What’s the one tip, trick or piece of knowledge you wish you’d been told?

[Wolverine]

what progressive are ya using Jason ?

They are the same technique as the old Carlton File-O-Plate.

 

[davidwyby]

Get the saw up, yer face down, get yer specs on, put the file in the hooks match the angles, watch n feel what yer doin. Go slow while you’re learning. Just like learning to shoot.

 

[jetsam]

Chainsaw Things It Took Me Too Long To Learn:

I wish I hadn't spent 30 years saying "It's good enough to cut firewood" and "I've been doing this so long, of course I know how to file" instead of learning what a cutter should look like. Pride and stupidity are very closely correlated.

Instead of filing the raker on an old chain until it hopefully cuts right, you can just measure the angle between the cutter and the raker. It's consistent, and you get to pick the angle that works best for you. (FOP-style gauges are a good option if you want consistency and speed over consistency and flexibility.)

Cleaning air filters in just warm water and dish soap is better than just banging them out. The ultrasonic cleaner works great too.

Everyone says you can't put a long bar on a small displacement limbing saw, but it's your back. Are you really going to bury the limbing saw's bar in oak? Probably not! Less bending over is good.

Speaking of backs, bring your splitting tools to the woods unless you have a bucket loader or such. Don't lift a bunch of big ass rounds just because you can. Split the easy stuff where it lies and then pick it up.

Wear your earplugs.

Always have two escape routes planned, look at the footing in those escape routes, and be willing to leave the saw if you have to.

Standing dead is very often hollow or punky where your hinge wood should be. Pull it over if you can; expect an unexpected fall direction or barberchair if you can't. Do the bore cut that will become the backcut first, and then you will know something about the condition of the center of the tree.

Be that young person who can learn from people who screwed it up and are sorry now!

 

[Lightning Performance]

Golfballs

 

[Lightning Performance]

I prefer my saplings whole and still standing. Punch the bar right through it.
My back prefers to stand rather than sit.

Good video you posted Mason.
@huskyboy

 

[Mastermind]

Number One Tip for you younger fellas.

When it comes to women......rent. Don't buy.

You can thank me later.

 

[41FanForLife]

Number One Tip for you younger fellas.

When it comes to women......rent. Don't buy.

You can thank me later.

Where da hell wuz this advice when i was a kid???

 

[jetsam]

Where da hell wuz this advice when i was a kid???

They're all rentals, it's just a question of how long the payments last

 

[41FanForLife]

They're all rentals, it's just a question of how long the payments last

Probably a very true statement

 

[Cooper264]

Number One Tip for you younger fellas.

When it comes to women......rent. Don't buy.

You can thank me later.

Im still trying to figure out the whole pig thing. lol

 

[Lightning Performance]

Im still trying to figure out the whole pig thing. lol

So you offer rentals?

 

[Cooper264]

So you offer rentals?

Only on days that end in y

 

[Mastermind]

Im still trying to figure out the whole pig thing. lol

We don't rent pigs.

 

[jetsam]

If I rent a pig here, exactly how much of the pig do I have to bring back to get my deposit back?

 

[Mastermind]

If I rent a pig here, exactly how much of the pig do I have to bring back to get my deposit back?

Well we don’t rent pigs and I figure its better to say it right up front cause a man that does like to rent pigs is… he’s hard to stop.

 

[hseII]

Golfballs

I guess nobody realizes Ken is the NakedArborist...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[angelo c]

Number One Tip for you younger fellas.

When it comes to women......rent. Don't buy.

You can thank me later.

if it #ucks, Flys, Floats or eats Oats...its cheaper to RENT

 

[davidwyby]

Simple straight to the point no BS lol. This guys videos helped me get on the right track a few years back as far as round filing goes. @TreeLife helped me out a lot a few years ago as well. His advice on having the right amount of hook for a fast cutting round chain was solid. As far as square goes... I leave that to the more skilled folks lol.

I seem to remember you posted a trick for getting more hook or something out of semi chisel, but now I can’t find it. Care to enlighten? Thanks!

 

[Eduardo K]

Most important ’tips’ for sharpening?

1. know what you want your cutters to look like when finished

Philbert

This has been the best sharpening advice I’ve heard. I’m a nerd and upon reading this the lightbulb went off. I took a few clear pics of the cutters on a new chain and saved them on my phone. I use them as a reference whenever I file. Prior to using referring to the pic of the new cutter, I feel like I was sharpening and adding too much hook to the cutter. The chain would cut, but was way too grabby if you leaned on the bar while in the cut.
I cut dead wood 95% of the time. As I learn more and my understanding for how a chain cuts and and should feel in the cut evolve I’ll develop my own “recipe”. For now the stock cutter setup on a new chain is the blueprint I try to follow when sharpening.

I don’t think this was mentioned and I’ll say it, pre soak your new chains in oil. I must have missed the note on soaking. I started doing that a few months back and noticed a difference in how much cleaner my chain stayed. I was so happy with the result I gave all of my old chains the gasoline bath, scrub, and dry then threw them in the oil for an overnight soak.

 

[jetsam]

This has been the best sharpening advice I’ve heard. I’m a nerd and upon reading this the lightbulb went off. I took a few clear pics of the cutters on a new chain and saved them on my phone. I use them as a reference whenever I file. Prior to using referring to the pic of the new cutter, I feel like I was sharpening and adding too much hook to the cutter. The chain would cut, but was way too grabby if you leaned on the bar while in the cut.
I cut dead wood 95% of the time. As I learn more and my understanding for how a chain cuts and and should feel in the cut evolve I’ll develop my own “recipe”.

+1 on the Philbert advice. If you need to lean on the bar and your cutters look good, you should look up progressive raker maintenance. Filing them to .025" is fine on a new chain and gets worse from there. Ends up cutting like sandpaper at the end of the chain.

Couple deadwood chain tips that I learned by screwing it up:

Stick with semichisel. Full chisel cuts dead hard oak but semi stays sharp longer. I don't think it's a night and day difference, but semi is somewhat better.

Don't gauge your success by pictures on the internet. The guy who posts pictures about how he gets foot long chips by grinding at 45° or whatever- he didn't mention that he is cutting green softwood with the grain, not crosscutting hard dead oak. There's no magic formula to cut like that in dry hardwood.

Give up on thinking that you can buck in such a way that your bar will almost sever the round without kissing dirt. Sure, maybe you can do it almost every time, but almost sucks. Roll that log. Bring a chain, a peavey/cant hook if the tree is that big. (I was taught as a kid to roll the log, then at some point decided I was smarter than that, and it took me a long time to realize that I wasn't!) You can roll a big ass log with a steel handled cant hook.

(not chain tips but they might help you avoid a bad situation) The taller you make the stump, the more chance you will have wood for the hinge on most dead trees. Learn to plunge cut the backcut before the notch and use the plunge cut to see if there is any wood in the middle. If you find an empty or punky middle, pull that sucker over- you cannot predict what way that thing will fall and a barberchair is as likely as not. Always be ready to run, cutting dead isn't near as predictable as cutting healthy trees. Use your hatchet to see how deep punk/rot goes on the outside, assume it is also rotten inside until you lay eyes on the hinge wood.