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Great little tip there for the under cut! Will be giving that a try!

Your comment at the end using the term “high energy kick back” was insightful for me. I’m not a professional user, but I spend hours and hours running saws living in Alaska. I consider myself “higher level” experience wise but I haven’t ever had my saw catch something at full rpm. I honestly hadn’t really considered that as I tend to run my saw fairly slow and controlled when bucking limbs and try to keep my bar clear whenever possible doing cross cuts. That terminology did excellent to really grab my thoughts to consider what a high rpm kick back would feel like, especially when cutting trees close to a home where light arboreal work or “held high” limbing might seem like a good idea. Definitely gave me some more cues to think through running the saw. Thanks! Your content is excellently presented and I appreciate the giant props! Cheers and Shalom!

Great job John

Not where I thought you were going with this but you’re right and that’s nasty to think about

Nothing like venting every now and then. You are experiencing maturity in your overall perspective. It naturally comes with age, and it's a great thing. I'll still watch and enjoy you. You might consider starting your own platform. Then you can set the algorithm as you see fit. Good luck!

Or buy a bar scraper.

nice shiny hardhat. Do you even log?

I do that as well

Same principle with electric/corded/battery metal grinders. People get hurt by using it on the wrong part of the apex.

Thank you for the reminder

Thanks for the warning

We call it “Rookie Thumb”.

That’s a great point John

Good advice!

Well presented and well done, an eye-opener indeed. Happy cutting mate 😊

Thanx for sharing !

Yup gotta b careful...I hate when people file the depth gages down thinking they know it all smh...I rarely touch em

Good idea. Another tip i was told by Kevin schneider. He told me to heat them up with a torch and drop it in bar oil to case harden it. Boy, does that make them last longer.

Don't sharpen your saw while drunk on muskishine in a hurricane on beautiful lake appoka

TXS for the reminder!

Yep, just gouged a chunk running the chain backwards while sharpening the other day. Lesson learned. On a related note, something I don't see discussed much. Easiest way to check if your chain is sharp while sharpening. Run your finger/thumb/finger nail from back to front on the top plate,sideplate,and corner. There will be a burr sticking up just like raising a burr when sharpening a knife when you have filed enough.

I dont file rakers unless they r damaged, i always use my file to move the chain to file the next tooth.

Nice job John. There are people putting up videos now using the no go part of the bar. Glad to see this video

sliced a thumb open testing the sharpness of the chain while sharpening. nice click bait.

Been there done that, only once.

Stihl shit(saws are homeowner worthless now, but a very few products are still ok, saw chain is top notch), oregon is still oregon-solid, good value, dependable. Heal up fast brother. Dangerous job out there.

Yeah man, ive sharpened(re-re sharpened) doezens of teeth, the raker wears by it self. I cant tell how lucky that i have not seen any injuries with the dozens of dumbies around me. Stilh shit(saws are a waste of time

Might be click bait, but you gave me something valuable to think about.

I was all thinking like punky wood or something. And then flesh and I spend the next few minutes shuddering and remembering times. I am adding this to my chainsaw training when I talk about chainsaws chewing, not cutting. I might have this wrong from the video but describing the tooth without a raker as a melon baller will probably stick in folks mind.

Educational ! Thanx for sharing !

Good advice ! Thanx for sharing !

Mr.Woodman very good advice!

John, Good to see you back in action, as I had noticed awhile back that you were out of service to us for several months! Why don't you use a file guide with the hand filing to ensure that you are getting the right depth into the cutter? How can you tell you are putting the correct pressure vertically on the file so that the profile you create is the ~4/5 file depth (1/5 of the file diameter above the top plate) that I understand is that which is optimal? Pls., don't just say "I've been hand filling so long that my muscles automatically know how much up pressure to use to ensure the optimal height of the file in the cut".

Thank you. This is something I knew in the back of my mind, but never thought about.

Great video. Another thing to consider is how an operator positions their body in relationship to line of travel that a kickback will follow. I see a lot of people with their head aligned over the cut or lining their entire body up with the cut. A man I know took a kickback to his right calf as a result of this. 300 stitches. 2 days later,,,,,,,gangrene. Enough said. Think.

Some great tips for firewood cutters like me, luckily for me I ride motorcycles so my thumbs are always down on the handlebars which has transferred to the chainsaw, if you’re thumbs are up on bike handlebars you’re not in control!!, picking up some great safety tips 👍

Thanks for making these videos, John! I battled that bad habit with the thumb when I took my first GOL class (I can't recall now if it was taught by you or David Birdsall.) It's hard to believe that was over 20 years ago. I got a couple of reminders during the class. I would still find that thumb sneaking up from time to time. It was not until sometime later that I realized that for me, it tended to happen when I changed grips. You mentioned someone in a class who did it as he shifted from starting a saw to running and cutting. For me, it was when I shifted back and forth from a vertical cut to a horizontal cut or anything in between. That shift in grip made my thumb come up. Once I realized that, I started paying more attention to those shifts, and eventually the bad habit was broken. (At least as far as I know. I still do occasionally ask friends I'm working with to watch for that or other bad habits.)

Thanks, again a interesting video. I am 72 years old, cutting trees for my fire wood, and I have to see all of your videos.

Thanks a lot for the most interesting video that I have see !

thank you, and keep the videos coming!

Good advice sir! Also I like u shoulder protection a lot ,how many get insured by falling branches!

This YT channel is a real resource to the world of professional chainsaw safety, chainsaw use, tree felling, and tree care.

Thank you for building these video's :)

Great video! Well said! I see so many really bad tree felling videos and sometimes I comment so I can share my 46 years of experience and am usually met with lots of hateful responses. We now have very safe and effective methods for cutting trees but so many people either don’t know them or just don’t use them.

👍👍, good advice! Work Safe!

You talk about the 25⁰ angle on the factory round grind then you say you make it sharpen by using a square file yet you are then talking about a different angle. Sure you may sharpen the top plate at 30⁰ or 35⁰ if you aren't good at holding an angle but you are now taking about your side plate angle being 45⁰ which was never 25⁰ from the factory. That angle is dependant on how much or your file sticks out the top of the tooth. If you use a file guide plate then you are getting your proper side plate angle or knife edge thickness. If you don't use a file guide plate and try to free hand it more often your file will drop into the gullet and you will change that angle. Its not for the better either. As for your depth gauge. Yes, it'll allow you to take a bigger chip, but it also causes the chain to cant back and ride on the heal of the cutter which will wear your chain cutter and bar quicker. If you need bigger chips, get a bigger chain. Its not always the lawyers against the world about rules and laws. Oregon invented the common use cutter they tell the lawyers whats acceptable not the other way around. And its all engineered to have a balance of safety as well as longevity and strength. This is like putting nascar slicks on your grocery getter cas it'll corner better for 3 shopping runs before you need to change the tires...

Great video. Is there a need to reshape the top of the depth gauge after it has been flattened a bit by filing so that there is once again a smooth curve leading up to its highest point/plane and not a quick transition from curved to flat? Sounds like a PITA but I've sometimes heard that it is useful / important to do. No one seems to mention it in sharpening videos.

Thanks for the expert advice. I was frustrated because I would sharpen the chain but not getting a nice 'chip'. Finally looked at the chain and realized what the problem was. So knowing the problem but not the solution.. Great video. A big help.

So glad I found your channel, John. I'm over in Halifax and hosted GOL with you over multiple days a few years ago but it's been a few years since I needed to bring a tree down. Grateful you posted these - needed your tutorial. Perfect practice makes perfect became a fixed part of my vocabulary because of you.

Great points.