Finally got mine out and tried it. Should have started with an already square chain I think. Helps to remove the shoulder of the link on the down side before hand. It is not idiot proof like a husky roller. Corner to corner
and feed pressure are tricky to modulate, at least starting out with a messed up round chain. A setup with two rollers like a husky would be cool. Different rollers for different angles.
I ended up with a little side beak as others pictured and a very shallow=fast inside top plate angle. I ended up with a blunt top plate angle witch translates to a blunt side cutter…I think this is contradictory. The aggressive hook makes it want to feed and grab a big bite but the blunt side cutter struggles to shear it.
I ran it 24” on a ported 2156 with an 8 pin. Should have gone 7 but was in a hurry. I tried it in dry hard pitchy Aleppo pine first…probably the most difficult thing I have to cut here…not as hard/dirty as eucalyptus but tougher, especially if there are knots. It was on/off bite/grabby/slip. Rakers soft setting with husky progressive. I need to try it with a 7 and a different bar, I have had this bar slip/grab like that before with cowboy skip.
However, I also tried it in some soft ponderosa pine. It seemed to haul pretty good! I just made the two cuts real quick so as not to irritate the neighbors too much. I suspect it will be good in clean softer wood. Madsens article points out that most get a beak when filing and that combined with the ATOP inside angle makes for a fragile cutter…a ground chain with closer to stock angles would be better for most of the junk I cut.
My background with square: a while back I got a 3/8” square ground from
@chiselbit and didn’t do very well resharpening it freehand. Last night I resharpened some factory square .404 successfully. Lot easier with the bigger chain. I may try to do this .375 chain again freehand with angles I think are more appropriate. I have a square ground by
@Armbru84 and another by
@Benwa I can compare to, should be fun.
I have an old Granberg and just ordered some 3 sided files to try in it…I think that will be a better setup. More flexibility on angles, do skip chain, etc.
