[AT] Fw: chainsaw ramblings part 2

[Chuck Saunders]

Gerald, it is good to hear from you. I am sorry that your response requires
assistance, though I am grateful that Charlie is able to offer that
assistance.
Thanks for the insight.
Chuck Saunders
Kansas City, MO

On Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 10:08 PM, charlie hill
<charliehill at embarqmail.com>wrote:

> 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
> >
> >
> >
>
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