Right Michael ! Forget the new chain and the file holder ! Just buy the File – about £2’50 ! First adjust the chain tension to tightish ! Put the guide bar in a vice to HOLD it, making sure the chain can be rotate, ONLY EVER pull the chain forward ! You are an inteligent man so you will have a fair idea as to the angle to file at ! Some chains have a guide line stamped on the teeth ! Mark 1 tooth so you will know when you’ve been round.  File with a pressure forward / parallel to the bar NOT DOWN this will give hooked teeth ! Do alternate teeth till you’ve been round ! Now reverse the saw in the vice and do the other set of teeth ! NOW THE BIT MANY DONT KNOW ! Take a flat edge and lay across 2 teeth, on the top run. Just infront of the cutting edge is a small raised edge, This is the depth gauge and controls how much wood a tooth bites, too little and you will make dust, too much and the engine may not be able to pull the blade. The gap between your straight edge and the depth gauge should be NO MORE than 25thou .60mm checked with a feeler. If this is much less then file down a little using a flat file. After a few teeth you will soon know how many strokes are needed to do each one ! The tooth angle is NOT vital as to accuracy but they should all be more or less equal. As the tooth is filed back, it lowers the height of the cutting edge, hence the need to drop the depth gauges to maintain the bite of the blade ! Any questions ? Noel.

PS Bear in mind your working with a CUTTING EDGE, gloves may help but you know what it does to wood ! I HOPE YOU WILL NOT be able to show us what it can do to flesh !

PPSThe picture has now appeared You have depth gauges, since it is a small saw be careful dropping them, 15thou .40mm might be better to start with you can always drop them lower if need be. Good Luck.

Further comments having studied the picture It looks as though the oiling may be lacking but that chain has been used WAY after it should have been sharpened It will take awhile to re do but is worth doing, if only as a spare. On reflection may be a new blade may be a good idea, remember to fit it the right way round, cutting towards the saw ! Just for fun check the depth gauges so you know what is right for your saw. Since I’m sure ther are others here who use chainsaws ! If a saw cuts to one side then suspect that the blade has gone blunt on one side, resharpen ! OR the rails of the guide bar on the lower side are uneven, first turn the bar over, if this has already been done then file flat checking with  a square BUT make sure the driving teeth DO NOT hit the botton of the groove.  Noel.

Yes. Just a file. You will easily get the hang of it. And do it lots – every time you use it.  Chainsaws a If I just touch ground/mud while running then the saw is most likely blunt. If you digging out a stump then it’s going to happen.

Michael, I can’t see much of your chain bar, only the bit up near the sprocket, which tends to wear the least, but the bit I can see appears not to have suffered too badly as a result of running an obviously dull, poorly lubricated (have you checked that the chain oil is reaching the bar and chain unimpeded?), and possibly loose chain.

Are there any areas further towards the bar nose where the paint has come off through overheating and the metal has discoloured? Is there any peening over of the bar groove, even slightly?

I’m sure you realise this but, aside from other undesirable outcomes, running a dull chain can also shorten engine life considerably, because when cutting with a dull chain there is little to no load on the engine to keep the revs within check. A properly sharpened chain will feed itself into the wood almost effortlessly and produce healthy engine sounds: a dull chain will produce dust (not chips) and make the engine scream ineffectually, while little progress is made in actually cutting any wood.

Assuming your bar is worth saving (and check also the condition of the sprocket), I would almost certainly not want to use that chain again even if sharpened well: the drive links will probably be worn, making for greater slop in the bar groove, which, even if the chain is correctly sharpened, well lubed and optimally tensioned, will accelerate wear on your bar and sprocket.

You need a 4mm round file for that chain (i.e. the new 3/8″ Picco chain you’ve yet to buy). If you can stretch to it, buy one of the Stihl part numbers 5605 750 4303 or 5605 007 1027. The latter can be had for around £11. I have both types in several sizes and they work very well indeed. The 2-in-1 type particularly makes the whole job of sharpening a chain to “cat’s claw” levels of sharpness astoundingly easy.

On the subject of stretching, when you’ve fitted your new chain, you must watch the tension very carefully in the first hour or so of use – a new chain stretches considerably, and can become very loose in a short time, which of course is undesirable for all sorts of reasons. Remember to allow the bar and chain to cool down after use before checking and adjusting chain tension.

Personally, I always slacken off my chains after use so that contraction on cooling doesn’t stress the bar or sprocket while the saw is in storage. An additional benefit of this is that you get into the habit of checking and adjusting chain tension before the next use, which avoids potential problems arising from firing up your saw and getting stuck into a job whilst complacently assuming that the chain is properly tensioned “because it was when I last used it”. Before starting, always assume it isn’t.

Hi Michael, The main thing is that it is oiling, oil is cheap chains and bars less so, how long does a tank of fuel last ? Same as the oil ? 10 mins of good cutting Fine . Your saw oiler may be adjustable ? You can get special chain oil but for years I have used ordinary mineral engine oil (new ) 15/40 or so. 30 years ago I did much felling with a 125cc engine and 36″ bar ! Built 2 hydraulic splitters that would give 15tons force, one was electric on the 20Kva 3Ph diesel genny I also built – model engineering ? I would be cautious of power grinders, they can turn a chain into powder quickly. Not checked but 4 mm sounds a bit big for your chain – check ! Noel.

On 7 January 2024 at 20:39 noel shelley Said:

Not checked but 4 mm sounds a bit big for your chain – check ! Noel.

Michael’s bar takes a 3/8″ Picco chain, so 4mm is right, Noel.

A smaller diameter file than this will produce a tooth gullet with the wrong depth and radius; the file will not reach high enough up the gullet to get right under the top of the teeth to produce an optimally sharp leading edge. See the 3/8″ Picco 2-in-1 sharpener below for file sizing.

EtA: Michael may find this link useful.