Timberline Chainsaw Sharpener

Chain Sharpening By Hand Is Not My Skillset

  I think most of us can agree, proper chainsaw sharpening can be a tricky skill to get just right. Especially for those of us who don’t do it that often. Most people start by buying a simple file for less then 10 bucks and give it a go and the concept is pretty easy. I have witnessed burly flannel wearing men make chainsaw sharpening look ridiculously easy and fast with nothing more than a hand file. Their saws cut straight and surgically with only piles of perfectly sized woodchips left behind. I on the other hand leave behind piles of wood powder covered in bar oil and a log cut that’s crookeder than a DC politician. I too started my sharpening journey with a straight file, upgraded to a file guide that clamps onto my file to help me keep the file at the correct angle and distance. Nope still didn’t work and the worst part was I couldn’t figure out why my saw cut so bad. Couldn’t be me, right?

  I considered powered sharpeners, Dremel tool attachments, and the best sharpener money could by from Harbor Freight. I really didn’t connect with any of those during my research because they all required power. I knew my solution would be hand powered but I also wanted to take my lack of sharpening skill into account.  

  Last month I was bucking a dead felled tree on my property and was getting increasingly frustrated at my horrible quality cuts. My saw was curving so hard that the bar was binding and refusing to cut deeper. Had to be the stupid chain, right?!? No, it was all me. I wasn’t getting the right consistent stroke on the sharpening file, and I finally realized I was shortening the teeth on one side more than the other, resulting in the crooked cut. That’s it, I’m done and off to find a solution. After several research articles and YouTube videos I stumbled on my solution. The Timberline Chainsaw Sharpener. I am not an affiliate with Timberline or reimbursed in anyway. This one is all on my dime.

Small Company Big Product

  Timberline is a small company out of Idaho Falls and their sharpener is simple, effective, and with only a small learning curve. I bought the main sharpener kit ($125) with a 7/32” cutter for my Husqvarna and a 5/32”cutter ($20) for my small Ryobi. A couple days later the kit was in my hand and off to the garage I go to determine if the $145 I just spent was worth it. There is a small booklet of instructions and after a quick read I grasped the concept and was ready to go.

  Setup was easy and made sense. Attaching to the chainsaw bar was also logical with the instructions and within 2 minutes I was turning the handle and sharpening my first saw tooth. The instructions state the seating the chain to the cutter the first time can be a little more work and that was my experience for sure. I had to undo all my crummy hand file work and get all the teeth the same length again. It took me nearly an hour to get an unusable crooked cutting chain back to perfect. In comparison, I installed a brand-new chain, set the cutter up and it matched up perfectly in angle. I set the Timberline cutter to just shave off a smidge of metal as if I was sharpening it after it had gone dull. That new chain took me about 15 minutes, and I was done. 15 minutes for a straight cutting chain with no real chance of messing it up is worth its weight in gold. Totally consistent hand powered wood slicing awesomeness.

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What did I not like about it?

  It certainly was a little spendy, but I have found most good solutions are not cheap. A $9 hand file is cheap, but I ruined my chain with it. The Timberline sharpener comes with a decent little case and has room for the handle and a couple spare bits. I even was able to stuff in the instruction manual. The one thing I didn’t care for on the case was the Velcro closure. I would prefer a click buckle or some other sort of positive closure. Velcro just doesn’t hold up long term in guaranteeing to stay closed and not losing your $20 spare bits on the forest floor.

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