HELP! Square beginner

[Sloughfoot]

I played with Square Ground chains. Bought, sharpened, reprofiled from round file, and all showed improvements over the commonly used round file. My opinion is that is is not so much better that I would invest in a machine to SG. Use a file, achieve the desired profile, and if you're like me you'll go back to round files soon after. Round takes me no time at all to sharpen a chain. SG and I have to apply myself, and I'm only cutting firewood, not carving some masthead on a ship. You might get a few seconds faster cutting, but really so what. Cutting a 16" length of wood is 1/10 of the effort in picking it up, loading and unloading it into my trailer, splitting it, picking it up again and stacking it again.

My square filing is only marginally faster, too. Biggest difference and probably why square is popular with fallers is how much straighter it cuts.

 

[Squareground3691]

My square filing is only marginally faster, too. Biggest difference and probably why square is popular with fallers is how much straighter it cuts.

Cleaning up dutchman’s and under cuts to ,

 

[Woodpecker]

Cleaning up dutchman’s and under cuts to ,

Bingo! One of many benefits I enjoy over round. There is a sweet spot where it’s just as durable and faster than round. What that sweet spot is though is highly dependent on the conditions and wood each person cuts.

Here in Michigan I use square on everything but my top handle saws with the exception of the Stihl RSpro which I run with the factory round profile until it’s time to sharpen. Then onto the Simington it goes. If I had to hand file there’s no way in hèll I’d mess with square. With the grinder I can usually touch up a chain in 5 maybe 10 minutes at the most on a rainy shop day.

Having said that I’m an arborist who cuts clean (well clean until I find metal) yard trees 95% of the time. Square is a very minor business expense for me, and I love when the saws are just singing through the wood as fast and smooth as butter. For the average firewooder, or heck, even hardwood feller it probably doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for the extra expense unless you’re just an enthusiast about a fast smooth saw. In which case you can get somewhat similar results with round if you put your mind to it.

 

[Sloughfoot]

Bingo! One of many benefits I enjoy over round. There is a sweet spot where it’s just as durable and faster than round. What that sweet spot is though is highly dependent on the conditions and wood each person cuts.

Here in Michigan I use square on everything but my top handle saws with the exception of the Stihl RSpro which I run with the factory round profile until it’s time to sharpen. Then onto the Simington it goes. If I had to hand file there’s no way in hèll I’d mess with square. With the grinder I can usually touch up a chain in 5 maybe 10 minutes at the most on a rainy shop day.

Having said that I’m an arborist who cuts clean (well clean until I find metal) yard trees 95% of the time. Square is a very minor business expense for me, and I love when the saws are just singing through the wood as fast and smooth as butter. For the average firewooder, or heck, even hardwood feller it probably doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for the extra expense unless you’re just an enthusiast about a fast smooth saw. In which case you can get somewhat similar results with round if you put your mind to it.

Before it dawned on me to get the angle and corner back with the flat side of the file first and then sharpen it, I wasted a lot of time and dulled a lot of files. Takes me about the same time as round does now. You're right though, 5 times more $ for a double bevel has a sting.

 

[Sloughfoot]

When the fashion show starts he can worry about it.

The fashion show never ended.

 

[Jusgunn3]

I bought a roll and a half or so of square that I am now contemplating selling after reading up on the SG chains. I am in California and cutting mostly oaks and a lot of dirty ones.

 

[Squareground3691]

I bought a roll and a half or so of square that I am now contemplating selling after reading up on the SG chains. I am in California and cutting mostly oaks and a lot of dirty ones.

What chain is it , ?

 

[Jusgunn3]

H83 3/8" pitch, .063 gauge

A high-performance, low-vibration chain with square-corner chisel" cutters for high-production cutting of clean wood. Round ground cutters an standard sequence

www.husqvarna.com