A sharp chainsaw is like heaven with cookies and milk!

Chainsaw Sharpening & Painting the Stumps

The new chainsaw needed to be sharpened... already! Because so many trees, large and small, had been felled that the saw wasn't cutting through the wood as easily as it needed to and there are more trees to trim and log. Thus, a lesson in chainsaw sharpening (say that fast five times) availed itself. I'm such an interested student because I don't know this stuff, never even realized that chainsaws might get to a point of needing to be sharpened, and don't know when I might need to do this task myself someday.

In the era when I was growing up, in my family, there was a clear distinction between 'men's' work and 'women's' work and the two shall never meet. I remember going outside to watch my dad change the oil in the family car. When I came back in the house my mom said, "Don't you EVER do that again!" Wow... what had I done that was so criminal and deserved such a reprimand? Apparently it was watching my dad do a man's job... Now that my mom, and dad, are in the Abha Kingdom, I know that my mom understands these issues more fully and acceptingly and won't mind if I bring this topic to light.

Next weekend we have booked as Backhoe Weekend where we'll be removing stumps, roots, and other such pieces of wood from the ground to help prepare the way for the garden beds that will need to be worked up, the pole barn cement foundation that will need to be laid, and the pathways and driveways that need a smooth surface for traversing. To get ready for that busy weekend, I needed to mark all the wood protrusions with an flourescent bright pink spray paint to make it easier to spot the stumps that need to be removed. We agreed that I would mark them with an "X"... or something close to an X.

I walked and walked and walked around the areas where trees have been felled and knocked down with the Bobcat to locate all the protrusions that needed to be marked. Then Dan and I went around and he pointed out the one's that I had missed. Then I went around again and marked all the additional ones that I could identify by knocking them with my boots.

I just took one snapshot of stumps slated for removal, but you can look in pretty much any direction and see a similar sight. We have lots of work cut out for us for next weekend. My son and his girlfriend are planning to help us so they can get some real life stump removal experience in additional to learning how to drive a backhoe. My other son and his girlfriend 'may' join us the next day. Stay tuned...

In the meantime, there were branches to be removed from the huge cedar tree that was felled recently, so we needed to get cracking at sharpening that chainsaw. A week or so ago we had purchased a chainsaw sharpener at the local farm supply store. I didn't know what it was or how it worked or anything...  Dan had set up two saw horses and placed some OSB wood (Oreiented Strand Board) across the saw horses to make a table. Then he unwrapped the chainsaw sharpener from the packaging and connected it to the chainsaw... it just gets placed on top of the blade and screwed on... of course the chainsaw is turned OFF! You need to line up the angle of the sharpener with the angle of the tooth on the chainsaw. 10 degrees up and down and 30 degrees right to left for Husqvarna. The angle depends on the type of saw that you have. Every other tooth goes the other direction, so once you get the angle set to align with one tooth, you can sharpen all those that are aligned in that direction. Then you have to readjust the angle to sharpen the teeth that go the other way. It's a much more manual process than I would have imagined... but that's fine.

To align the sharpener with a tooth, slide the chain to bring up a tooth with the angle that you are going to sharpen...

Here's a close up to really see what I mean...

Then hold the sharpener and go back and forth like you would with a saw to sharpen the tooth. You can hear the sound changing from being a course sound and the sharpener is more difficult to move to when it becomes easier to move back and forth and the sound becomes more even and smooth. Then you know it's sharp and you can proceed to the next tooth that is aligned on that angle. The 'chain' part of the saw can be tugged on to move it into position. I didn't realize how easily the chain could slide. I thought it was more attached to the bar, but apparently not.

Then, one at a time, you move the teeth of the saw to the sharpener. Sharpen it and move on to the next. Do this around the whole chain. Then readjust the angle to align with the opposite angled teeth and repeat for each tooth around the chain. Then unscrew the sharpener attachment and you're ready to go.

When you fire up the chainsaw, it'll be able to cut through the wood much more easily than before... just like a knife sharpened to cut through that Thanksgiving turkey you consumed not so many months ago...!

Bon appetit!