is your chainsaw cutting on the wonk like mine is is it not cutting straight is it cutting in the
curve is it cutting like a curve of a banana let's go and find out why so why does my chainsaw cut on
a curve what is your chainsaw cut on a curve well that's the question we're going to answer today
and show you what's going wrong and why it's doing it because we all know we get a nice brand
new chain and bar fit it all onto our chainsaw and it cuts dead straight it cuts perfectly you
think yes i never want this edge to fall off this chain so that it just cuts as true as true can be
forever it's not quite as simple as that so what happens why do we get to a stage
where our chainsaw starts cutting bananas and curves and round corners and all those fantastic
ways of cutting wood so we're haze machinery this is our youtube channel please consider subscribing
let's crack on so all starts when you first sharpen your chain yes your chain gets blunt it
needs sharpening it needs a little bit of a touch up it's not going through the wood like it was
so you decide to sharpen it and sharpening is a fine art it's it is an expert thing to do and only
a handful of people around the world right in your county can probably do it properly
and there's lots of machines and lots of tools and lots of gadgets you can get to help you
sharpen and change some of them are absolutely excellent but we'll save that for another video
but today i'm going to show up in this chain badly to show you what happens when it doesn't quite
go to plan sharpen it badly am i supposed to do that well i suppose at least i can't get it wrong
pop it in the vise and go from there so what happens when you pop your chainsaw in the vice
and start filing well you've got a lead arm so when you come into hand file i'm just using it
just a bare file just so it's easier to see and you know like i said there's lots of different
ways and means a sharpening chain and i'm going to be doing this wrong when you'll come in and
this is your lead arm so here when you come in to sharpen this side of the saw what you'll find
you'll push that through there three or four times three four strokes all the way through to get that
tooth sharp and that's nice and easy because you've got a nice lead here nothing's in the way
and it's pretty simple so that side of the chain will normally sharpen really really well which
well it's it's that side to change so you're sharpening on that side or if you're left-handed
you might find that it's easier the other way but right-handed people doing it this way that's the
easier edge to do so when you flip the saw around and got it in the vise the other way what you'll
find is that you're a little bit more hampered of how you're sharpening chains as you come in
through your arms more like this and you're there sharpening through like that so you're not you
haven't got that nice leading stroke like you do on the other side so with this one you're they're
doing through so you do say four strokes on one side and four on the other or three on one side
three on the other or five on one side five on the other some people will sharpen the chain so you've
got you do three on one side and four on the other to allow for that when you're professional when
you've done a bit more experience in sharpening a chain you soon work that out with a chain which
is sharper on one side than it is the other or even if the tooth is longer on one side than is
the other what you'll get is a draw on the chain let me show you so what happens once you sharpen
the chain sharpener on one side then you do the other what you'll get is as you're cutting down
through the wood the chain will be pulling on one side he's trying to go down through the wood
faster on one side than it is the other and hence with that you'll then get the curve coming down
through the piece of wood over time that will then wear into the bar so i'll pop this chain off here
and see if it's the same person sharpening all the time it'll happen even quicker
so what you'll find on here is that the down on the rails on each side of the bar one side of the
bar will start to wear quicker than the other you'll get uneven wear on the bar on one side
thus allowing the chain to sit uneven on the top of the rails and then if you get an uneven
chain that side and uneven chain that side you're creating a natural curve for that bar and chain to
go down through your wood so you start nice and straight and it gradually peters off to the left
or right depending on how you sharpened your chain and that's exactly why it's happening depending on
your bar age and quality you should be able to grind these down flat or file them down flat so
that you can run a nice new chain on it but if you buy a new chain and put it on a bad bar your
new chain will wear out a lot quicker and you won't get away from creating that curve so the
best thing to do is if you're a novice probably just change the bar and chain and start again
start refresh and they're available to buy on our website hazemachinery.co.uk you want to sort you
know service your bar so you can get burrs you'll get a bur along the edge of your bar up through
here so you can file off the burs and then if you look down through the bar you'll be able to
see whether one rail is higher than the other so you've got a diagram there up in the left-hand
corner just showing you that how that works where you've got the a rail which is lower on one side
than the other and what you want to do is file them flat so they're flat on the birth top you
know you use a square use a square to get that straight so you put the square on the side and
see how square it is along the top of your bar there so that's why it's happening that's why
it's cutting on a curve so other than good sharpening and maintenance on a
chain there's also other reasons why it might cut more one-sided than the other
one is a rakers as you'll see in other videos when you sharpen a chain you take the rakers down
gradually as you're sharpening the chain so every time you sharpen you take rakers down a little
bit more what you'll find if you don't file your rakers down at the same rate as your tooth what
you'll get is that your rakers are trying to cut the wood rather than the teeth so you do just feel
yourself almost trying to push down on the timber which you shouldn't do trying to get the teeth
to bite into the timber but if you file the rakers down then your teeth will be able to
touch the timber if you're filing the rakers down more on one side than the other again that will
cause your chainsaw to cut on one side so another example of why you'll be cutting on a curve with
your chainsaw is that you've hit something you've hit a nail or a stone or something else unexpected
in that timber so you're going down through the timber there's a nail in it it's caught all the
teeth on the on your left hand teeth rather than on your right hand teeth so your right teeth look
absolutely fine clean as a whistle sharp as a pin but on the other side they've all gone
rounded so if you look here you'll see that this here has hit a stone or been trying to cut there
so what you've done is actually caught the top of the teeth all the way through on this chain
so all the way through on there it's done on both on both sides but sometimes you'll find
it'll only do one side what some people try to do is just sharpen one side of the chain
to try and relieve that what you're then getting is awkward-sized teeth so you've got one teeth one
side uh one length and the other side are short teeth so you're getting uneven teeth all the
way through your chain again with more material on one side of the chain and less on the other
you'll find that your chainsaw again will cut on one side so it's all down to good maintenance and
good sharpening of your chainsaw let's sharpen this chain badly and try and replicate that
to show you what i'm on about so as you can see here i'm just sharpening on one side of the chain
i'm doing it badly i'm trying to not do it very well at all but it's difficult it's difficult
right gone all the way around on that side all done there we go perfect let's go and see what
it cuts like see if i can actually cut a curve for a start or whether i've done it too well let's go
so as you can see from that the chainsaw is cutting on the curve i've replicated it pretty
well but sometimes depending on the wear of the chain and bar that'll even be even worse so you
come down in a proper curve like a banana but that one there i don't even see that as you can see
i've come down through and it's just veered off to the left which means obviously a chain is sharp on
one side and the other and over time it has worn the bar on one side so that it's cutting in that
curve but again by putting on a fresh chain will be okay for start with you might jam and crack a
little bit as you're cutting down through but it would be nice think oh yeah this is cutting
perfectly again but within in a short time you'll find that that chain will also again start to wear
and it'll start cutting on the curve so that is the case you need to file down the top of that bar
or replace the bar get it all level get it all square get it perfectly working
that's the best advice i can give you hopefully that explains why you're cutting on the wonk and
anyway we're hazy machinery this is our youtube channel please consider subscribing have fun login
so the good news is that all of these chains and bars for husqvarna and still and many
other brands as well is available to buy on our website hayesmachinery.couk we've got it
all listed out on there so it's fairly simple but if you've got any questions or queries
please don't hesitate to give us a call or ping us an email and we can help you out
making sure that you get the right chain and bar for your chainsaw