Where is the best place to buy reels of chain. What is your choice of brand?
William
The best place is the one that has what you want when you want it for a good price, My preference of chain is Windsor 50A chisel chain. I have a round ground SANDVIK 50A chisel chain here somewhere.
Jeff Sikkema at http://www.snssawshop.com cuts a good deal on bulk chain or you can try Commercial Cutters Direct at http://www.commercialcutters.com.
Oregon chain has always worked well for me but Windsor(another Blount/Oregon brand) and Carlton are respectable brands also. Stihl chain is a little harder but it doesn`t justify the huge price in my mind. Sabre chain, if you can find it is excellent.
Russ
I've never done rolls of chain, I don't use enough to make it viable. I did, however, just get a box of 18 loops of chain from Jeff Sikkema. For a couple different saws, and this should last me through the summer I hope. I've been getting a .325 chisel chain from him that is equal in hardness to Stihl RS in my opinion, and for half of what my local Stihl dealer charges. I'm not sure but it might be Carlton, ask Jeff. I don't care what name is on it, I trust Jeff to send me good stuff and he hasn't let me down yet.
I have rarely been happy with Oregon chains, too soft. :-/
I'd like to see a hardness test done on the different brands of chain.
That would be a good one for Sawmill & Woodlot.
Maybe I should start buying more carlton brand chains for my saws, the oregon chains are just too dang soft for me.I've had a chain or two that wouldnt even stay sharp for a whole cut through 6" dia. saplings, the chain was an oregon go figure. The carlton chains stay sharp better than oregon chains in the warm weather of florida better than Oregon chain does, I think the oregons were made for colder weather operation because of their softness. I never really though about the hardness of the metal before but there is a difference now that yo uguys brought it up.
Kevin,
I have been thinking the same thing. We have a hardness tester at work, i will have to see if it could be set up to do saw tooth. If it can, i would be willing to run some samples, if i could get some help locating different brands.
Of course, i would need full loops of 3/8 .050 with 72 driver :D
I will check into it next week.
Rob,
PM me or email me with your mailing address if you are serious about this, I would be willing to invest twenty dollars for an unbiased comparison. I could be talked into supplying a Stihl RS chain (which will most likely be your baseline for grading all the others).
I get 100' rolls from Bailey's. www.baileys-online.com
Their Woodsman Pro chain is as good as any other brand out there. 100' is about $200-$220 depending on what size you need.
I buy all my chain here where I work. If you are looking for 100ft rolls, let me know what kind you wnat and I will check price for you and I will also check to see whats on special.
Hunter
Woodsman Pro is Carlton isn`t it?
Any chain that dulls when making a 6" cut in clean would has either been damaged or improperly sharpened. Even when Oregon was selling Cord Cutter chain with no chrome it would not dull anywhere near that quickly. I don`t mean to offend with that statement but if you find yourself in this scenario, you need to ask yourself why.
Russ
Oh BTW, it`s not the hardness of the base metal in the chain but the thickness of the chrome plating that determines the length of staysharp. With the thicker chrome of the Stihl chain you can possibly maintain a working corner close enough to sharp to cut effectively, longer than you could with an improperly sharpened Oregon that will seem to go dull as soon as it touches wood. To each their own. I prefer two loops of Oregon for the price of a single loop of Stihl chain and I`ve never had an issue with sharpness or durability once I learned how to file properly.
Russ
Woodsman Pro is Carlton chain and that is what I use on my firewood processer it seems to run longer between sharpenings than Oregon or Stihl chain. I would like also to see someone do a test to compare chain hardness.
:) ya ain't gona belive this, the door bell just rang.(it Dark here) and there was the fed-ex man. 1 roll of 20RC woodsman pro and a bunch of bars. the spool was 199.99 and a free file guide. ordered a bunch of the carlton Pro-champ bars. 19.95 each. didn't think could go wrong? 34" bars for 24.95, well tell me. Duh---Duane ;)
$24.95 for a 34" bar, well I think thats avery good deal on bars.
Hi Wiam
My suggestion would be madsens they will usuaslly beat baileys prices that I have seen in the past you run acrossed a special from them in any kind of chisel or round file chain for only $189.00 for 100' foot role! There web is www.madsens1.com/mainmnu.htm There prices are very competitive and seen they will beat allot of other peoples prices!
Preston