If I'm going to spend the day in the woods with the chainsaw, my chain will get dull before I'm done.
Should I learn to hand-file the cutters, and sharpen in the woods?
Or should I bring a spare chain (or two!) and swap them out? I would get them sharpened at the hardware store.
Best Answer
Both. Initially you may find that hand sharpening is kind of slow but once you get the hang of it, and realise you really only need to just slightly touch up each tooth, you can be back cutting in about the same amount of time as it takes to swap chains, or even less.
Always take a spare chain. Even if you touch up the working one rather than swap it out, there's always a possibility of damaging the chain, necessitating a replacement.
Back home it's worth looking into the cost of having the chain(s) professionally sharpened, as opposed to the time you're going to take to do a similar job. Also, you should be able to get a bunch of sharpenings for the price of even a mediocre machine sharpener. At least that's how the costing works out where I am.