2020 Firewood Thread

mountainguyed67

mountainguyed67

Well-known member
Joined
May 31, 2020
Member Number
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179
Loc
Fresno, CA
Got the outside spikes on, I only got it because the inside one doesn’t work well with one mounting point broken off of the case. I wasn’t going to replace the case, or gut it to have it welded. I’ll see how it works next time.

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A recent load I brought down.

Didn’t cut all the way through, then used the loader to break them loose and roll over to finish the cut.

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I’m not going to lie, I bought some of those for my saw and after using them this season so far my feeling is they are the truck nuts of the saw world:flipoff2:


last load I got in May.


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I'll have to take a few pics when I get home. I've got wood everywhere.

I did pick up this little guy a month ago though:
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I could really use a wood processor though. I'm a one man show and its just a non stop thing.
 
mountainguyed67 said:
So the spikes are a nice decoration?
Click to expand...

A decoration, that's it, not so nice. I have cut about 4 cords with them so far and can't really see any advantage to them over the dogs that came on my saw. YMMV. Who's to say, some people like stacks and truck nuts too.

Now for something like my wife's Stihl MS180 that has plastic dogs, maybe some steel dogs would be useful? Or if you cut wood with really thick bark?
 
So in my case they’ll do what I want. Replace the original, since the original isn’t doing its job.
 
What I need practice on is chain sharpening. Mine will get dull, I'll do three passes on each tooth, then the saw will curve in one direction. I'll do one pass with the file on the faulty side, and it will still curve. Take two passes on the other side and curve the other direction. I end up going back and forth for a bit until I can get it to cut straight again. :homer:
 
You’re ahead of me, I haven’t tried sharpening myself. I’m familiar with them cutting crooked if I nick only one side.
 
I have the large outside dawgs on all of my saws as well.

just finished splitting all the wood for this year, now working on next year to stay ahead of it


1/2 of this years pile

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other half of this year

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starting on next year

all the wood going down both sides and the back wall are from one very large fir tree

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woods said:
What I need practice on is chain sharpening. Mine will get dull, I'll do three passes on each tooth, then the saw will curve in one direction. I'll do one pass with the file on the faulty side, and it will still curve. Take two passes on the other side and curve the other direction. I end up going back and forth for a bit until I can get it to cut straight again. :homer:
Click to expand...

I use this for sharpening my saws. I got it at my local Stihl dealer for half of what it was on Amazon
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Just finished putting the 394 back together. Got a fresh batch of chains.

The last batch for grndma. Gona make that 394 earn it fucking keep in the next few weeks getting 3 med/big cedars for myself.

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Wheelerfreak said:
A decoration, that's it, not so nice. I have cut about 4 cords with them so far and can't really see any advantage to them over the dogs that came on my saw. YMMV. Who's to say, some people like stacks and truck nuts too.

Now for something like my wife's Stihl MS180 that has plastic dogs, maybe some steel dogs would be useful? Or if you cut wood with really thick bark?
Click to expand...

agree they do not add much for thin bark, and when cutting straight across a log.
but as mentioned, very thick bark ( some tree are 3+ inches of bark here) or when felling a tree. making a face cut with no dawg on the outside means you have to move to the opposite side of the tree.

066 with 36" bar
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for the small saws with plastic ones
I have this on my little MS170

https://www.amazon.com/HIPA-Bumper-F.../dp/B01N0IJAD2




my old 038M with large bumper spikes and added a full wrap handle as well

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I also added a wrap handle, I’ve been felling the last three years.

Ive heard the big spikes called felling spikes/dogs.
 
mountainguyed67

Am I understanding you correctly that you installed the outside spike as is to go along with the current inside spike? In your pictures, they obviously don’t match... they are supposed to.

With a self-feeding chain, I can see you getting your saw bound up and possibly throwing a chain with that mid-matched spike set-up. At the very least you will be cutting diagonals when you are dogged in.

Dual spikes help tremendously with control and fatigue on big saws.
 
woods said:
What I need practice on is chain sharpening. Mine will get dull, I'll do three passes on each tooth, then the saw will curve in one direction. I'll do one pass with the file on the faulty side, and it will still curve. Take two passes on the other side and curve the other direction. I end up going back and forth for a bit until I can get it to cut straight again. :homer:
Click to expand...


Nothing is better for chain sharpening than more practice.

One tip is to quit counting strokes and sharpen each tooth until sharp. You will feel a difference in the file drag when the tooth is ready. Then use the raker gauge to adjust the depth of your rakers for each tooth. It sounds tedious, but it is the proper process and is much faster than a slow chain.

Don’t be afraid to remove material while filing. You are not conserving chains, you are cutting wood.

Once you have figured out how to sharpen a chain, you will have ZERO patience for a bad chain.
 
NPKennny said:
mountainguyed67

Am I understanding you correctly that you installed the outside spike as is to go along with the current inside spike?
Click to expand...

No. The inside spike is almost useless because the upper mounting point is broken off the case. I’m still going to have only one spike, it’ll just be outside instead of inside. If I want both sides to have compatible spikes I’ll have to replace the case, or gut the case so it can be boiled to get rid of impurities, then have the broken piece welded back on. I’m not gonna go through all that trouble. If one spike was good before, one spike should be good now.
 
Doing some more cleaning up at our mountain place. Some wasn’t solid, and went to the stay there for campfire wood pile.

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Wheelerfreak said:
I use this for sharpening my saws. I got it at my local Stihl dealer for half of what it was on Amazon
Click to expand...

I have always sharpened by hand, but after trying one of those a few months ago I haven't free hand sharpened once. They are great! Made by Pferd.
 
I will agree on the Stihl/Pferd sharpeners. It almost makes it foolproof. If you can put the saw in a vice where you can concentrate on getting the sharpener perpindicular to the bar it works even better. After you get the hang of using it you will notice even a new unused chain can be touched up and made better. I also don't worry about counting strokes. If you don't remove enough material to get the top corner of the tooth back in shape it's still not sharp.
 
woods said:
Really? 24". My 355 has an 18 so I figured this was a bit of a step up. :confused:
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I run a 24" on my 455 rancher with ported muffler and carb turned up. 372 is twice the saw a 455 will ever be.
Guess it all depends on what/how you're using it. I dream of a big saw with 28 to 32" bar, but I'm 6'4 and short bars kill my back.
 
Wheelin66bronco said:
I run a 24" on my 455 rancher with ported muffler and carb turned up. 372 is twice the saw a 455 will ever be.
Guess it all depends on what/how you're using it. I dream of a big saw with 28 to 32" bar, but I'm 6'4 and short bars kill my back.
Click to expand...

Just bucking up some larger stuff that I'm going to have dropped. The 18" just wasn't going to be able to do it.

Iunno. All I do is firewood.
 
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