Bob
Stay with the regular chain. I can sharpen the thing for cutting straight
down the log on end, but rarely do it as I then need to either change the
chain or resharpen for regular cuts or make do with the changed edge. It is
sort of like using a general purpose grind on a saw blade when a rip is
better. The best thing to do is rip down the side with the saw at a 60*
angle. This is better described he
http://aroundthewoods.com/firewood01.shtml Hope this helps.

--
God bless and safe turning
Darrell Feltmate
Truro, NS Canada
http://aroundthewoods.com
http://roundopinions.blogspot.com
"Bob Daun" wrote in message
. net...
Thanks everyone for your responses. At least I know the whole thing was
not my imagination.

Bob

"Phisherman" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 13 Sep 2008 14:55:03 GMT, "Bob Daun" wrote:

Since I know a lot of people cut up their own bowel wood, I have a
question.
I was cutting up some pieces from a downed Maple tree in my son's
backyard
last week. The pieces were already about 15-20" lengths and I used his
chainsaw to slice these down the middle to provide more useful starting
pieces and allow me to carry them by myself up to my car. In doing this,
I
noticed that it was much harder to saw the pieces down the middle than to
cross cut them. Is this typical? If so, are there chain designs which
would cut better when cutting a block vertically down the middle as
opposed
to cross cutting?


I realized this too. Chain saw cross cutting is easy, but they don't
rip well.