Sharpening carbide bandsaw blades?

[Jamie Buxton]

You folks who run carbide-tipped bandsaw blades, particularly the Lennox Trimaster, where do you get them sharpened?

[Phil Maddox]

I have not needed to sharpen mine in 5 years of moderate use. I was told that the bands would fatigue and break before the teeth would need to be re-sharpened.

Good luck

PHil

[Frank Fusco]

One sharpener gave me a quote of 20 cents per tooth, regular or carbide. Not economically feasible IMHO.

[Charlie Plesums]

I spoke to the folks at Timberwolf - Suffolk Machinery. They now sell carbide blades in addition to their traditional blades, and do offer a sharpening service (approximately 1/3 of the cost of a new blade). They can sharpen some but not all tooth profiles (not just their own blades), and suggested sending them a snapshot of the tooth - they felt they could tell from the picture. If you aren't confident, you can mail them the blade, and they will confirm if they can sharpen it.

Most carbide blades cost over $1 per inch, and mine is 2 to 3 tpi, so 20 cents per tooth amounts to 50 cents per inch...sounds a lot cheaper than a new blade. I would worry about my local sharpening shop having enough bandsaw blade experience to trust with my Tri Master - a couple hundred dollar blade.

[Jamie Buxton]

I have a Laguna Resaw King, which in my use needs to be sharpened every 3-6 months. With shipping two ways plus queueing time, it is generally out of my shop 3-4 weeks. I'm considering getting a second carbide blade so that I'll always have one on the saw. There's lots of enthusiasm on this board for the Lennox Trimaster, so I might try that. However, sharpening is a big part of my consideration -- hence the original question.

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

My bandsaw blade is carbide tipped, and the regular sharp shops won't touch it, I send it to a special place, but they are well priced, and the service is great.

costs about 1/3 of the cost of a new blade ($30)

http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/bandsaw/first_cuts/small_cuts3.jpg

I keep one worn out blade around if I have to cut some crappy stuff up for some reason, I'd rather mangle that blade than a good one (at $100 a blade).

Cheers!

[Jamie Buxton]

C'mon, don't any any of you Lennox Trimaster fans sharpen carbide bandsaw blades?

[Perry Holbrook]

I just bought my second Trimaster from a saw shop down the road in Hickory NC that sharpens for some of the local furniture plants. He said that he had sharpened the Trimaster a few times for those plants. One was pleased with the results the other was not. He said he would be willing to sharpen my old blade and see what I thought. We didn't discuss price at the time (last week). If you'll give me a couple of weeks, I'll give you some first hand info.

Perry

[Chris Padilla]

Sorry, Jamie, I haven't used mine enough to require a resharpen! :)

[Steve Wargo]

I've got the Lennox. I will take it to my local sharpening guy when the time comes. He told me it would cost about $30-$35 to resharpen. I have total faith in him. He does an excellent job on all the hand saws I send him. I am more than satisfied with the Lenox blade. Hope this helps.

[Ben Abate]

HI Steve,

dug up this old post about Lenox Tri Master carbide blades and seen your post. Since this post happened almost 6 years ago have you gotten any blades sharpened yet?????? You better have in 6 years right? Well just curious to see what was the outcome.

thanks
Ben