Sharpening band saw blades?

[David Pascoe]

After going thru three band saw blades per month sawing veneers, I acquired a rather large pile of dull blades and it seemed like such a waste. So i wondered if there were any chance that they could be resharpened. I bought a 3/32"chainsaw sharpening "stone" for my Dremel and set up a jig on my bench to hold and turn the blade while I ground each gullet.MY first effort was on a Woodslicer and much to my amazement, it cut even better than a brand new blade.

There was one limitation, though, and that was a blade could only be sharpened once; do it twice and it would no longer cut straight but wander off course. I have since sharpened about two dozen blades equally successfully.

I was wondering if anyone else resharpens their blades and what their experience is? A 105" blade with 315 teeth takes me about 20 mins to sharpen. On a $30 blade that seems worsth the effort.

[Dan Hahr]

I've done the same with an old Woodslicer that I hit a nail with. It worked very well. I used a Dremel with a larger bit, probably a 3/16". I only touched the tips slightly. I would guess that I could do it a time or so more...
Dan

[David Pascoe]

It surprises me how little interest there is in this topic. Either nobody uses blades all that much or this has been discussed much in the past.

[ray hampton]

It surprises me how little interest there is in this topic. Either nobody uses blades all that much or this has been discussed much in the past.

I would guess that the interest about the blades being resharpen would be greatest

[Judson Green]

I've resharpened a blade or two, also though it cut better. Haven't had the opportunity to sharpen the blade a second time. Did it on the bandsaw with a dremal type tool.

If you do a search I think you'll find this topic has been discussed before.

https://www.google.com/search?sitesearch=www.sawmillcreek.org&q=sharping+bandsaw&submit.x=0&submit.y=0&gws_rd=ssl

[Jim Andrew]

The local sawshop used to sharpen bandsaw blades, but no more. I tried it freehand, and not so good.

[Garth Almgren]

Matthias Wandel has an article and a video about this very topic. Worth checking out (hint: it's not for those with little or no patience!)
http://woodgears.ca/bandsaw/sharpening.html

[John TenEyck]

I sharpened my brand new Olson MVP bi metal that wouldn't cut straight using my chainsaw grinder. It took a bit of reconfiguring but it worked well enough. Best of all, the blade cut perfectly straight afterwards. Unfortunately I did something stupid a couple of months later and kinked the blade, so I never got a chance to see if I could do it a second time, but I would guess yes. I'll have no hesitation trying it again, however, when the need arises.

John

[Ken Platt]

I've sharpened a few, and think it's a really neat trick to get more use from a blade. I tend to do it hurriedly, so I doubt I'd be able to restore a blade to thin-veneer cutting type of performance. I mostly use my blades for rougher cuts though and the resharpening works well for getting a blade working reasonably well again. Highly recommended. A great youtube learnt technique.

Ken

[Mark Bolton]

My guess would be the only reason your getting just a single re-sharpen out of the blade is your grinding the set out of it. It becomes more difficult with subsequent sharpenings as you need to grind the entire profile of the blade to maintain the tooth geometry as well as the gullet depth and then of course you would have to very accurately set the blade.

I sharpen my blades for the bandsaw mill this way (entire profile and set) but they are far less fussy than the blades in question.

[Dan Hahr]

I will add that I'd probably only mess with blades that are 3-4 tpi. My other blades have just too shallow of a gullet.

Dan