Thanks for sharing - appreciated. It's as you say below, there are plenty of variables that could account for the slight differences in speed. If the chain was looser on the hard nose then that's a variable effecting power needed to pull the chain i.e. an uncontrolled variable. It's very easy for full chisel to do some extra work when the bar is rocked up and down. Doing comparison cuts with a horizontal bar just going straight through the wood controls rocking inconsistencies. And I think the Dan Tilton link was excellent. Cheers sincerely d
I made this video because I wanted to see how much was lost with the hard nose and thought using it on a small, low powered saw would get the biggest difference. It sure wasn't the outcome I was expecting either and goes against everything I had read or heard, but 2 cuts with each bar on one saw isn't a definite result. I will try to replicate it on a bigger saw if I get a hard nose and sprocket nose in the same size again. I think the advantage the hard nose has is from the larger diameter of the nose and more belly. It won't work as well for plunge cuts but appears to help with these cuts.
Are you freaking kidding me??? What is common belief is that sprocket nose is faster and the only reason we use hard nose is for when we work with very dirty woods! Extremely interesting outcome! Thanks!
It was a surprise to me! I was 100% confident that it would be slower and I used a saw with only 3hp that I thought would struggle with the bar completely buried in some hard wood. The hard nose is a little more tricky to get the chain tension just right but when you do it appears to make no difference to cutting speed. I'm considering getting a 25 inch hard nose bar for the 880 so I can see if adding more chain speed has an effect.
I think these results may not be statistically significant, but let's assume they are. I would still try tensioning the chain more than you normally do for the sprocket bar. I know it sounds silly, but there is a theory behind it...
I always thought so as well. I used the same saw, same chain, same log and the cuts were maybe 5 minutes apart. I didn't sharpen it, just swamped the bar over. The sprocket nose bar isn't damaged, it's a GB Arbor Pro bar. Nose is in good condition. I don't know why it was different. I expect the hard nose to be a bit slower. It could be from the chain having less tension on the hard nose or the larger radius on the end. Could be a knot in the wood slowing one down. I don't really know. My experience with hard nose bars is limited to using them on much larger saws than this. I got this bar for a good price and just thought I would compare them to see the difference.
