"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
It never occurred to me that it *might* be possible to sharpen the blades
on a chainsaw chain in situ, because of the problem of rotating the chain
slow enough to do each tooth in turn. I suppose if you mark the teeth
that are exposed and that you have sharpened, you can run the chainsaw
and stop it - and hope that sooner or later it will stop with different
teeth exposed.

?? you can move the chain without using the motor.

Maybe it's different with an electric (battery) chainsaw, which mine is. If
I grabbed hold of the teeth to pull the chain round, I think I'd rip holes
in my fingers before the chain moved at all. I wonder whether there is a
reduction gear between the motor and the chain sprocket which makes it very
difficult to drive it "in reverse" by pulling on the chain.

When the chain has got embedded in the wood (which happens occasionally), it
takes a lot of effort to pull the blade back to unwind the chain from the
notch that it's cut so far, to free the teeth. So there's definitely not a
freewheel action.