quote:

Originally posted by Oz_Shadow:
Nice. What brand of chain is good for it? I've only used your basic Oregon brand.

I find factory Stihl or Echo chains to be far superior to Oregon in regards to staying sharp.

I have no experience with the newer Huskie saws. Mine is a Huskie 50 from 1983. Still tears through wood. Been cutting a down oak tree the last month and no problems. Biggest issue I ever had was 2 years ago the rubber anti vibe grommets wore out. The repair shop had to call the factory for new ones because there were none in the US. I guess this doesn't answer your question but as long as it is a Husquvarna saw I say you got a good one.

Back to the chain and chain length issues. Almost any saw will pull the longer chains. Just might not cut well with them. Or it will cut when sharp, but slow way down as it gets a little dull. Probably cheaper to have a few chains than to buy a new saw. Or it could be how it was sharpened. Too much depth gauge filing will tend to let the cutter bite off more than it can chew. If you do your own sharpening, you can adjust for that. Just don't assume that if you can cut with the longer chain, its good to go.

I tend to run a big saw with a short bar because it seems to work well. If you don't need the extra length, running it will be a pain. I gave away my top handled saw to my son. They're dangerous but very easy to use. I always wanted an 020T just because they seemed to be great saws. I don't cut much because I'm too old. And my 660M is too much saw for me to handle. Just like cars, big engines do have their advantages. Guess my sons will fight over my chainsaw and blades/chains. Even old saws if professional grade last nearly forever. Homeowner saws don't.

Use genuine Stihl engine oil, and quality chain oil and it will help. No one here made the distinction between felling and bucking. The latter is just hard on the chain and engine. Its why most cutters have more than one saw. For limbing, most any length will do. Well, if the saw will start.

quote:

Originally posted by rburg:
Even old saws if professional grade last nearly forever. Homeowner saws don't.

Use genuine Stihl engine oil, and quality chain oil and it will help. No one here made the distinction between felling and bucking. The latter is just hard on the chain and engine. Its why most cutters have more than one saw. For limbing, most any length will do. Well, if the saw will start.

My family has several Stihl's from the early 90's that are far from professional grade (025 and 027), and both are still running and getting plenty of use. The homeowner comment is a bit shit though. Most homeowner saws don't last, not for quality, but is large part due to maintenance, use, storage, and quality of fuels by their owners.

I assume you mean 2 Stroke mix when you referenced engine oil?

While bucking is significantly harder on the saw, that is because felling only requires one or two cuts, whereas bucking can require dozens or more cuts, contact with foreign objects, and the pressure you put on the saw. There are really good saws that fill a niche that work well felling, bucking and limbing. They typically have 40-50 CC engines, under 13.5 lbs, and a 18" or 20" bar seems pretty optimal.

I used to fell trees in college for a timber company and I would carry a spare blade, but I could go a week without changing it unless I hit a bullet, barb wire fence or a foreign object. Felling saws is more about power, blade length and chain. I never minded Oregon chains, but will agree their cutter teeth are soft, but sharpen easier.

Oregon makes a zillion different chains from mandated home owner safety ones to serious ones you can use for real work. If you actually cut serious amounts of wood what chain you use is something you select with forethought on the project. The average chain you pick up in US retail is not a serious cutting chain. But for the average homeowner it truly probably doesn't matter. I have Stihl saws that have harvested hundreds of thousands of board feet of wood that are fine. Chains on the other hand are lucky to last more than a day or two in my woods unless they are carbide which is what I normally use. It has been my experience in real work saws that Stihl is better than Husky, but that's just my experience. I have an older one with a 36" bar that has lasted pretty well but my early experiment with the smaller ones did not go well. Consumer saws on the other hand are built to a specific price point and you get what you pay for and mostly they aren't up to real work. FWIW.

chain saw chains are one of the most complicated items there are... guy at the local landscape tool repair place tried to explain it to me a few years ago.... more complicated that figuring out the trajectory of a rocket launch...

