Dear s219,
Very much appreciate your respectful, well reasoned and experienced reply.
You are indeed an intelligent and articulate man.
It is the kind of reply that this forum unfortunately has been rather economical with.
My intention in making the post was educational.
I reasoned perhaps others that had purchased these "anti-kickback" chainsaws might not know that a more aggressive chain was available.
Old Geezers like me grew up in a time of few choices, we are not conditioned to search out all the options.
Today IMO there are too damnmany choices. I'm so stuck in the past that I drink just plain scalding hot black coffee, wouldn't know how to order any thing else if my life depended on it
There's really nothing radical about that chain -- plunge cutting is the only thing it will do better than the equivalent green chain
Have been cutting hickory, locust and osage orange, the kickback when attempting a plunge cut is fierce, perhaps a somewhat softer wood like a white ash or wild cherry won't kick as hard.
You will find that full chisel (the "S") chain dulls much quicker ......... so be sure to file it often, especially if cutting dirty wood or bucking on the ground.
Exclusively ran full chisel chains back in the 70's post Arab oil crisis era, never actually knew the formal name for them.
For anyone wondering, if you only cut along the length of the bar and never plunge/bore (as would be typical for most firewood cutters and homeowners) you will never notice the difference between green and yellow chain, so you may as well go green and get a little extra safety margin.
I respectfully disagree that the green chain cuts as well cutting along the length of the bar.
The first thing I diid with this chain was to bear down like I had to do with the green chain to achieve the best engine load. Quickly discovered it doesn't need to be crowded.
This chain needs just a very light touch, it will cut as good as the green chain with just the weight of the bar. A very light crowding will bring the engine into its most efficient power band.
Ghenges,
What model saw are you running that chain on? If you told us, I missed it.
Stihl MS250 with an 18" bar.
Yea, it's a little light in theass, but for cutting just 8 cords a year from trees that rarely are over 18' diameter, it's perhaps a toy to the pseudo Paul Bunyans, but it's all the saw I need.
If I could just remember to drain this crapass methanol gasoline before the saw sits for an extended period of time, probably wouldn't have any maintenance issues.
Isn't it a crime how much equipment has been destroyed by the government decree to add methanol to gasoline. Made the small engine repair shops happy though.
Years ago, I'm talking 1940's -1950's dinosaur era, we specifically purchased Amoco White Gas (93 Octane) for all our small engines.
You could leave that gasoline in an engine tank for a year (or more) and the engine would start like the last day you used it. The old Wisconsin baler motors were ornery starters, the Amoco gas kept the plugs cleaner than any other fuel. When it comes to gasoline -- the 'good old days'
were definitely better.
I remember pulling up to the Sunoco "Dial A Grade" pump in my black 1963 409 c.i. Impala SS and cranking the dial full hard over to 260 grade, that '09' ran like a stripedassed ape on it. I see the buck toothed kids screaming by in their hopped up riceburners and feel sorry for them, they haven't a clue what a real piece of USA iron was like. Actually had to epoxy the knobs onto the radio, acceleration jump from the shift from first to second would pull the knobs off.
You have to go to NASCAR today to get a glimpse of what it was like in the early 60's before the government and the insurance companies began penalizing the big iron.