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Post by mrsonde on Nov 10, 2018 17:34:24 GMT 1
I was cutting up an oak tree from the beach this morning when my neighbour leaned over the fence and asked me round to see his new purchase: a self-sharpening chainsaw (an electric Oregon.) Wtf??! I thought - there's no end of suckers. But he showed me this astonishing invention in operation - cutting a butt as easy as you please, then blunting the blade in some soil and grit, so that it was so blunt it wouldn't even get through the outer bark. Then he flicked a switch and ran the motor with a shower of sparks spewing out for about twenty seconds. Hey presto - it sliced through the butt like a knife through butter again.
I still can't quite believe this. I don't know how many days of time I've spent over the past 40 years manually filing my chainsaws into half-decent sharpness again - it's a real chore, though if you do it right there's something of a Zen-like meditativeness about it. This clever invention - basically, reversing the design of the teeth - is simply amazing: why has no one ever thought of it before?
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Post by jonjel on Nov 14, 2018 15:37:30 GMT 1
If you have a link I would like to see more detail on that. Can you retro fit the chains to any saw? . I somehow doubt that but tis worth asking. I am a 3 chainsaw + one dead one household.
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Post by mrsonde on Nov 14, 2018 16:39:25 GMT 1
If you have a link I would like to see more detail on that. Can you retro fit the chains to any saw? . I somehow doubt that but tis worth asking. I am a 3 chainsaw + one dead one household. My neighbour said he saw it on YouTube - I can't find the one he mentioned, but this, although it's a different, smaller model, gives you an accurate idea: The design of the chain is significantly different, as no doubt you surmised. However, I think on investigation that retrofitting may well be possible, with a replacement bar and this stone gadget: I'm going to get one, for the lighter stuff - I get all my firewood from fallen trees off my local beach, cutting them in situ into portable lengths. I'll use this new method at home, cutting them into log size, and let you know the down and dirty. In the meantime, an old-timer showed me this method some years ago: I use it in the field with a battery drill - it's very quick and effective once you get the hang of it. I made myself a little clamp that goes round the bar and holds a correctly angled set-square against it, so that my drill follows its guide - the angle is always correct, and it's easy to keep the drill always level by eye or let a side-handle simply run along it. It works, I promise you - a sharp blade in about five minutes.
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Post by mrsonde on Nov 16, 2018 15:27:00 GMT 1
Here's another tip, jj, that if you don't know already you might well appreciate, or your wallet will. Don't waste your money on proprietary Chainsaw Oil. Use Rapeseed Oil instead - it's just as good. In fact, it's much better - it's biodegradable, so you're not polluting wherever you cut, and it's nowhere near as unpleasant to clean your saw. It's more convenient to buy, and it's a fraction of the cost - little more than a pound a litre (it's just labelled "Vegetable Oil" in the supermarket, usually - though check the label: Rape - sometimes it's labelled by the American term canola - is a perfect replacement; other oils get too thin and hot and smoke.)
I've used it for thirty or so years, often in really heavy-duty work indeed - it really is better.
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