True Chain Saw story... Few years ago I bought a Husky 55 and used it for about a year... friend who is always in need of a tool was going out of town to help a friend of his clear out an overgrown field and his saw was broke and asked if he could borrow mine and of course I did... I even gave him a new chain because the one on the saw was getting a little dull... when he brought it back the next week he said the chain I bought would not work and so he had taken it to a local shop and they put a new one on..? the bar did look a little different but I was in a hurry and just put the saw away... 6 months later I get the saw out to cut some wood... and look at it and what the %$#@? This is a Husky 51 not a 55... 'friend' brought a different saw back to me. I called him and he didn't have a clue (which is normal for him)...
here's my point:
just a while back I told this story to an old geezer friend who seems pretty wise.. and he looked at me with a twinkle in his eye and replied:

"Blume, one of the cardinal rules in life is to never loan out your chainsaw... it's just like a woman and it won't come back the same as before."

55 Rancher owner here. Have had it since 2000. I cut approx. 8-12 cords of firewood a year since day one and still going strong. And yes, I have had to replace a few things like clutch, sprocket, needle bearing, bars, filters, spark plugs, and chains. But I consider most of this as regular maint. I do know of a few people that have the same luck with Stihl and probably would not hesitate to own a Stihl either. The Husky brand was the only available brand with a decent price in our small town at the time.

You get what you pay for, notwithstanding the brand.

If you buy a $275 Stihl MS251 and try to do serious work, don't be surprised if it doesn't last. Buy a MS261 for twice that, and you've got a professional grade saw. Stihl does a poor job of differentiating their product line. You have to know what models are home/farm/pro when buying. At least Husqvarna puts "XP" in the model number.

I can remember the day Dad bought his 041AV back in 1977. That saw is a beast, and is still running to this day after harvesting 10 cord per year for two decades. Pro level saw. I have a Swedish made Husqvarna 257 that is also an awesome machine. Even my Stihl 029 is still going strong after 20 years. Both Stihl and Husqvarna make saws to fit a price point.

quote:

I used to fell trees in college for a timber company and I would carry a spare blade, but I could go a week without changing it unless I hit a bullet, barb wire fence or a foreign object.

You forgot to add switching bars because you've got one stuck and don't want to use an axe.

One last thing. For us Americans, note that Husqvarna has three syllables, not four. It should sound like Hoosk-varn-a. I was talking to my son on the phone once, and I kept saying Husk-a-varn-a, and he attempted to correct me. I made a wisecrack about what he knows, and he mentioned he was standing in the middle of Huskvarna, Sweden while I was talking to him, so I decided to accept his pronunciation. Link

The next worst thing to digging holes in the dirt with your saw is starting it and revving high before its warmed up. The heat differential between the piston and cylinder under high revs can score and ruin things.

A quality saw turns at very high RPM, warm your saw up!

quote:

Originally posted by Ripley:
A quality saw turns at very high RPM, warm your saw up!

But don't be fooled into thinking high RPMs is a sign of a good saw. I had a Muck-a-luck way back in the 1970s that ran fast. Didn't last long at all. Oh, I spelled that differently than they do. I think its something like McCoullough. Doesn't matter, their saws are shit.

Saws are something that you throw money at. The more you spend, the better your chances are of getting quality.

Above someone posted that you never loan your saw out. I've never loaned my wife out. Saws always come back broken. If you loan it, just accept that you'll need to buy a new one to replace it. Someone else commented on carbide chains. Yeah, they're good except to sharpen or when a few of the teeth get broken off. They'll still cut locust or osage orange.

Out in the garage I've got a real collection of old chains. They hang on a "peg", the kind I used to have behind the workbench. Be careful, when you get past maybe 10 or so chains hanging on a peg, the peg tends to drop and dump them on the bench. I cut in what used to be a gravel pit. Lots of trees that can't seem to get a hold in the gravel. All the while they were growing, sand was blowing onto the bark, then absorbed into it. Really does the job on chains.

I've heard of hard chrome chains. Never seen one. I'd buy one if I did.

My dad’s Sthil that he used when I was a teenager 30+ years ago is still going. I think it’s a 012.

