New Stihl Chainsaw Chains

Dave Hoskins

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Parker County, Texas
Was at my Stihl dealer in Weatherford today to buy some new chains. Ugh. Anyway, the old friend of mine at the counter (Matt) asked me for sure if I wanted the rapid rips, and I said "YEP!". Then the other guy asked me if I didn't want to try the new carbide chain. He showed me one and it sure was purdy! With a purdy cost. I was buy 20" chains for the 440 and a 20" carbide tooth chain was around $130.00 a pop. :eek: And, you have to have all kinds of special tools to even sharpen one. :eek::eek: It took me 5 seconds or less to determine that there was no way for me to justify that cost. Whew!!! But, I guess I you gotta drive a Caddy or Lincoln, then you gotta have carbide.
 
...a 20" carbide tooth chain was around $130.00 a pop. :eek: And, you have to have all kinds of special tools to even sharpen one. :eek::eek: It took me 5 seconds or less to determine that there was no way for me to justify that cost...

I can only imagine hitting an embedded rock or nail with that!
 
Steel post in center of 18 inch cherry tree. Why is blade sparking? Put the kibosh on that chain blade. Maybe carbide would just eat it up.
Still pricey.
David
 
I've cut trees down that had nails in them and my larger saws never even knew they were there, and that's with regular chains. I did cut down a bodark tree a few years ago that had some kind of a bolt in it that was about 1" in diameter and had a bunch of fence wire wrapped around it. That caused a bunch of spark to fly. And, pretty much killed that chain. As I remember I couldn't resharpen it. Just pretty much destroyed it. Steel post? Wow. Bet that was an experience!
 
...But, I guess I you gotta drive a Caddy or Lincoln, then you gotta have carbide.

You're already driving the Caddy or Lincoln, since you drive a Stihl. :thumb: This is more like do you want to run Uniroyals or Michelins on it? For your purposes, I agree the carbide tooth chain probably wouldn't be worth the extra cost.
 
Aren't those mostly sold into the emergency responder market? It seems like they'd rock for things like cutting through asphalt roofs and similar.

That is what I thought too, they are for Rescue Saws, the kind fire departments use for cutting through roofs etc, they cut through nails, wires, pipes roofing materials without a care. They are high durability high impact carbide.

With a bit of Googling, it looks like there is a second type of carbide chainsaw chain that is designed to hold a sharp edge much longer.

I think I would stick with regular chain, but I guess there must be a need they fill, or they would be out of business by now.

Cheers!
 
Guess I didn't think about it that way, Vaughn. You be right! I'm driving a Lincoln. I never thought about those carbide ones being for rescue stuff. Cool. But, me thinks me will stick with the standard rapid rip chains. More in my shop's budget.
 
Not being a math whizz by any stretch of thought, I look at it from a practical point. A 20" rapid rip chain for the 440 costs between $30-32 with tax. Even cutting bodark, I can resharpen that chain between 10-12 times. Same with the bigger chains. Sometimes a bit more if cutting only pecan or softer. That's using a Dremel tool with the stones that Stihl sells. Now I only buy the Stihl rapid rip chains as they work best over all for my workings. Having to go buy special sharpening tools that will work only with the chains just don't make sense for me. As for cutting burls I haven't found one I can't rip right through with either the 440 or the 880. They can be beasts at times.
 
Yeah regular burls no problem, but root burls are often full of rocks and other junk that wreck a regular chain in short order. When you hit a pocket of that there's no sharpening that'll help cause the chain is toast.

I've seen some claims that the carbide lasts up to 10x longer than a regular chain but I'm a bit dubious about the claim. I reckon it probably depends somewhat on the saw and wood.

If I was cutting a lot of dry Oregon white oak like I was last fall I might think about it as well, that stuff smoked chains faster than any other wood I'd worked with. Not quite like sawing concrete but a close cousin.

But for the light cutting on most regular wood that I do.. I'm right with you :thumb:
 
Yeah, I envisioning tamales when I was reading what you wrote and that blurs my thinking. Root burls can be rough on chains. I've gotten where I pretty much stay away from those if possible. I think white oak no matter what kind can be rough. This stuff I have sure is. Wears you and the chain out.
 
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