Stump must die!

 I was painfully dull, cutting that root ball made it dull after about 20 seconds. Chain was doing really well before that.. The chain is really really close to its end of life so it was the perfect task for it before I resharpen it on the bench grinder. Hopefully I get a few more crappy tasks like this out of that chain before it completly dies on me. I wasn't about to put my brand new fresh chain on it and cut up stumps though..

 word - I hear ya. roots are the worst. I usually shave the outer skin off with an axe before dumping a chain in. As long as the root doesn have imbedded rocks it'll stay reasonably sharp for a bunch of cuts. Also, plunging the saw in and working from the inside - out works decently well. Most of the dulling action takes place on the skin of roots.

 Thanks, good to know, I hear diesel fuel will turn it to mush if let sit for a while... Next time I think I will use a come-along instead, that was a 3 day job of brutal work at least!!! live n learn..

 A come-along is no good unless you leave yourself as much stump as possible for some leverage (as high as you can cut with the saw). Even then, it gets kind of scary with that much energy stored in the winch and line...i busted my 2-ton winch trying to yank over a 6 foot stump of a tree smaller than what you have here.

I also tend to dig them down a fair bit further than you had - it's always the root that goes straight down that's the biggest ball ache. digdigdig.