Chain type for ripping with chainsaw

I've heard there are different types of chains for ripping vs cross cutting.  How would I go about finding one of these chains?  I intend to mill up some beams from a white pine that broke off this winter.  I've sawn big logs in half lengthwise before but I suspect it would go faster with the proper chain.  

I won't be using an Alaska mill, I'll be cutting noodles as I walk down the log.  Similar to Advoko:

They're just a chipper tooth profile with a top plate angle of 10-12 degrees rather than 30-35 degrees for crosscutting. They are available on ebay I've seen, or you can regrind one yourself. For what you describe, I would just make sure your chain is sharp and not bother with it. I don't think the gains would be worth the trouble.

Thanks Jordan, I'll just stick with what I've got then.  Yay!   I did kind of wonder since the cutting seems to happen at the tip of the bar and it's not really ripping or cross cutting.

I would say cutting with the cutters moving along the same plane as the direction of the wood fibers would be ripping. Even then, cutting the fibers into short pieces by moving the cutters perpendicular to the direction of the grain is much more work than cutting at a much more acute angle to it. Imagine cutting with a chisel for perspective. End grain is much more difficult and unforgiving of dull tools.

As with a handsaw, a crosscut filing pattern will do better at ripping (usually) than a ripping pattern will do at crosscutting. Crosscutting needs a wider kerf due to the ends of the wood fibers sticking out and wanting to bind the blade. Softwoods generally need a wider kerf still, due to the greater difficulty to cleanly sever the fibers. The cleaner the fibers are cut, the better. This isn't much of an issue with ripping, because the fibers are running mostly parallel with the blade travel. Thinking about it, while the ripping chains would be better for a mill, the way you plan to do it might actually do better with a standard crosscut chain since a wider kerf may be more forgiving of guiding the bar by hand.

Thanks for explaining the physics, that all makes a lot of sense!

Mike Haasl wrote:Thanks Jordan, I'll just stick with what I've got then.  Yay!   I did kind of wonder since the cutting seems to happen at the tip of the bar and it's not really ripping or cross cutting.

Ripping is cutting with the grain, cross cutting is cutting across the grain. Has nothing to do with what part of the saw is cutting.

I agree that you don't need a specialized ripping chain. It's certainly not necessary for your purposes. Even in the community of chainsaw millers, there's a ton of debate over whether or not rip chains are in any sense better than conventional cross cut chains.