Skip chain vs standard chain

[bck]

A while back I ordered chain over the phone. I told him to send me a ripping chain and a crosscutting chain for the 36"bar I was getting. The crosscutting chain he sent was a skip chain. I have been using it with no problem until today I broke a few cutters off.
I know that if your saw is on the small side a skip chain would be better but if you have enough saw to pull it ( I am using a 394 ) wouldnt a regular chain cut faster than a skip chain ? 

[Rocky_J]

Accepted wisdom is that skip chain is preferred on bars over 28". I've used full comp all my life until this year when I bought my first roll of skip chain. No noticable difference in cutting times, perhaps a few less cutters allows the saw to keep the rpm up higher. And it's less time to file, especially when you hit tramp metal on the job and you're trying to get the teeth back to a sharp corner so you can get back to work.

I'm currently running RSLK full comp on the 24" bars and the RSLK skip on the 28", 32" and 36".

[sawcollector]

The advantage of skip chain is really only when cutting a large diameter tree, so as Rocky said, for long bars. The chips pile up in the chip channel between the cutters on a large log and skip chain gives them room to accumulate until carried out of the kerf. Not every cutter is pulling chips all the time anyway, so that is why you don't see much difference in time between the 2 chains.

[Al_Smith]

 I have both .I honestly don't see much diff used on these northern hardwoods . They are on 100 plus cc saws though running 36" bars .

Still a 36" loop of chain is not a 5 minute job to file I can attest  to that fact .

[bck]

I guess that if they cut at the same speed then skip chain it is. Thanks ( my file thanks you too )  :D

[Dave Shepard]

Skip chain can be an experience on small brushy cutting, seems more likely to pull the brush around before it gets cut through.

[rebocardo]

> Skip chain can be an experience on small brushy cutting

On my bigger saws I try to avoid using skip chain on anything fairly loose and smaller then 3", limbs and such, the chain will just suck it up into the saw jamming it or throw it back or draw the saw forward.

[Cut4fun]

Here is some testing I did for myself once. Full comp square, full comp square with raker's taken down more, full skip square and full comp semi chisel.
The full comp square was a brand new once sharpened chain, the full skip was half way on cutter, semi chisel was a like new chain.
Over look the blipping of throttle  ;D, some wise  ;) said he couldn't stand it when people blipped the throttles on saws, so guess what I started doing in all my videos  :D.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG_TJRrsY18

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naHdKSIOTEg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21GX7mLg_gA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urZCndDIIdo

[Al_Smith]

 
Over look the blipping of throttle  ;D, some wise  ;) said he couldn't stand it when people blipped the throttles on saws, so guess what I started doing in all my videos  :D.

Ha ,I had nearly forgotten  about that .

[bck]

dialup sucks  :(

Took me 3 minutes and 40 seconds to see that you cut through the first log in 28 seconds.  :D

[stonebroke]

I can't tell from the video, Which one was faster? Is  that a pine log ? I wonder if that would make a difference.

Stonebroke

[Cut4fun]

Wood at the time was fresh spruce.
I was trying to come up with a fast chain for bigger wood. Full comp should be faster, but I couldn't get this NEW full comp loop faster then the half used up skip chain.
I figure it had to be because the half used skip was cutting better do to the cutter location being further back and maybe something to do with pulling of chips slowing the full comp chain up. Just guessing on that too.
The full comp loop was getting close then I hit a 4" knot in the last cut with the raker's taken down to throw the timing out the door. But I had fun anyways.