I bought a Husky 235 myself for the rare occasion I need a saw and it works well enough, but I don’t think it’s even close to that Sthil.

We must have cut thousands of cords of almond wood with it. Wood was our primary heat source, and almond orchards replant their trees every 7 yeArs because that’s when a tree’s production starts to drop. Every orchard is replanting 1/7 of their trees every year and has to get rid of the old trees. They would let us cut for free as long as we pulled the stumps, too.

quote:

Originally posted by Ripley:
The next worst thing to digging holes in the dirt with your saw is starting it and revving high before its warmed up. The heat differential between the piston and cylinder under high revs can score and ruin things.

A quality saw turns at very high RPM, warm your saw up!

Same with running out of fuel at high rpms(and oil that lubricates the bottom end before going into the combustion cylinder. And it's always good to let them idle and cool off for a minute or two before shutting them off.

My old stihl 031 saws are great
I have two and they just never say die
I guess if I outlive them I’ll move into more modern saws

I also have a 455 Rancher with 20" bar. My first one wore out after 15 years and this new one is about two years old. Works every bit as good. I prefer using a skip chain but they can be hard to find. There are a couple of shops on the net that sells them though.

I had a Husq 18 in my shed that sat unused for 10 years until our microburst storm in Dallas. It started on the 2nd pull after all that time. I've spent 20 minutes trying to start a Stihl.

Since we're now doing 'recommendations', here's mine that I use on my old Stihl MS260.

1 - Only use non-ethanol gas.
2 - Let the saw warm up properly before use.
3 - No bar in the dirt.
4 - Keep the bar/blade properly tensioned and sharp.

To address item #4, get one of these and learn how to use it. Now my saw blades are always sharp. Just make sure to buy the right one for your blade pitch. https://www.stihlusa.com/produ...ling-tools/2in1file/

And here's evidence that I occasionally opt to cut things way beyond the recommendations of my 'little' 18" saw. It takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'.

Post hurricane, downed, 27" laurel oak.



Already removed about 40' of tree to get to this point.



Ready for the stump grinder...when he isn't flush with business and hungry for work.

^^^^The MS260 is a professional, forestry grade saw. You should be pleased with it. It has one of the best power to weight ratios of any saw ever made.

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:

1 - Only use non-ethanol gas.
2 - Let the saw warm up properly before use.
3 - No bar in the dirt.
4 - Keep the bar/blade properly tensioned and sharp.

To address item #4, get one of these and learn how to use it. Now my saw blades are always sharp. Just make sure to buy the right one for your blade pitch. https://www.stihlusa.com/produ...ling-tools/2in1file/

I am curious at how many people who regularly use chainsaws actually sharpen their blades them themselves? Given a decent saw blade can easily cost $30, the local sharpener charges $8-10 depending on the blade length. That said, I have been sharpening chainsaw blades since I was 15 after seeing the local Stihl dealer sharpen 5 blades in about 25 minutes, and making $30.

Having said that, I can wholeheartedly agree that the Stihl product linked above is the read deal, and making sharpening blades very easy. I have used at least six or seven other products from Oregon, granberg, and several others that were just slightly better than a handheld file.

IF you are sharpening the teeth without touching the rake, you are wasting your time.

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:
To address item #4, get one of these and learn how to use it. Now my saw blades are always sharp. Just make sure to buy the right one for your blade pitch. https://www.stihlusa.com/produ...ling-tools/2in1file/

I have this from Pferd: https://www.treestuff.com/pfer...p-cs-x-filing-guide/

It is the same tool but less expensive.

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:
..get one of these and learn how to use it. Now my saw blades are always sharp. Just make sure to buy the right one for your blade pitch. https://www.stihlusa.com/produ...ling-tools/2in1file/

Yes. A simple tool that addresses sharpening chain cutters correctly. Quick to use, it doesn't take much to get the job done. I'll rotate the round files a quarter turn each use, the square file a half turn.

Throw in a stump vise and a Sharpie if you want, good to go.