Chainsaw sharpening

[floydboy]

I have a running bet with my boss at the small engine shop that I work at reference to chainsaw sharpening. He says that if a chain saw chain's cutter teeth angle is set at the 32-35 degree angle and the cutter teeth are sharp and the drag teeth are filed down correctly but the cutter teeth are filed different sizes, the chain will cut straight and not wear out one side of the groove of a bar. Now I've e-mailed about everyone of the major chainsaw manufacturers and everyone of them said that the cutter teeth has to be the same size or the chain will start to cut crooked in the middle of a log. I just wanted to get everyone of your opinions on this matter. Any reply would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Floydboy
:cool:

[khouse]

I have hand filed my chains for 15 years. In a perfect world you would think that different size cutters would cut crooked. I have for reasons like hitting a rock,wire or dirt had to file some teeth way back to get a sharp edge. I haven't noticed my saws cutting crooked. I suppose if I filled all the left cutters way back and left the right ones long then it could cut crooked? I would say that you are both correct.

[Derdader]

My opinion is "a boss is like a wife... they're always right". ; )

[Chuck132]

Chain saw teeth are tapered. If they are not sharpened to the same size, only the longer ones will cut because they are higher. If you had the same number of "high" cutters on both the left and right, then it will cut straight. For optimum cutting, they all need to be the same size.