How to Sharpen a Chainsaw by hand with a file

so you see me use an awful lot of different types of tools lon doing boat work and other things and one of the tools that I use quite often is a chainsaw I just have to use one that fast they cut quickly I can do different things with it even in boat work I can do some ripping cross cutting it's just a great tool to have around I have to keep my chainsaw shop all the time because it's the only way it cuts well does different methods of attaining that but I want to use the oldest method there is the method that was used when chainsaws first came out and that was to file them with a file now there's other ways to go today but this is still the best method to use it's a method that anybody can use at home or otherwise and the bench in the shop and it comes out great if you know what you're doing there's a few technical aspects to it but we're going to cover all of those things so this is the first method like to show you on how we're going to go about it I've got the chains still in the bar on the saw upside down in a very small little stunk voice that's just pounded down into the end of this piece of firewood here and it holds the saw nice and stable the bar doesn't wiggle around the next thing I'm going to have to do is tighten the chain up because you see it's very loose on the bar here and I won't be able to sharpen it like that so I'm going to loosen up the pinch bolts I'm going to take a screwdriver and I'm going to go ahead and tighten it up very tight I'm still able to move the chain but it isn't going to wiggle around when I shop in it the first thing I'd like to do is show you the glasses that I'm using now this is a pair of two 50s and I need two 50s to look at anything up close but then on top of that I got another pair of two 50s that flipped down so I got 500 power here and I can see great and you have to be able to see because if you can't see it you can't show up in it and the next thing I'm going to do is roll the tooth that I want to shop and around I'm going to have it right here in front because that's the most stable position on the whole bar and I've got this piece of wood here with some marks across it this one's at 30 degrees this one's at 25 and this is at 20 I'm going to be using this mock and I'm going to put this piece of wood down there in line with the bar like so done have to be exactly perfect but that's good right there and I'm going to hold the file over that mark so I can tell it's at 30 degrees I'm going to make every effort to hold the file level and get started filing one tooth done some of the important things there is to keep that file in line with that mock across the bar at 30 degrees and keep the file very very level too because you want it 90 degrees to the bar in that respect this is a method I'd be using to tuna so up in the woods if it wasn't damaged too badly now if it was damaged really badly or it had other problems I'd probably take it up to the bench and take it out of the saw and do some work on it right there but this method right here serves the purposes for what we've got to do with this chain just nicely and the chains controlled by the set up and I'm controlling the file myself and uh like I say I'm going to show you a whole bunch more about that stuff when we get up on the bench there now we're up at the bench here and I've got a chain off the chains are on we're going to put it in a little bench vise here now everybody's got a bench vise or a lot of people do and if you do this is the way to go because it holds the chain nice and tight this hand when your stock is controlling the angle of the file as you pass through you're controlling the angle of file with both hands and then as you proceed you're only controlling the angle of the file with your left hand so it's kind of a thing that you acquire after doing it quite a while but anybody can do it and you just have to practice it a little bit and you'll get quite good at it pretty quickly the mocks on the voice that I've got here in black magic marker at 30 degrees to the blade but this blades meant to be sharpened to 25 degrees and conveniently they put these little hash marks on top of the teeth here that shows you what optimum angle it is and you simply file by following that little hash mark like that and the tooth comes out the right angle I need not to push it down too tightly against the driver because you just end up hooking the tooth over too much you have to push back as you file not down and that makes a nice job there's only a few strokes I don't keep track of the amount of strokes because I'm trying to do it visually the length of the tooth the shape of the tooth file away the damage all those things all at the same time it's a matter of using some discretion really as your file here you have to think it over have your points made in your mind and then just do it when you go to file it now some of these files some of these chains have been shopping with a grinder and that can be problematic because the grinder can overheat the teeth and makes them too brittle so when you go to file it it's very difficult to file it the other thing I can say is as you file like this you after we have a little burr that rises up and you can flatten that burr off there just by scraping it like that and get a better look at the at the cutter alright one thing you have to be careful of is that you get the file at the right height in the cup like up or down like this and the right size because if you push the file down too much you're going to get too much of a hook in the face of the tooth if you let the file rise up too much the face of the tooth will be too vertical and it won't cut quite as good if it's got too much of a hook the teeth which is kind of grabby and it's really not safe even to have too much of a hook in the teeth so you have to be able to control that file in that respect and basically you want about 25 or twenty percent of the file sticking above the tooth that'll give you the right approach angle no matter what size file you've got on no matter what size tooth you've got these teeth on this chain right here are very corner II teeth they're called chisel teeth and you've got to file it away until the damage visually is off the front of the tooth there of the approaching edge so what we do is would be very careful about the depth and above the stroke so that it comes out just right now that strokes important for numbers of other reasons because if you stroke and let the file do this it actually chips the teeth off the file and the file doesn't last anywhere near as long so controlling the file is very important the other thing you don't want to do is rotate the file as a file because it just complicates matters too much if you feel like rotating it a little bit in between strokes it's okay but I don't even do that I make almost every stroke with a file in the same rotation and then later on if I want to change the rotation of the file I just tap it a little bit and knock the stuff out of the file and then continue just like that now I'm going to flip the chain around and do the ones on the other side same exact way now I'm finishing up the last tooth on the chain here and it's been pretty easy to do the file a state nice and sharp all the teeth are approximately the same size and same hook so those are done and the next thing I'm going to do is move the chain up into position like so and we're going to consider these little teeth that are in front of the cutoff here and now these are the rakers or the depth gauge teeth and we've got a little gauge here that we put on top of these teeth and I push it up to that tooth and then we just get down and take a look at it and you can see that that little tooth is sticking up above our gauge so we have to file it down until it's even with the top of the gauge now some people file it with that gauge in place but it does file away at the gauge a little bit when you do it and that's not the best thing to do and the other thing with it is is the gauge is a little harder than that teeth so it kind of ruins the file at the same time so what you do is you take a look at it you take it off you file a little bit like so nice and flat straight across same as the other teeth you have to file the tooth the same direction that you filed the cutter because if you don't it'll chatter like like this no good so we file it down like that put the gauge back on it again take another look maybe a stroke of two more take a look perfect now that tooth is nice and flat on the top but it's got a little corner on the very front of it right there so what we want to do is just take off file and round that little corner off like so without affecting the height and without touching the cutter and then once all those rakers have been done like that the chain is ready to install

Channel: Tips from a Shipwright

Views: 2,970,998

Rating: 4.8170218 out of 5

Keywords: chainsaw, sharpening, tools, wood, working, boats, cutting, craftsman, lumber, Wood Carving (Industry), Chainsaw (Product Category), sharpen, blade, Timber Framing (Lighthouse Construction Material), Lumber (Industry), Lumberjack (Profession)

Id: GFMUYWUqVYc

Length: 9min 31sec (571 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 07 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/DasND]

Watched the whole thing and I don't even have a chainsaw... Love the narration, definitely grampa material that guy!

[u/SigP]

Very timely video. I am needing to sharpen my chainsaw blade and didn't have a clue how to do it. This guy is a good teacher.

[u/tupac_is_still_alive]

Does anyone else think he looks like George Carlin?