Stihl Hexa chain

[BLACKOUT]

Oregon especially. Stihl square cuts okay out of the box but Oregon has top beaks and a curved top plate, it feels dull, but after a grinding it’s as good as stihl and faster/smoother than round ground or filed.

This! I cannot believe what passes for acceptable from Oregon. Stihl isn’t perfect out of the box, but I’ve not bought a loop yet that’s full of top beaked cutters like Oregon.

 

[Squareground3691]

It depends. The old stihl files lasted me a LONG time. Newer files not so long. That's why I have a hard time paying $20 for one.
I don't want to buy a dozen just to try it.

Vallorbe are my fav, buy them by the dozen, my usual place i buy them, are out of stock right now .

 

[blades]

Work hardened chains are really hard on files . have to use a diamond to get past hardening then the standard steel units. Deal with this kind of thing all the time.

 

[isaaccarlson]

Work hardened chains are really hard on files . have to use a diamond to get past hardening then the standard steel units. Deal with this kind of thing all the time.

That's why I originally bought a grinder. I was finding lots of objects in trees and trying to file through all the work hardened teeth was getting old fast. The grinder goes right through it and is the same every time. Faster too. It's easy to remove just a few thousandths off a tooth when touching up a chain.

 

[davidwyby]

Yes. I got a $75 wood turners wonders wheel that is pretty coarse and it cleans things right up and does not heat.

Now I kinda want a narrower finer one for speedier stuff.

 

[isaaccarlson]

This is one of my round ground .325 work chains as I grind them before putting them into circulation. Nothing crazy, but it's pretty fast. This picture was taken before I filed the rakers down. They're generally low enough that when you look at it head-on you can see pretty much the whole top plate. It seems to be the sweet spot for my spiced up 350 in hardwood. I don't have a softwood grind because I don't cut too much of it.



Stihl claims a 10% improvement with hexa, but it is misinformation because they claim it is easier to file correctly with and that is what is supposed to give the 10% improvement. 10% is nothing when someone's sharpening ability can easily make a difference of 200% or more. I have seen/worked with tree services where the chains would smoke in the cut AFTER they sharpened them, and they would not listen when I tried to help. A sharp chain is the biggest difference on a saw, because even a powerful saw will not cut with a dull chain.

 

[davidwyby]

Quote of the century.

 

[MG2186]

This is one of my round ground .325 work chains as I grind them before putting them into circulation. Nothing crazy, but it's pretty fast. This picture was taken before I filed the rakers down. They're generally low enough that when you look at it head-on you can see pretty much the whole top plate. It seems to be the sweet spot for my spiced up 350 in hardwood. I don't have a softwood grind because I don't cut too much of it.

View attachment 366790

Stihl claims a 10% improvement with hexa, but it is misinformation because they claim it is easier to file correctly with and that is what is supposed to give the 10% improvement. 10% is nothing when someone's sharpening ability can easily make a difference of 200% or more. I have seen/worked with tree services where the chains would smoke in the cut AFTER they sharpened them, and they would not listen when I tried to help. A sharp chain is the biggest difference on a saw, because even a powerful saw will not cut with a dull chain.

And they wonder why their saws are always blown up too

 

[farmer steve]

I bought a hexa chain Tuesday just for the heck of it. I'm just a firewood hack so if it's not that great I'll just go back to regular chains.I only handfile so I'll figure out the hexa file I guess. Probably gonna go on the 400 since I haven't been needing the 462 as of late.

 

[davidwyby]

You could sharpen it with a regular knife or triangle file…and play with the angles ;-D