Anyone out there sharpen their own saw blades???

[Peter Christensen]

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???

Two points of view.
(1) It’s the operator running the machine not the machine. So priceless.

(2) It’s the operator running the machine not the machine. So $22.00 an hour.

[Bruce Wrenn]

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.

Tom, some still do. Scott Smith has a service that comes to his place regularly. Because he isn't far (less than 10miles) from me, I've been toying with the idea of having them do some of my blades.

[John Ziebron]

I'm with Ole in that I recently bought the Harbor Freight sharpener after watching many YouTube reviews and modifications. Their design is loosely based on some much more expensive European machines. Being a machinist as well allowed me to make a couple of rather simple parts allowing setup to be much less finicky and more solid.

I like using the Kempston rip blades on my TS and when the first one became dull I just ordered another due to their low cost. So that was my first "victim" to practice on but the resulting burn marks were disappointing. I remember one reviewer complaining about the coarse grit disk (probably 100) that comes with the unit. So I ordered one of those slow boat from China 600 grit disks and that made all the difference.

Scrap pieces of 4/4 red oak and 6/4 ash were ripped and the finish was silky smooth. I've since sharpened one of my dull Woodworker II blades and rips and especially crosscuts were as good as a new blade. Using a 25% off coupon (HF New Years sale) I'd say the $30 I paid for this sharpener was well worth it.