Anyone out there sharpen their own saw blades???

[John TenEyck]

I sharpen some of my BS blades but my TS blades go to Dynamic Saw in Buffalo, NY. They are local to me, but I'd still send them there if I lived elsewhere. I've been in their place several times and they were happy to give me a tour and watch their machines run. At a cost of $10 - 15 for a typical TS blade, I don't see the point of trying to do it myself knowing I could never do as well.

Watch the video of the Vollmer grinder in operation. It's worth 3-1/2 minutes of your time. It can grind a lot more than the tooth face.

http://dynamicsaw.com/index.html

John

[Dan Baginski]

The place I take my TS blade to does it for $12 and it's about a week turn around. Kind of a no brainer for me.

[Chris Fournier]

Do some research and look at the machines that the professional sharpening services use and then ask yourself if your shop set up could do as well? I sharpen hand tools. I touch up machine cutters. I send out TS saw blades.

[Ole Anderson]

I sharpen everything... But don't forget that set is just as important...

In a steel blade yes, but the carbide, being wider than the plate, means set is not an issue with a carbide blade.

[Martin Siebert]

I think somehow we got a little off track...it was never my intention to cob up some cheesy homemade attempt at sharpening expensive carbide tipped saw blades to try and save .50 cents. Please do not take offense to this statement if you are one of the folks that sharpens blades with a homemade jig. I am sure yours works fine and if it does the job then you are way ahead of the game and you have my respect and admiration. I am definitely not above doing this by no means if it looks like the end result is the same.
My question is is it worth buying a decent, modern, good quality sharpening "system" {maybe that will sound a little better...} over sending blades out??? and which set up are you using??? I am a machinist by trade, so I feel like operating a sharpening machine will probably not present too overbearing of a challenge. I don't just need to sharpen one blade every six months and there is nobody close by that does it. I see these set ups for anywhere from $100.00 to $600 plus. At $30.00 per blade and up it wont take too long to equal out on the money thing {if they work}. I realize there is time involved actually doing it, but how many blades can you sharpen in the time it takes to box one up, address it, drive it to a shipping outfit and receive and un-box it??

[Ole Anderson]

Hey, any excuse for a new tool...

[Peter Christensen]

Viel tools in Quebec make sharpeners for saw blades among other types. Price is about $735US. https://www.vieltools.com/produit/ce...meule-320-1088 For myself because I'm not a heavy user it is more cost effective to have an extra blade or two and take them to the local saw sharpening place less than 30 minutes away. If they weren't around then mailing blades off would still make sense for me.

Now buying the profile grinder to make blades for my Williams and Hussey is something I would like to do.

[John Blazy]

I realize there is time involved actually doing it, but how many blades can you sharpen in the time it takes to box one up, address it, drive it to a shipping outfit and receive and un-box it??

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You just addressed the obvious, and thanks for stating it so eloquently. I am a professional with $5K overhead per month, so time is $. Anyone running a pro shop knows this, which is why I hold to a $200.00 minimum order for all my products because $50.00 of that minimum is spent printing shipping labels, packing and shipping, plus cost of shipping - all needed to send blades out, then return.

Maybe I need to shoot a side by side video of the four to six blades I can sharpen with my system in the same amount of time it takes to pack blades, print labels, drop off shipment, then wait for blades to return, then unpack.

The real advantage though for me (might be for others) is the convenience of sharpening on demand. Very addicting. I'm almost like the guys in the hand tool forum that make sharpening a zen-like religious experience (never joining the dark side)

I am cutting expensive composite resin / carbon fiber /plywood laminations all the time, and I have grown addicted to the zero bottom tearout and crisp top edge from a well sharpened blade, so I will often mount my diamond sharpener to dress up an already sharp blade, since its so quick to do.

If I were retired and have all the time in the world, then I would ship blades - did it for many years. Then there is the ancillary advantages to having a 600 grit diamond blade - sharpening router bits and carbide drill bits. I needed to make a step drill from carbide for drilling grip screw holes in my carbon fiber 1911 grips since they don't sell carbide step drills to these specs. The diamond blade did it perfectly.

bits.jpg1911-ccf-copper4x-full.jpg

[John K Jordan]

John Blazy, thanks for the posts. I like your sharpening jig and method. I'm a hobbyist but am also addicted to the on-demand sharpening. I don't use my table saw enough to make sharpening those blades a priority but I do sharpen bandsaw blades regularly, partly because I can extend the blade life, partly because I enjoy doing it - relaxing and satisfying, and partly because I really like doing things myself. I already have some high quality diamond disks.

JKJ

[brent stanley]

I think somehow we got a little off track...it was never my intention to cob up some cheesy homemade attempt at sharpening expensive carbide tipped saw blades to try and save .50 cents. Please do not take offense to this statement if you are one of the folks that sharpens blades with a homemade jig. I am sure yours works fine and if it does the job then you are way ahead of the game and you have my respect and admiration. I am definitely not above doing this by no means if it looks like the end result is the same.
My question is is it worth buying a decent, modern, good quality sharpening "system" {maybe that will sound a little better...} over sending blades out??? and which set up are you using??? I am a machinist by trade, so I feel like operating a sharpening machine will probably not present too overbearing of a challenge. I don't just need to sharpen one blade every six months and there is nobody close by that does it. I see these set ups for anywhere from $100.00 to $600 plus. At $30.00 per blade and up it wont take too long to equal out on the money thing {if they work}. I realize there is time involved actually doing it, but how many blades can you sharpen in the time it takes to box one up, address it, drive it to a shipping outfit and receive and un-box it??

Here's another, higher end option: ​https://www.scosarg.com/cit-july-600...for-tct-saw-bl

[Steve Demuth]

I realize there is time involved actually doing it, but how many blades can you sharpen in the time it takes to box one up, address it, drive it to a shipping outfit and receive and un-box it?

Understand that my answer is from the perspective of someone who does woodworking a few hours to a day a week, for relaxation and self-satisfaction, not a professional shop owner. So my needs differ.

That said, it takes me minutes to box a couple of blades and get them ready to ship (I keep the boxes ready from the last time they were used), and no time at all to actually ship, since I just put the box in the outgoing, and it gets shipped when I have a compelling reason to go to the shipping store.

I do "hone" my carbide blades. A very simply jig is sufficient to make it straitforward to freshen up the edge with a flat diamond file. But if they need anything more than 3 swipes of that file per tooth, I send them out. I would enjoy sharpening my own if I had the tools. I do it with lots of other types of blades, and its quite satisfying. But to me, a table saw blade is a precision tool, and I would want a machine matched to that expectation - which would be a dumb use of money for the amount I do, and the space I have.

[Martin Siebert]

Thank you gentlemen for all the replies. Some very good points and interesting thoughts. It is all very greatly appreciated!!!

[Tom M King]

I miss the days when a Saw Service would have a guy come around in a van, pick anything up that needed to be sharpened, and then drop them off next week on his rounds. There was no charge for anything but the sharpening. No packaging needed. That was when wages were cheap, and gas was less than a buck a gallon though. I don't remember any prices but for sharpening a hand saw, and that was $1.50 with a really nice job done.

[James Biddle]

I've seen the complex machinery it takes to sharpen a blade accurately...you can't duplicate that by hand and most likely not with a $50k machine. Own more than one blade and send the other in.

[Martin Siebert]

I've seen the complex machinery it takes to sharpen a blade accurately...you can't duplicate that by hand and most likely not with a $50k machine. Own more than one blade and send the other in.

Do I understand this correctly that you believe a saw blade cannot be properly sharpened with a $50,000.00 {50K} machine???? What does the machine cost that actually will do it right???