TRINITY'S 3rd annual 2012/2013 icing challenge

[Terry]

                      Hey Guys, Sorry I couldn't make it yesterday, I've got the fever, (and no not what some of you suggested) should be good in a couple days.
                      On those rakers Joe/John, each raker is attached to the tooth immediately behind it, and sets the bite, by grinding them down (a lot or at all) it will allow the tooth to stand up and take a more aggressive bite. On my old McColloh I ground them a little and tried it and it speeded up nicely, so I ground them again, and the speed didn't change, but now if I leaned the saw into the ice, and pushed it hard it would stop the chain. I tried the same thing with my huge husky, with 4" more bar and twice the cc's and she's done fine, even during the punch-thru you can really lean into it and she'll just keep going.
                    I didn't want to start by commenting that Johns tool is no doubt just too little, (It bogs my saw right down)  :-* Although John is right on that the more you grind the rakers, the more of the lake your going to bring above the ice, once you punch thru.
                    I have about half of the vertical height (or slightly more) of the rakers ground on the husky, I dont know that I would grind them to nothing. I remember bringing my saw back into the shop for something shortly after I ground them, and the service guy looked at it and asked, "who ground the rakers?" I said "I did".  He said, its not legal in like 37 states. I asked why, and he said with the rakers ground (at all) or especially to nothing, the potential for kickback goes up the more you grind off, (and the potential to snap/derail the chain) and he said with a smaller guy like me handling such a huge tool, to make sure to never put it into wood. I told him not to worry, been running a chainsaw for decades AND I'd tried it, ohhh, and she'll really cut but its pretty jumpy, not smooth like a regular chain. He laughed and said, "ya well someday when you drop over dead and your older pharmacist brother ends up with your huge saw, it might be a different ending". He said anytime you grind the rakers it shound be marked to not use on wood.