Skip chain....

[mrcaptainbob]

This is part of the my Olympyk experience. Although I have an MS310 with a 20" bar, I also have, but seldom used, this old Olympyk I managed to get a 31" Homelite bar for it and the local Stihl dealer fixed up a skip chiselo chain for it. First time I ever used a saw with a blade that long and first time using a skip chain. Well. I am impressed. I promptly attacked an oak that was about 28". WOW! It virtually melted through it!! Next I did a 35" walnut. I am impressed. This is not intended to be an often used item, but there are situations that I have to get 'creative' with the 20" bar. Doable, but better with proper equipment. Not to mention the 310 is far easier on these old arms than the Olympyk 272. Question...is that the nature of skip chain? Fewer teeth at one time in the wood allows the machine to run faster?

[Ianab]

The ship chain shouldn't be quicker in small wood, but when you are in oversize stuff it should work a lot better.

Reason is that if you tried running full comp chain on 31" bar (with a MS310) and attacking a big oak log, it would tend to bog the saw down. Not enough power to keep all the cutters working. So you have to lift the saw off, and that makes very fine chips, and isn't efficient. With less cutters the saw has enough power to keep each cutter that you have working properly, so it works reasonably well.

In smaller wood it should be slower because there are less, but the saw still has plenty of power to make use of the full comp chain.

If the 31" bar / ship chain cuts faster in ~12" wood, then you need to go back and look at how the 20" chain is sharpened. Maybe rakers need adjusting or something like that. Look at the chips the saw is thowing, if they a decent flakes of wood then the chain is cutting properly. If it's making fine dust, then you have a problem with it.