How to Sharpen a Chainsaw with Elegant Efficiency [smoother & straighter cuts]

Up your sharpening game and saw smoother and quicker! I show what I did, and most people, even experienced chainsaw users, do wrong when sharpening chainsaw chain for Alaskan milling.

Having a sharp chain is really important when you come to chainsaw milling, and it can be a bit trickier than sharpening chains for regular cross cutting. If the chain is sharpened unevenly it will cause major problems: an uneven finish on the milled lumber at best, overloading the saw and damaging the guide bar and chain at worst. In this video I share tips on how to sharpen chains to get really nice smooth and flat slabs.

If, like me you ever hit metal or glass or a rock with your chainsaw chain, it is likely only a grinder will save it.

The grinder I use is a much cheaper copy of the Oregon Bench-Mount Chain Sharpener, Model# 520-120. It's called ZF-ES009 230W (though these names do change!) and it too has a cast aluminum chassis, but has some drawbacks over the Oregon, which I go into in the video. It was about $140 from ebay USA: ebay.us/iBLI5h UK ebay: ebay.us/ELJicX
Or check out the Oregon one here: ebay.us/ZNYBdM

The game-changing 5 ¾” CBN grinding wheel we use was from a company called Baltic Abrasives - it was about $90. I have been using it for a good few years now and have been very impressed! After this video had been released about 6 months, Darius from Baltic Abrasives saw it and reached out to me. He offered viewers a 5% discount! All you need to do is mention Flowering Elbow in correspondence, or use the code ‘Floweringelbow’ at checkout. Sounds good to me! They do worldwide delivery and you can find their CBN wheels here lapidarywheels.com/53-chainsaw-sharpening-wheels

In general, I use a standard .404 Still rapid super (RS) 30° crosscut chain (US ebay- ebay.us/qJ1N9B , UK link - ebay.us/QdcmJj ) and slowly grind it to a lower angle, like 10°, over consecutive sharpenings.

I always keep at least one chain at 30° for cross cutting very big logs and making cookies.

Please stay safe friends – it is not be a good idea to use a low top plate angle rip chain with low depth gauges for freehand cross cutting – it will behave unpredictably and kickback will be more severe if you hit something on that part of your chain/bar.

Note, I have no connection with any of the companies in this vid - I bought the tools myself as a regular customer. This video description though contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the e-bay links, and then buy, I’ll receive a small commission at no cost to you. This helps support the channel and allows me to continue to make videos like this. Thank you for the support!