Observations from a noodling chain

[Wilhelm]

As been suggested, it's from the hollow rounds!

Oak bark will also hold a lot of dirt, sand, gravel.

Great idea with that loop.

 

[jakethesnake]

Even super clean bark has some dirt in it. I’m guessing otherwise falling chains would never go dull. I’ve used the same chain for a few days clearing trees without touching dirt or hollow logs. Eventually production slows and I file or swap it. That specific chain and bar I only use to fall trees. Then I switch to a shorter bar saw. I think rain even splashes a little dirt up on the trunk and then the bark grows or consumes it. Heck hickory is a good example.
Even smooth bark maple eventually the chain dulls. I’m just guessing here but I’d say it’s just embedded grit

 

[Duane(Pa)]

Band mills have de-barkers to make "blades" last longer. Might be something to it? IDK, lots of bark in a bucking cut to though...

 

[Wilhelm]

Yesterday while sitting in the sun burning branches in my back yard I was amazed how much sand/dirt is on my house's tin roof - the whole thing is basically brown colored instead of green.
It has not rained in about three weeks, and these past two weeks we had strong wind.

All that fine sand/dirt carried by strong wind is also going through the woods, hitting trees and embedding dirt into the bark.

But, that much wear on the chain most likely came from noodling through those hollow rounds.

 

[Wolverine]

Band mills have de-barkers to make "blades" last longer. Might be something to it? IDK, lots of bark in a bucking cut to though...

Has to be that and the rot. Those cutter pics from milling had lot's more time in the wood, but that wood had zero rot and maybe cleaner bark. They were mountain tree's and he lives almost at the top of it.

 

[angelo c]

Just the act of cutting wood will dull metal... the "dirt" certainly will just expedite the dulling process...some woods (harder) then others and faster...hickory is a particularly challenging wood for this area

 

[Wolverine]

Just the act of cutting wood will dull metal... the "dirt" certainly will just expedite the dulling process...some woods (harder) then others and faster...hickory is a particularly challenging wood for this area

Main purpose for the post, just curious in what way noodling dulls it differently. Since not X-cutting, I wonder if the rocking motion is less due to not going over rings then softer growth wood. In these couped up times of Covid activity(very slow days at work too), I'm just trying to learn new things and strike up a conversation. Like mentioned, years ago I remember lots of noodling do the same thing to another chain but I never took pics. I just filed away the "damage" area and moved along.

About 2 years ago I cut lots of shagbark. It's he1l on chain.

 

[Dub11]

About 2 years ago I cut lots of shagbark. It's he1l on chain.

Come out west and cut some Osage Orange. You'll be hunting for hickory afterwards lol.

 

[angelo c]

Main purpose for the post, just curious in what way noodling dulls it differently. Since not X-cutting, I wonder if the rocking motion is less due to not going over rings then softer growth wood. In these couped up times of Covid activity(very slow days at work too), I'm just trying to learn new things and strike up a conversation. Like mentioned, years ago I remember lots of noodling do the same thing to another chain but I never took pics. I just filed away the "damage" area and moved along.

About 2 years ago I cut lots of shagbark. It's he1l on chain.

im gonna go out on a limb and say its "LESS" abusing or dulling- noodling- that is...because its going "With the grain" and not "through" it.... seems to cut softer for me but clogs the rest of the saw up. Thought provoking questions here today

 

[angelo c]

Come out west and cut some Osage Orange. You'll be hunting for hickory afterwards lol.

don't want to say we get a "lot" of Osage but we get some and more Mulberry which is a kissing cousin to Osage...the Shag that I got was horrid and took forever to season...smelled great to burn...but wasn't worth all the effort. Ill take the easy Ash all day long and be happy

 

[kingOFgEEEks]

Interesting observation about the raker not being polished. I wonder if it's because the noodling action keeps the chain up in the grain and engaged? Instead of bouncing in and out and making normal chips, the chain keeps peeling along the grain of the wood and rides through?

 

[kingOFgEEEks]

And then that gets me thinking about raker height for noodling. Low rakers don't seem to bother me when noodling. Possibly because they're doing less?

 

[angelo c]

And then that gets me thinking about raker height for noodling. Low rakers don't seem to bother me when noodling. Possibly because they're doing less?

softer "With" the grain ? Maybe ?

 

[Wolverine]

Interesting observation about the raker not being polished. I wonder if it's because the noodling action keeps the chain up in the grain and engaged? Instead of bouncing in and out and making normal chips, the chain keeps peeling along the grain of the wood and rides through?

And then that gets me thinking about raker height for noodling. Low rakers don't seem to bother me when noodling. Possibly because they're doing less?

Yes, I think the same. A steady cutting action seems to make sense in my mind. Cutters constantly engaged through the wood in the same position.

