sharpening timberwolf bandsaw blades

[lou sansone]

good afternoon WW's
I was wondering if any of you have tried to sharpen your bandsaw blades.

I have been pretty successfully in sharpening my band mill blades in the past, but I had not tried to sharpen my vertical bandsaw blades up until now.

I called timberwolf about sharpening them and they told me that blades under an 1" wide were disposable. So I figured "what the heck" and tried to sharpen my 1/2" tpi blade and low and behold it worked great( it actually seemed to cut better than when I get them fresh out of the box) . I lost a little kerf, but it is better than throwing the blade away. Due to the size of my saw, a single blade is ~ $48 direct from timberwolf. So if some of you are interested I can provide some photos to show how it is done with a dremel in about 20 minutes.

lou



ok ...... here are the photos and the method that I have used my band mill, and now on my shop band saw.

1. size the dremel bit so that it is just a scooch under the gullet diameter of the band saw blade. For what ever reason, the stones do not seem to last that long. I used 2 for a 20 foot blade, but they are only 75 cents each, so for $1.50 to sharpen my $48 blade that is not too bad

2. I keep the band on the saw while sharpening it. I use one hand to hold the blade and the other to run the dremel. Right or wrong, I keep the dremel at a right angle to all the teeth tips. I don't try to angle it one way or the other depending on which way the tooth is set ( unlike a chain saw blade where you do tilt the file )

3. I enter the gullet and sweep upward toward the tip of the blade. Basically as soon as you give the tip a good "kiss" with the stone you can drop back down and slide back down the gullet all the way down to the top of the lower tooth tip. I slide right off the lower tooth tip as if it was a "ski jump" for the dremel.

4. What you are doing is creating a new cutting edge for the tooth by sharpening the under side of the tooth tip and the top of it as well.

5. It sort of takes some rhythm to get going, but just keep in mind

"swing up till you kiss the top tip and swing down, and slide off the lower tip "

here is a quick and dirty cut with the blade after sharpening and cutting a bunch of other cherry stock. I free hand cut this board, without a fence, so it is a little wavy, but you can see the decent finish.

enjoy
Lou

[Joseph N. Myers]

Lou,

Yes, would be very interested in seeing how it is done. Mine blades are 105", about $17 ea, but would be great to save a few bucks (and save the trouble ordering them),

TIA, Joe

[Frank Fusco]

Please do.

[Jim Hinze]

Lou,

I'd be VERY interested sir... please describe away.

[Jim Tobias]

Yes, very interested!

Jim

[Nick Roper]

The good folks at Suffolk are definately in business to make money. I can't even imagine throwing out a perfectly good blade simply because it needed to be sharpened.
I use a dremel chain saw stone in my rotozip. Holding the tool perpendicular to the blade hit each gullet in a kissing motion in and out two times per tooth. It takes about 1 second per tooth. I don't use blades I have sharpened for their fine finish however, relegating them to duty for soap stone, bowl blanks and green wood, but I have more than one of them that have been sharpened at least 5 times with no cracks or fractures or broken blades.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Several years ago FWW did an article on using bench gringer with narrow wheel to resharpen bandsaw blades. Blades were indexed by a ratchet mech. (clothespin). Author stated a common problem with stock BS blades. Most are sharpened with teeth more suitable for cross cutting, than ripping, which is more commonly done on BS. That means teeth have sharp, alternating points, instead of square ripping teeth. This means points of teeth quickly become dull. One could probably take a cheap compound miter saw, or chainsaw saw sharpener from HF and make a good sharpening station for BS blades. Do a search for Bill Rakes site on BS mills, as someone has done this for BS mill blades.

[Robert Mickley]

I actually have a chainsaw grinder that was set up for sharpening the blades for my mill. Since I started using woodmizer resharp service I converted it back to chainsaw sharpening.

One thing I learned is DO NOT get a squared off edge in the gullet. The transition has to be smooth. Every blade I've ever broken on the mill was sharpened by me and that where they would break

[Don Henthorn Smithville, TX]

Age has a way of fouling up one's fine muscle coordination. But I used to sharpen my bandsaw blades with an electric chainsaw sharpener. Takes practice, but one can develop the skill. Doesn't take much to restore the points on the teeth. Once those sharp points are dulled the blade is going to wander. The whole tooth does not need sharpening, just the very tip of the tooth.

I remember one magazine showed how to make a little machine which would sharpen blades. That was over twenty years ago. The machine was a little fussy to build, but didn't take any fancy parts. Did a fairly good job. Can't remember if it was FWW or WWJ. or ?

[Kevin Blunt]

please let us in on how you do this. My bandasw blades are 131 5/8" and are somewhat costly. This would be excellent know how.

Kevin

[Brett Baldwin]

A bandsaw blade sharpening tutorial would be great Lou. I just dulled the bejeezus out of my blade resawing some purpleheart and it hasn't seen a full hour's use yet. I bought another anyway but hate the idea of getting half a good use out of it before putting it in the recycling bin.

[lou sansone]

The good folks at Suffolk are definately in business to make money. I can't even imagine throwing out a perfectly good blade simply because it needed to be sharpened.
I use a dremel chain saw stone in my rotozip. Holding the tool perpendicular to the blade hit each gullet in a kissing motion in and out two times per tooth. It takes about 1 second per tooth. I don't use blades I have sharpened for their fine finish however, relegating them to duty for soap stone, bowl blanks and green wood, but I have more than one of them that have been sharpened at least 5 times with no cracks or fractures or broken blades.

hi guys

thanks for the feedback. nick has basically described it pretty well. I will take a couple of photos this morning of how I sharpen the blade and an example of the cut produced by it.

lou

[Tim Johnson]

Question: Lou, have you also tried cleaning some of the resin buildup off the blade too? It would appear from your photos that the buildup on the blade may be causing some slowdown as well. I have found that cleaning the resin off can cause the blade to act just like new most of the time.

[Kevin Blunt]

Thanks Lou,

Where do you purcahse those stones? Great to see ho wyou do it. Thanks.

Kevin

[lou sansone]

Question: Lou, have you also tried cleaning some of the resin buildup off the blade too? It would appear from your photos that the buildup on the blade may be causing some slowdown as well. I have found that cleaning the resin off can cause the blade to act just like new most of the time.

Tim
I have cleaned the blades at times, but this particular blade had really gotten pretty dull from sawing some dirty lumber ( one of those stupid things that I some times do and later regret ). Believe me the sharpening helped dramatically

Lou

[lou sansone]

Thanks Lou,

Where do you purcahse those stones? Great to see ho wyou do it. Thanks.

Kevin

I buy the stones from mcmaster carr.... 5 stones for $3.78 120 grit
part # 8921a154

lou