Sharpening service (Forrest and others)

[Andrew Nemeth]

I have 2 Forrest WWII 10" table saw blades and I need to have one sharpened. Should I use Forrest's sharpening service or will any reputable sharpening service be able to sharpen the blade back to "like new" condition? If another service is acceptable, are there any recommendations for a service in or around central Ohio?

Also, the factory knives on my Jet 15" planer and 6" joiinter (pre reversable knives) are in need of a refresher. Should I have them sharpened or purchase new blades? Any rocomendations for a sharpening service for planer/jointer knives or a source for high quality replacements?

[Maurice Ungaro]

Send the Forrest blades back to Forrest. They know what they're doing.

[Chris Schumann]

New Freud 6" blades are about $17 from Amazon (use SMC's store!) so unless you are close to a service, new blades are pretty cheap.

I'm guessing 15" planer blades would run a bit more.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Send the Forrest blades back to Forrest. They know what they're doing.Yeah, cleaning your wallet out! There is nothing magical about the grind on a Forrest WWII. Any good sharpener can sharpen it. Check out Dynamic Saw in Buffalo NY (dynamicsaw.com). I have sent blades to Forrest, and Dynamic. Only thing I can say Forrest does that Dynamic doesn't is - OVER CHARGE ME! Even with two excellent sharpeners here locally, I send my blades in a USPS flat rate priority mail box, to Dynamic. Take a look at the sharpening equiptment that Dynamic has, as it is state of the art.

[Daniel Berlin]

Yeah, cleaning your wallet out! There is nothing magical about the grind on a Forrest WWII. Any good sharpener can sharpen it. Check out Dynamic Saw in Buffalo NY (dynamicsaw.com). I have sent blades to Forrest, and Dynamic. Only thing I can say Forrest does that Dynamic doesn't is - OVER CHARGE ME! Even with two excellent sharpeners here locally, I send my blades in a USPS flat rate priority mail box, to Dynamic. Take a look at the sharpening equiptment that Dynamic has, as it is state of the art.

Damn you.
Now i want a woodtronic CNC 6F.

[Jim Becker]

I have always been pleased with Forrest's sharpening service myself.

[Pat Germain]

Forrest will do a good job. But it's cheaper and more convenient if you can find a good, local sharpener. This can be a challenge becaus you typically have to avoid the big, mass production shops which are the norm these days. If you can't find a good local sharpener, by all means ship your blade to Forrest.

I'm fortunate to have a great sharpener nearby here in Colorado Springs. When my WWII came back from Rick's Edge, it cut better than new! Which reminds me. I need to go pick up my blade from Rick's Edge today. It's good to be off work during the week. :)

[Andrew Nemeth]

Thanks for all your input guys!!!

I looked at Forrest's prices and it is $20.50 to sharpen a 10" WWII, I was expecting it to be more. How much could I expect to pay if I find a quality local shop?

What about planer and jointer knives? Looks like the the price to buy new jointer knives (freud)will be about the same as sending them off for sharpening. Is there a reason I shoould sharpen my old ones instead of buying new? Sharpening 15" Planer knives will set me back about $40 through Forrest and new ones from amazon are $45-$50. What about those.

Thanks again!!!

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

I checked out Dynamic and Forrest.....there's a place near here that does it and it'd be worth my while to save on shipping. has anyone ever used Burs Power Tools in Fall River, MA for sharpening?

[Joe Chritz]

Expect somewhere around $0.20 - $0.30 per tooth. It is often less for a blade with more teeth (per tooth) than less since the set up is a lot of the effort in sharpening the blade.

I sharpen my own with a Foley-Belsaw sharpening station and there isn't much to doing it correctly so it shouldn't be hard for a service to do it well.

Checking with a local cabinet shop and asking where they go to get sharpening done is a good start.

Joe

[Dewayne Reding]

Don't mean to hijack this thread, but how do you know when a WWII really needs sharpened? I don't have any burning or sluggish cutting going on, but it seems it doesn't cut quite as clean as it once did. Or my memory fails me again on how it cut when new.

Teeth are not damaged, but they don't have a real sharp edge feel to the touch.

[Andrew Nemeth]

Well, I knew mine was due when I put on a new WWII (that i got off of ebay with 30% off. Sorry, had to gloat) and compared the cuts. I also notice that the teeth on the new blade are really shiny. I can actually see glare on them when it is spinning. My older blade is not nearly as shiny. I was also getting a slight bit of burning while ripping cherry and maple. Other than just having a feel for it I wonder if you might be able to see a difference if you looked at the teeth under a loop.

[Rod Sheridan]

Thanks for all your input guys!!!