 

[huskihl]

And then that gets me thinking about raker height for noodling. Low rakers don't seem to bother me when noodling. Possibly because they're doing less?

The chain loads up with noodles. The rakers have to work harder to get to the solid wood.
Same thing bucking with a longer bar. An aggressive chain calms down once you get 32” of a 36”’bar buried

 

[legdelimber]

Ive seen 80lb litho label cut grooves in a decurler bar after the shaft walked out of a pillow bearing with the set screws left loose. So to me at least it doesn't seem to be a far stretch that wood could do this to a chain.

Oh and we have backlit dot glasses now at work

What sort of brighteners, fillers, oxides, minerals etc are in that stock?
For anyone wondering why I ask, it's abrasive and hard.
Anyone remember (as a kid) how worked up Mom got if you took her good sewing scissors and cut paper? Brighter or smoother & heavier the paper, the quicker it dulled scissors.

I worked a little bit for an outfit that made ink conversions (grease base to water) for corrugated presses.
Picked up (and mostly forgotten now) a little bit of what got wore out from mashing paper betwixt two big cylinders. The engineers liked the way I ran wiring, so occasionally got to spend time seeing and hearing what happened with the whole process.
Smaller machine shop I worked in before that, we made a fair bit of repair & wear parts for labeling applicators and packaging ( both plastics, metalicized or not and papers) equipment. Some ink & adhesive metering bars and such stuff. High voltage discharge web etching (so the ink stays put on plastic bags) reworked the contact bars.
Built frames for radio isotope de-static sections for mylar web handling.
Dragged steel off of the truck, cut it to size, milled , turned, drilled, threaded and tapped, welded, assembled, painted crated and helped load it onto the truck and waved by by to it.
Heck, once or twice followed it and helped install.
Got to see some interesting stuff over the years.
A favorite was the snack food co that brought product samples afterwards!
Motor yacht owners Captains tended to bring good beer though. (Fla, marine fabrication for a few months)
Between all of that and a bit of OPE, I got to see things wear out, corrode, break down and just plain old jam/foul up.
So folks might of noticed I'm just curious about the whole danged world of doohickeys and how they work!

Makes me ask some odd questions and do that, talking too much thing, sometimes though.
sorry guys.

 

[Wolverine]

What sort of brighteners, fillers, oxides, minerals etc are in that stock?
For anyone wondering why I ask, it's abrasive and hard.
Anyone remember (as a kid) how worked up Mom got if you took her good sewing scissors and cut paper? Brighter or smoother & heavier the paper, the quicker it dulled scissors.

I worked a little bit for an outfit that made ink conversions (grease base to water) for corrugated presses.
Picked up (and mostly forgotten now) a little bit of what got wore out from mashing paper betwixt two big cylinders. The engineers liked the way I ran wiring, so occasionally got to spend time seeing and hearing what happened with the whole process.
Smaller machine shop I worked in before that, we made a fair bit of repair & wear parts for labeling applicators and packaging ( both plastics, metalicized or not and papers) equipment. Some ink & adhesive metering bars and such stuff. High voltage discharge web etching (so the ink stays put on plastic bags) reworked the contact bars.
Built frames for radio isotope de-static sections for mylar web handling.
Dragged steel off of the truck, cut it to size, milled , turned, drilled, threaded and tapped, welded, assembled, painted crated and helped load it onto the truck and waved by by to it.
Heck, once or twice followed it and helped install.
Got to see some interesting stuff over the years.
A favorite was the snack food co that brought product samples afterwards!
Motor yacht owners Captains tended to bring good beer though. (Fla, marine fabrication for a few months)
Between all of that and a bit of OPE, I got to see things wear out, corrode, break down and just plain old jam/foul up.
So folks might of noticed I'm just curious about the whole danged world of doohickeys and how they work!

Makes me ask some odd questions and do that, talking too much thing, sometimes though.
sorry guys.

Even "softer" paper, after a year of running roll upon roll upon roll, will cut through chit. It's not uncommon at all.

 

[Duane(Pa)]

I had an ancient hay baler. The twine (made from plant fibre) cut deep grooves in metal parts it rode across under tension. There were even ceramic guides for the twine that it cut into after decades of seasonal use. The day it left here was glorious. It was just shot! I learned all about hay balers though since nearly everything on it had been repaired once or twice in the time I had the damn thing. Interesting that the plunger rode on hard maple slides. They yielded to the angle iron they rode on, but were adjustable to compensate. Back to noodles now...

 

[CR888]

Well the three main ways to cut timber with a chainsaw are to crosscut, noodle and rip/mill. Each technique places different loads on both saw & chain. Without going into details of why for each cutting style its just different. Natural timber fibers are constructed in a certain manner. Noodling is easily the easiest on both chain cutting edge & saw.