How often do you sharpen TS blades, and why?

Re: How often do you sharpen TS blades, and why?

Terry Quiram

I like my blades sharp. I don't wait until they are"dull". Not only is a dull blade dangerous it will burns faster and you get less than a pristine edge.

Re: How often do you sharpen TS blades, and why?

Jesse Cloud

Its a pretty subjective thing. Excessive burning or less than crisp edges. Its a good idea, for safety sake, to check tooth by tooth every so often for chips off the teeth (get the tooth replaced).

On the other hand, if you have never had your blades sharpened, its pretty likely that they are ready.

Get one sharpened (its not expensive) and compare the amount of effort needed to push a workpiece thru and the quality of the cut to same thing with a dull blade.

Re: How often do you sharpen TS blades, and why?

David Yoho

Interesting question. I suppose it depends on how much use and type of material cut. This brings up another question - how often does one clean their blade? A clean blade cuts cooler and better from my experience.

I have only used Forrest blades on my saws. My tablesaw blade is over 25 years old and I've only sent it back twice. Both times because of a chipped tooth, which they replaced and sharpened the blade. While I'm not using it nearly as much as I once was, it still cuts like it should.

Sharp blades cut cleaner, faster

Kneale Brownson

I used to frequent garage sales, so I have several dozen blades for various saws. I have boards with bolts in them for each size of blade and for "fresh" and "need sharpening" storage. When I'm running short of a blade group, I take the ones needing sharpening to the shop I use and then put them on the "fresh" storage board.

Re: How often do you sharpen TS blades, and why?

Barry Irby

This really is a "How high is up?" question. I tend to cut a larger variety of things. My general use blade is a Forrest WWII I have had for over ten years and had sharpened twice. I pack it up and send it back to Forrest. My understanding is that they use their own tooth geometry and can do a better job of sharpening their own blade than others. I don't know if that's true, but I like the blade and it works for me. One thing they told me is that many of the blades they receive for sharpening are dirty and not really dull and sometimes they are tempted to clean them and send them back.

Among the many other blades I have is a Freud Glue Line Rip blade I bought principally to cut flat bottom slots for splines. The blade obviously take more horsepower than the WWII.

Dulling of blades tends to sneak up on you. I would say that if your blade has some age on it and you are wondering, it's a good time to have it sharpened. I trust Forrest. I tried a local guy. I had some hollow ground blades and he set them. Badly.

Clean then get under a good light. Look for shine

Keith Newton

By good light, I don't mean under florescent or other diffused source, but a small point source, like out in the Sun or Spot lights. If you get the bounce angle right, you'll see a shine as they get dull. Wearing a magnifying visor helps. Once a blade starts to dull, it generates more heat which makes them dull faster.

Re: How often do you sharpen TS blades, and why?

AZ in Colorado Springs

I've read that the telltale that a blade is due for a sharpening is seeing chip out along the cut.

I have several blades, a couple of Freud and some pretty non-descript ones. I get them sharpened by a local guy about every five years.

I don't see a lot of pitch build up on them, but then I uaually just use hardwoods. (The blades at the hobbyist wood shop on the air force academy get coated with a lot of pitch and they require cleaning between sharpenings. People cut a lot of dimensional lumber there.)

Re: How often do you sharpen TS blades, and why?

Garthinsandiego

Just a single point of reference: I sent a WWII blade to a large scale local sharpening service as a test. It came back sharp (cut easily) but cut nowhere near as cleanly as a new WWII.

Re: How often do you sharpen TS blades, and why?

Denny

I might be imagining this, but with a sharp WWII blade just back from being sharpened, it feels as sharp as a freshly sharpened chisel. I have to be careful not to get cut when handling the blade. When I can pick up the blade and not worry about getting cut (I can feel the difference), or when it starts to need cleaning more often, I send it back for sharpening. Also, if I can see any chips in the teeth, it's time. Just my approach, YMMV.

Re: How often do you sharpen TS blades, and why?

JL

I have three combination blades.

When one starts to burn a bit or it gets tough to push wood through - it goes to the box.

When I get two blades in the box, away it goes.