Anyone sharpen bandsaw blades?

[Dave Cav]

I have a couple of dull 3/4" blades from our 20" Delta bandsaw at school. On the other saws (PM 141s) I usually only change the blades when they break or get a bad kink in them, but we seldom break the 20" BS blades. I hate to toss the dull blades and was thinking of trying to touch them up by hand with a chain saw file. Anyone ever done this? I seem to recall a comment in one of Krenov's books that he sharpened BS blades, but that's about it.

Thanks
Dave

[george wilson]

I have sharpened many 1/4" 6 tooth blades. I just BARELY touch each tip to a bench grinder. They usually cut better than new. But,it takes some skill to get away with it.

[Dave Cav]

Thanks, George. The blades I have are (I believe) hook tooth, which is why I suggested I might use a round chain saw file on the underside of the tooth. Are you suggesting I could get away with a light grinding on the outer face of the tooth? I would be using an 80 grit blue zirconia belt to touch them up so the sharpening wouldn't be as aggressive as with a conventional grinding wheel.

I suspect it would also help to clean the gum and other crap off the blades with oven cleaner prior to sharpening...

[Paul Atkins]

80 grit is too coarse as far as I'm concerned. I'm not sure you'd have fun with a file. I use a Dremel with a chain saw grind stone and barely touch the underside usually. Will Mallof showed a bunch of us to grind the outside tip barely with a flat grind which makes it a better rip blade. Ah, pictures worth a 1000 words.

[Lee Schierer]

Thanks, George. The blades I have are (I believe) hook tooth, which is why I suggested I might use a round chain saw file on the underside of the tooth. Are you suggesting I could get away with a light grinding on the outer face of the tooth? I would be using an 80 grit blue zirconia belt to touch them up so the sharpening wouldn't be as aggressive as with a conventional grinding wheel.

I suspect it would also help to clean the gum and other crap off the blades with oven cleaner prior to sharpening...

I'm not sure a file will cut a bandsaw blade. Generally the cost of bandsaw blades is such that it isn't considered cost effective to resharpen them except for larger commercial saw blades. YMMV if you have time you don't know what to do with.

[Kirk Poore]

I've resharpened the 1" 3tpi blade I have on my 30" BS. I used a dremel with a diamond bit. The blade is 17' long and it took 15-20 minutes. It certainly helped a lot, though I think of this as more of a practice run since I only use that blade for firewood.

Kirk

[Phil Thien]

I use the same method as Paul (1/8" round diamond bit in a rotary tool). I push it into the gullet of the blade.

I purchased a brand-new bimetal blade and squashed the set and sharpened it w/ my rotary tool and now I have a super-sharp bimetal blade with a thin kerf. Great for resawing.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Fine Woodworking did an article on sharpening band saw blades over twenty years ago. Author used a modified bench grinder, This was before you could buy a compound miter saw for almost nothing. Also, you could use a chain saw sharpener from HF. Look at band sharpening rigs for portable saw mills for ideas. Main thing is to index each tooth to sharpening wheel, and limit depth of cut by abrasive wheel. Wheels can readily be shaped to match pattern of teeth.

[Neil Brooks]

FWIW, It's my understanding that oven cleaner is a no-no -- particularly on carbide-tipped or carbide-based blades.

Things like Goo-gone, Simple Green, citrus cleaners, or even WD-40 are probably better and safer. Brass or nylon bristled brush.

I soak mine in my parts washer w/50% Simple Green. No problems. Same with my TS blades.

[Dave Cav]

FWIW, It's my understanding that oven cleaner is a no-no -- particularly on carbide-tipped or carbide-based blades.



Not goin' there....nope, really...

[george wilson]

I just use a relatively fine white grinding wheel on a bench grinder to barely touch the tops of the teeth.It is best if you do every other tooth,turn the blade over,and do the in between teeth. IF you can manage to hold the blade exactly 90 degrees to the wheel,you could just do every tooth. The idea is to keeo the saw from wanting to pull in 1 direction while cutting.

I think a blade would be pretty hard on a file. The Dremel idea sounds good if the diamond burr holds out. I stoned a carbide tooth resaw blade with a diamond fish hook slipstone that cost about $5.00. It pretty well did in the stone,but the blade was sharp enough for more use. Soon after I put the blade back on,the weld broke,and the blade got mangled. $125.00 gone!!

