut clean wood up off the ground then they might 
> get a couple years use....but we never saw that much.  We sold a lot of 
> chain....due to rocks, nails, and dirt.   We did however sell one type of 
> chain that would easily last several years....carbide chain.  There were 
> two types...chains coated with carbide powder and chains that had carbide 
> teeth brazed onto a regular Stihl chain. The brazed tooth was the best. 
> The powder type was fair until you sharpened it...which removed the 
> carbide and turned it into a regular chain.  I have seen the brazed tooth 
> carbide chains stay sharp even when the bearing pins of the chain wore out 
> and the chain fell apart.  The only drawback to carbide was if one of the 
> brazed teeth popped off....causing two or three more teeth to  jerked off 
> at the same time.   We sold carbide to tree farmers that reported 
> harvesting 15,000 trees before sharpening...as opposed to 500 trees with a 
> regular chain.   We also sold carbide chain to fire departments for use in 
> cutting entry holes in burning buildings.  It was even used by some 
> soapstone miners to saw the stone out of the ground...and scrap metal 
> dealers to chop up aluminum!  We sold a regular 20" chisel tooth #72 chain 
> for $21.00.   You could add a hundred bucks to that price for carbide.
>
> Looks like most of the guys posting on the tractor list have as good luck 
> with Stihl as we did.  I have heard that Jonsered is a good saw but we 
> rarely saw any of them.  Some of the old Echos were good also.  We worked 
> on those occasionally.  Some of the tree farmers here had trouble with 
> their migrant workers trying to run straight gas in their harvesting saws. 
> Some started buying the little $99 Homelite watermelon slicers for harvest 
> figuring if the migrant poured raw gas in it that it was no big loss. 
> They soon went back to running the Stihl.  You just can use a toy to do 
> real work.  We always tried to question a new buyer about what they 
> intended to use the saw for and then sell them a saw maybe one size larger 
> than what they needed.  It was always better to use a bigger saw than the 
> job required than to use one that is underpowered and straining all the 
> time to cut...at least in our opinion.  It seemed to save the owner money 
> on repair bills in the long run.
>
> Well...I've rambled enough.
>
> Gerald
>
>
>