Square filed Chisel Chain

[Nate Surveyor]

My son recently acquired an old craftsman electric chain saw. (maybe 30 yrs old, blue, and made in USA!) It has a square filed chisel chain. And, a mechanism to sharpen it, on the saw. Somehow, you adjust the sharpener down to HIT the top of the chain, and run it for a bit, and it self sharpens!

I think the saw is an antique. We want to get it all in proper tune, and try it out.

Does anybodyl else have experience with these?

According to what I find on the internet about these, they (in proper order) cut 10-15% faster than a conventional chain, but are a total bear to keep properly sharpened.

Opinions?

Thanks!

N

[Rocky_J]

The chains designed for use with the homeowner saws with the built in 'self-sharpeners' back in the 70s and 80s are nothing like the square filed chisel chain used by professional loggers. It was a gimmick that sold well to people who didn't know any better but it didn't work all that well. It might be neat to save it as a conversation piece but if you wish to do any real cutting with the saw then I suggest removing the self sharpener gizmo and use normal chain.

[Brucer]

Got a friend who collects old saws. He gave me a bunch of chains to sharpen for him and I came a cross a couple of weird-looking chains. Did a bit of research and discovered they were for those "self-sharpening" saws.

The top of the cutter slopes up at a very steep angle. The built in stone is positioned to catch the front edge as the chain goes around the drive sprocket so there is clearance behind the cutting edge (just as there is on a normal chain).

The thing that they didn't tell you in the ads is that this chain has to be manually sharpened at regular intervals. Use the built-in stone 5 or 6 times and then hand-file the chain to maintain the gullet. I don't know if anyone made a filing guide that would work with this type of chain. I had a good look at my two samples and figured a regular filing guide wouldn't do the job.

I expect a lot of folks bought these saws, used the sharpener until the saw stopped cutting well, and then put them in the back of the garage.

[Al_Smith]

I think they called it barricuda chain and it was nothing but an advertising ploy  because niether the chan or the sharpener worked very well . It's a piece of history worth saving as a conversation piece but not something that  would you benefit from using .

[HolmenTree]

I heard stories from my older brothers who raced saws in the 1960s when they were cutting 10"X10"s in the contests. At the time chisel chain wasn't available yet and all they had was the old 3/8" chipper or DP chain. Some french guy from Quebec was winning all the races with what the brothers figured out later was a barracuda chain.

Willard.