The Forestry Forum

A while back I got some safety chains on ebay real good deal only been used once 72 dl 50ga I got 21 of them for like $121.00 Is their any way to grind the safety links off because all they do is slow it down thats what my dealer told me tyo do but he was not happy that I did not buy the chains from him so he could just be blowing smoke up my butt. Thanks

You can grind down the raker in front of the cutting tooth a bit, but you won't have a non-safety chain (though you may have an unsafe chain).  A "safety" chain works in conjunction with a safety bar, ordinarily, that has a nose on which only one cutter will be travelling at a time (and I think the cutting links are spread out further.. fewer cutters per chain than a regular one).  On top of this, the cutters are a half-chisel variety (kind of rounded off), and will never be as aggressive as a full chisel kind.  

A semi-chisel chain generally takes more punishment before becoming really dull, whereas a full chisel tooth more or less stops cutting as soon as you dull it up at all.  

All this said, you'll never make a standard chain out of a safety chain, and my advice would be not to try.  If you lower the rakers too much on a chain, the cutters are taking tremendous stress, and you increase the chance of chain breakage.

I've converted a couple of Stihl chains by using a triangular file and scoring the tail of the bumper tie strap from the second (top) depression downward at a rear-facing angle.  Then using pliers, snap the roughly triangular piece off at the score.  The result is that the bumper strap has the two forward, smooth humps, but no tail.

They still act somewhat like "safety" chains.  The chains do bore and cut at the nose when swinging the bar through a cut wider than the bar is long much better.  They perform roughly midway between the RM and RM-2.