I looked at Forrest's prices and it is $20.50 to sharpen a 10" WWII, I was expecting it to be more. How much could I expect to pay if I find a quality local shop?

What about planer and jointer knives? Looks like the the price to buy new jointer knives (freud)will be about the same as sending them off for sharpening. Is there a reason I shoould sharpen my old ones instead of buying new? Sharpening 15" Planer knives will set me back about $40 through Forrest and new ones from amazon are $45-$50. What about those.

Thanks again!!!

Hi, when I had a planer and jointer that used standard knives, I always sent them out for grinding.

The service I used charged $0.50 per inch, which worked out to $4 and $7 per knife for the jointer and planer respectively. Since I used 18% Tungsten knives, the sharpening cost was much lower than purchasing new knives.

However, my Hammer A3-31 uses double sided knives, that cost about the same as sharpening my old planer twice, so the disposable knives in the Hammer cost the same as the old system.

If you aren't using a higher grade of knife than stock, it may not be economical to sharpen your knives.

Regards, Rod.

[Andrew Nemeth]

Well, If I am going to upgrade blades now would be the time to do it. I'm a bit concerned about upgrading to carbide because of it's brittleness. Do the carbide blades have any other benefits other than staying sharp longer? I'm all for quality cutters and tooling when appropriate but I'm not interested in burning up money either.

[Jim Kountz]

I use a local service here. They charge me about $10 for a 10" 40 tooth blade. Router bits are about $2-3 depending on size and they always do a great job. I would never send another blade to Forrest after learning you can get the same job done for about half the price. As others have stated there is nothing magical about their grind so any quality service can duplicate it just fine. Of course Forrest will tell you different.....hmmmm I wonder why?? Couldnt be so they can charge more could it?? Nah!!

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

Dewayne,
You know they need sharpening when you have to push harder than you feel should be necessary. I am afraid there is no objective method. If you wait too long, the sharpening service will have to remove more carbide to get to a sharp edge. Additionally, you risk your fingers. Dull blades build up heat and will collect more pitch than a sharp one,given the same species of lumber. Clean your blade if there is pitch and if you still feel you have to push harder then you are comfortable, send it out. I trust Forrest to sell me blades so it is natural I like to return them to them for service.

I send my jointer and planer blades to Eric Barr at Expert Die. Email him for a price at xpertdie@alltel.net. The last time I had 12" blades sharpened they cost $7.50 each and they were perfect, far better than my ability to set up the machine.

Faust Ruggiero

[Tom Walz]

1. If you live in an area where there are cabinet shops, saw mills etc then there is almost certainly one or more professional level saw shops. These are the folks with millions of dollars worth of equipment and decades of experience. They primarily do business by having service people running routes to industrial customers. They sometime have pick up and drop off in hardware stores.

There are also folks with manual equipment and very high skill elves to do a much smaller number of tools but who specialize in odd, strange and custom tools.


2. Burns Power Tools is an old and well respected name on the professional side of the industry.

3. In my opinion- Forrest does have a unique grind. They give beautiful cuts because their side clearance is so small. They also have a separate grinding operation to grind the vertical marks and the slight taper on the shoulder behind the saw tooth. In my opinion Forrest has the highest cost of manufacturing of any company in the business.

There is no secret and no magic to what Forrest does. They have just targeted the craftsperson market with a unique blade grind. The major drawback to the Forrest blades is that the narrow side clearance means they can heat up pretty fast from rubbing and they may not be particularly suitable for continuous cutting in an industrial application.

4. Re: Brittle carbide

Modern carbide is very tough. It can cut through a 12 penny saw nail on a 30” mill saw going about 10,000 rpm. However it can break and you still need safety gear such as eye protection. . If you are cutting up old flooring then get a really tough grade with nail cutting tips. For home woodworking you shouldn’t have any problems if you buy a good blade. If you really want to know about this see our sections on carbide and brazing at www.carbideprocessors.com

We did a test where we fired carbide tips from a shotgun.
http://www.carbideprocessors.com/bullet_proof_carbide.htm

5. If you think your blade needs sharpening then get it sharpened. As the blade gets dull the edges round and the duller it gets the more they have to take off to sharpen it which drastically reduces the number of sharpenings you will get out if it. Once the blade starts to get dull the dulling process accelerates. A dull blade feeds harder, leaves poorer cuts and heats up more. A duller blade also gets dirtier faster because the excess heat melts the sap, glue whatever in what you are cutting.

We typically use about a 30x lens to inspect tool tips. Seems to be about the best. Look for micro-chipping and edge rounding.

[Nancy Laird]

Scott Whiting (a member here) at Scott's Sharpening Service in Glendale, Arizona, does all of our blades, and does a great job. He is VERY reasonable. Check him out.