Sherem SawSharpener Review: 3 Minutes to a Sharp Chain

Specifications

First impressions out of the box

The whole thing fits in one hand. That is the first thing everyone says, and it is genuinely the point: the body is anodised alloy, the clamp is machined, and the spare burrs sit in the box like drill bits. It weighs less than a full water bottle, which is the difference between a tool you carry and a tool you leave in the shed.

The finish is better than I expected for a tool sold direct rather than through a dealer network. The knobs turn without slop, the clamp jaws are square, and the crank handle has no play in the socket. I have handled cheap knock-offs of this style of tool at swap meets and they rattle; this one does not.

Setting it up the first time

There are two steps and they take about a minute the first time. You set the clamp onto the bar and tighten it with the three knobs so the body sits square over the chain, then you position the pawl against the tooth you want to sharpen and slide the burr into the guide sleeve. The guide sleeve is what does the real work — it fixes the approach angle so the burr can only meet the cutter at 30°.

That is the crucial difference from hand filing. With a file, your wrist supplies the angle and it drifts. Here the geometry is mechanical, so cutter number forty comes out identical to cutter number one whether you are fresh or exhausted.

What it is actually like to use

You turn the handle. That is it. The burr spins against the cutting edge and after two or three seconds the cutter has a clean silver edge. You retract the burr, pull the chain forward by hand to the next tooth, drop the pawl, and repeat. The rhythm becomes automatic within about six teeth.

The comparison everybody makes is a pencil sharpener, and having used it for a season I understand why. There is no skill in it. There is no judgement call. You are not deciding anything — you are repeating an identical mechanical motion around the chain.

For an 18" chain I average a shade under three minutes for a full touch-up. A badly abused chain that has kissed dirt takes longer, because you go round twice, but it is still measured in minutes rather than the half-hour a file would need.

How the cut changed

The honest test is not how the chain looks but how it behaves in wood. After the first sharpening I put the bar into a thick trunk and let the saw's own weight feed it. It pulled itself through. Long, curled chips came off the kerf instead of powder, and the cut face was square rather than curved — which tells you the cutters on both sides ended up the same length and angle.

There was no smoke, and the bar came out of the cut warm rather than hot. That matters, because heat is what draws the temper out of cutters and ends a chain's life early.

Where it fits in a working day

The scenario that sold me was a storm clean-up job in July. Four properties in a day, wet ground, grit everywhere, and by the second address my chain was cutting like a butter knife. Historically that meant either fighting the saw for the rest of the day or driving back for a spare chain.

Instead I sharpened on the tailgate while my ground crew cleared brush, and I was cutting again before they finished. That is a real hour saved, twice, in one day.

Climbing is the other case. You cannot take a bench grinder up a rope. You can put this in a pocket.

Evidence beyond my own experience

The manufacturer's own presale page cites over 64,000 customers and a 4.8 out of 5 average rating, and it is transparent that the product is sold through its official store rather than retail. I could not independently verify the review count or the current price from a second source, so I am not going to put a number on this page that I cannot stand behind — see the pricing note below.

What I can verify is mechanical: the 30° preset angle, the 6"–22" bar compatibility, the anodised alloy construction, and the two-step operation are all demonstrable with the tool in hand, and they match what the maker claims.

Durability and maintenance

Burrs are consumables — that is the running cost of this design, exactly as grinding wheels are for a bench grinder and files are for hand sharpening. Spares come in the box and swapping one takes seconds with the supplied wrench.

The clamp is the part I watched most carefully, because it is what takes the load. After a season of daily-ish use the jaws still sit square and the knobs still bite. I wipe it down with an oily rag and it lives in the fuel bag; there is no rust on it.

Price, guarantee and where to buy

The official checkout listed one Sherem SawSharpener at $49.99 against a $79.99 list price when independently checked on August 19, 2026 — a 38% saving. Pricing, shipping and guarantee terms can change, so confirm the current details at checkout before you buy.

We also strongly agree with the maker on one point: there are knock-offs of this design in circulation, and the loose, rattly ones give the whole category a bad name. Buy from the official store.

Alternatives worth considering

If you own exactly one 3/8" pitch saw and you already file by hand, the Stihl 2 in 1 Easy File is excellent and does the depth gauge in the same stroke. If you like traditional bar-mounted guides and are patient, the Granberg File-N-Joint G-106B is the classic. The Oregon Q90405 kit is the cheapest way in, and the Oregon bench grinder is the right answer for a workshop sharpening chains all week. Each of those is reviewed on this site.

Alternatives

• #2 Stihl 2 in 1 Easy File Chainsaw Chain Sharpener 3/8" — Owners of a single 3/8" pitch saw
• #3 Granberg File-N-Joint G-106B Bar-Mounted Sharpener — Patient users who like traditional file guides
• #4 Oregon Q90405 Chain Sharpening & Guide Bar Maintenance Kit — Budget-minded homeowners with a small saw
• #5 Oregon Professional Compact 120-Volt Bench Chain Grinder — Workshops sharpening many chains a week