About a month into my yearlong logging career, I thought I was the bees knees on filing a chain. Sawing on the landing with a skidder side and yarder side both bringing in trees, me getting buried and panicked, thinking "I'm going to get the whole operation shut down"! No time to file or sharpen anything!!!
Then 'ol Ernie comes up. He's the current boss' father. Seems ancient. Moves really slow. Hunched over. Smoking a cigarette with an older Stihl 066.
I'm thinking, "This Guy??!!" Who the heck is this guy? Little did I know.
He climbs on top of a tree, sticks his log tape in one end and proceeds to continue to move really slow, marking measuring and eventually sawing into some logs. Every few minutes, he's stopping and taking a few strokes with his files. He'd been watching me look like a fool, thinking there's no time to tune up my chain. Without looking up, he calmly, almost sweetly mutters, "Always time to file your chain".
I went back to using my chainsaw to burn through the wood, muttering something about old people not knowing that I was going be here for the rest of my life sawing up this stack of wood and generally feeling sorry for myself. When I turned back towards Ernie, he's filing his chain away from the landing by the fire. We're caught up. Wood's all sawn. I'm not sure what happened.
Without looking up I hear that same little phrase coming from the area by the fire, "Always time to file your chain." The man was (is??) a legend in that area. Learned to file a chain from the stock-saw champs of his day. The rest of the time, I spent with my mouth shut and ears open! Tried to soak up everything he did. They all used a round file and kept the rakers filed down. They ain't afraid to stop and file often. Take three or five strokes off each tooth. Filing a tooth that ain't completely hammered is much easier than letting it get beat to hell then trying to tune it up. Keep em sharp and outta the dirt.
Well, now my fingers are tired. That was a whole lotta typing for saying almost nothing! Sorry for the long read....