TIL the reason my hinge cuts kept pinching is that my chain was on backward

I was at the supply shop in Boise getting a new file and the older guy behind the counter watched me griping about my saw binding up on every notch cut. He asked to see my chain and just flipped it around with his finger, said the cutters were facing the wrong way and I had been fighting it for who knows how long. I felt like an idiot but he said half the guys who come in have the same thing going on. Ran a full face cut on a dying maple that afternoon and it dropped exactly where I aimed it for once. How often are you all checking your chain direction, or is that just a me thing?

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wendy_wilson23d ago

Did you know a dull chain can feel almost the same as a backward one? I spent two weekends convinced my bar was bent because the saw kept pulling left and smoking, and it turned out I had rocked the chain bad on a fence post I forgot was buried in that old hedge. Sharpened it up and it cut like butter, but I still caught myself second guessing the direction after all that. Now I do a quick look down the top of the bar before every tank of gas, takes two seconds and saves a lot of cussing. Funny how one dumb little thing can ruin a whole afternoon of cutting.

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