How To Sharpen A Chainsaw By Hand From Garden Equipment Review
Having a sharp blade on a chainsaw not only saves effort and wear on your equipment, but makes using it much easier and more safe. Here are some tips for sharpening your own saw.
Make sure that you have the right size file, common sizes are sizes are 3/16, 5/32 and 7/32 inches in diameter. Idealy, clean the blade with a stiff brush before sharpening.
Check that the teeth have not became chipped, broken, or bent, making them dangerous to use. Most chains have a wear line, once you have reached this point, discard the chain and fit a new chain, otherwise there is a risk it will break while operating your saw.
Ideally secure your chain in an engineers vice, if this is not availabe, either let someone steady the saw or if you are in the field and there is a tree stump or large chunk of wood, make a cut and hold it within the cut.
Find the shortest tooth on the chainsaw and file with the angle of the tooth, file guides are available, if you follow the wear line on the tooth , you should'nt go far wrong. In normal cases providing the chain is not excesivly worn, 2 or 3 strokes of the file should be enough. The file should fit into the tooth precisely, if it does'nt it probably means you have the wrong file size. Sharpen one side of the chain first and then turn the saw around and repeat the process.
Check that the rakers (depth gauge), are at the correct height, the curved hook shaped links between the cutters. if neccesary, file with a flat file.
See video for more information, I would suggest using an engineers vice and depending on experience wearing gloves.
How To Sharpen A Chainsaw By Hand From Garden Equipment Review
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