[Dave Cav]

Fine Woodworking did an article on sharpening band saw blades over twenty years ago. Author used a modified bench grinder, This was before you could buy a compound miter saw for almost nothing. Also, you could use a chain saw sharpener from HF. Look at band sharpening rigs for portable saw mills for ideas. Main thing is to index each tooth to sharpening wheel, and limit depth of cut by abrasive wheel. Wheels can readily be shaped to match pattern of teeth.

Now that you mention that I think I read that article and tried it, about 20 years ago, with 3/8" bandsaw blades. I remember I made a very fussy little indexing fixture that bolted up to my bench grinder. It didn't work very well, probably because it was made out of cheap pine/hemlock lumber....my dad saw it and decided I had WAY too much time on my hands.

A little web searching turned up several references to sharpening BS blades using a Dremel and either a chain saw stone or a flat cutoff wheel and just touching up the teeth. I might try that.

[Neil Brooks]

Not goin' there....nope, really...

Did I just step in it?

Bottom of my shoe looks clean ;-)

[bob hertle]

Ho-made tool and cutter grinder, shown set up to sharpen a 1.2 inch-3T Trimaster. (this is the second sharpening)

140192

140193

140194

Bob

Edit: Sorry about that, 1/2 inch Trimaster

[Dan O'Sullivan]

I have a couple of dull 3/4" blades from our 20" Delta bandsaw at school. On the other saws (PM 141s) I usually only change the blades when they break or get a bad kink in them, but we seldom break the 20" BS blades. I hate to toss the dull blades and was thinking of trying to touch them up by hand with a chain saw file. Anyone ever done this? I seem to recall a comment in one of Krenov's books that he sharpened BS blades, but that's about it.

Thanks
Dave
Dave
I think I have the same DBS. If the sharpening does not work on this blade, take a look at Lenox bimetal for school use. I have the 3tpi for resaw and rip work. It is the toughest blade I have found after 25 years of hard work on the saw. I have some expensive blades for expensive wood resaw work but the bimetal Lenox(141") is just about the toughest blade I have ever used.
After one blade just dulled out, I made all of my scraping tools with it.

I'm not in a big industrial rush but regrinding 141 inches of blade is a bit time consuming. Maybe?
dan

[george wilson]

My suggestion on sharpening 1/4" blades was only a way to get one more,possibly 2 more lives out of a 1/4" blade. you are grinding the set off the blade every time you "spark" the tops of the teeth.

If you want to get serious about larger blades,and want to go to the trouble and expense,obviously a much better setup,like the one shown above is needed. It needs to be able to properly index the teeth,and the wheel needs to fit the blade's contour.

You also need the ability to re set the teeth.

A friend of mine had a Wood Miser(sp?) bandsaw mill. He certainly had to be able to process each expensive blade several times each. Especially since he was cutting logs up,with whatever dirt,nails,etc was in the bark.

I have quite a pile of very old narrow grinding wheels,and gave him one. It was much better than any he could buy. An educated guess on my part. He got quite a bit of use out of it. I only had one of that particular spec. in my assortment. He was never able to find a currently available wheel as good as that old one had been.

[Dave Cav]

Dave
I think I have the same DBS. If the sharpening does not work on this blade, take a look at Lenox bimetal for school use. I have the 3tpi for resaw and rip work. It is the toughest blade I have found after 25 years of hard work on the saw. I have some expensive blades for expensive wood resaw work but the bimetal Lenox(141") is just about the toughest blade I have ever used.
After one blade just dulled out, I made all of my scraping tools with it.

I'm not in a big industrial rush but regrinding 141 inches of blade is a bit time consuming. Maybe?
dan

Depends on the budget....right now I can buy regular steel BS blades for the Delta 20" for around $20. A bimetal will be quite a bit more, and a carbide more still. I have been strongly tempted to try bimetal or carbide, but the problem is the students tend to be very hard on band saw blades, so for the time being cheaper is probably better, especially if I can get one or two quick sharpenings using a dremel tool right on the saw. My budget is pretty tight, and I would rather spend it on more wood and supplies at this point.

Thanks again for all the comments and information. The grinding setup Bob posted was really cool.

[Dave Cav]

Did I just step in it?

Bottom of my shoe looks clean ;-)

Cleaning saw blades is up there with other religious topics like waterstones vs scary sharp, how much to flatten the sole of a plane, the safety of radial arm saws, and table saw guards. I'll just say that I have been using oven cleaner for over 20 years and haven't had a saw blade fall apart yet, and it leaves the carbide teeth nice and shiny. You can find plenty of information on the web to support both positions, and since it's on the internet, it must ALL be true, right?

BTW, Scary Sharp, flat enough but not too flat, very safe, and a splitter but no guard....(at home. School is a different story.)