Sharpening router bits

For that cost, buy a new bit

Dick Coers

Shipping both directions will easily be $10-$15, sharpening by a good shop will be at least $15. Plus you will end up with a bit that is slightly smaller in diameter.

Our local Rocklers

Bruce, a MN Galoot

Arranges for them to be sharpened at a very good local shop. I drop them off and pick them up when I’m there anyway, so no shipping. Whiteside is too good to toss.

The key is the quality done by a local shop

Dick Coers

I had a dado set ruined by a reputable big shop, not even local. I'm very apprehensive about resharpening. I have yet to find someone who matches factory quality. And I've been dulling tooling for 47 years.

Re: Sharpening router bits

Steve Elliott

About a year ago I sent ten or more router bits to be sharpened by the well-known international company that sharpens our saw blades. The bits came back well sharpened but it cost $15 each, which was more than I had expected.

Sharpening a saw blade is well worth the cost. Sharpening a router bit is about as expensive as buying a new one and the diameter of the bit will differ from the nominal size. That often doesn't matter, but with most bearing bits it does.

Re: Sharpening router bits

Barry Irby

This is a conundrum for me. I was raised to be frugal and throw nothing away.

OTOH I had some hollow ground saw blades sharpened by a local service years ago and they sent them back with enormous set in them. They explained to me that they were mismanufactured and everybody knew every saw blade has set and even an idiot like me should know that.

So, I have second bit that matches the dull one and it cuts like butter, so clearly the used bit is dull. But sending it to a sharpening service risks spending nearly what it cost and ending up with a damaged bit or one that won't do the job.

I am thinking my disorganized lazy streak will prevail and the bit will be residing in my junk drawer and my kids will dispose of it someday.

yes,  Misenheimer

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

about $7 last I had it done

Absolutely true.

Bruce, a MN Galoot

But it’s worth finding out. There used to be a local branch of an international cutter and saw blade supplier that did a superb job. They closed up, so I sent some bits to their central plant. Half the bits came back butchered, the other half barely adequate. The place that Rockler sends them to is great.

However, I have one superb, expensive, solid carbide, spiral Whiteside bit that no one touches but Whiteside.

Sharpening one's own?

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

Who sharpens their own bits?

Do you leave them until dull, and then give up and put them in the too hard basket?

Or do you hone each time you use one? What do you use to do so - a diamond card? Grits?

Does this make a substantial difference?

I keep bits as clean as possible, as pitch heats the bit and dulls it quicker. I do use diamond cards/paddles frequently (up to 1200). I have used routers for 30 or so years, but I am not a big router user, and so curious.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: Sharpening one's own?

Barry Irby

I tried sharpening this one with diamond cards. It seemed better to the touch, but still did not cut well. I have touched up others in the past with some success but I think this one was too far gone to help by hand. It may be that the carbide was just too hard.

Sharpening one's own?

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

I tried it with diamond, the only theoretically practical way to cut carbide by hand. I decided my time was worth more than $0.25/hr. Sloooooooow! and I never did remove enough material to get sharp.

Re: Sharpening router bits

Bill Howatt

Since the bit seems to be almost unuseable for you and it is a Whiteside maybe it is a good test case to see how a recommended sharpening service does both in quality and cost. If it doesn't work out then you know with more certainty.

Bill

I have card sharpened bits...

David Weaver

.. little easy ones with flat carbide, but like bill, it just took too long, and the bit cut, but not as well as it did previously.

I did, though, use a door bit that I dropped several years ago while waiting for its replacement to show up. One of the minor pieces of carbide got chipped. The bit still worked, nothing flew off (I let it run for a while and stood out of its arc, then passed some wood through the router - that part of the bit was under the table, so I figured it wouldn't be able to come up out of the table and make a direct hit - it never did sustain any further damage).

I think it's easy for router users to get stuck in believing that you can't do anything freehand to bring back a router bit, but I think that's likely not true. What I do think is more likely true is that it would take a very expensive purpose made sharpening system to sharpen many different bits and the chinese bits are pretty good at the wood removing part, even if they're less accurate. I've bought three bit sets for routing guitar cavities that are about $12 for three bits, and they work well.

Re: I have card sharpened bits...

Barry Irby

I have sharpened some steel bits with diamond plates and it worked fairly well, but they were shaped in such a way I could press the bit on the edge of the card and slide it back and forth and get a fairly long stroke. It's the long stroke that helps.

On the dovetail bit I could not find a way to plant the bit on the card and get a good stroke. It was going to take a lifetime and I ran out of patience.

Ive been sharpening my own for about 35 years

Keith Newton

I bought the finest Norton diamond wheel that MSC offered for ~ $200 then.

It is a saucer shape with the diamond on the side edge rather than top. Our local sharpener only used medium grits, so the saw blades dulled rapidly, and I bought it mainly for that task.

While I have a chuck with indexing head to hold the bit, it is so slow to set up, that I just hand hold, and do it by eye. If I’m going to mount a bit in the router that on close inspection appears to need sharpening, I can usually walk over, grind and away in about one minute.

Re: Sharpening one's own?

AZ in Colorado Springs

I've done that with small paddle shaped diamond hones. Pretty slow and seemed to not be very effective. I use bits til they're dull (really dull) then replace them. Sometimes when starting a new project I'll get a new bit.

Wondering about a change of attitude???

Barry Irby

In looking at Amazon for possible replacement bits, I noticed there are some really cheap bits available. I have tended to buy more expensive ones along the line of "Buy once, Cry once" thinking that high quality bits would last a very long time. Perhaps they don't last as long as I thought. Might be better to buy really cheap bits and treat them as disposable.

Reminds me of George...

David Weaver

Making a sharpener like that these days is probably a lot more accessible than it was years ago.

George mentioned doing the same thing - sharpening cutters on a rotating disc, and paying about $200 each for the discs. They're probably better quality than the ones that come from china now for $12 but I'm motivated to get a couple of those and make a machine to sharpen my bits. I'm using a router for mostly wasting, so if it doesn't do a perfect job, it doesn't matter.

I'm too dumb to match precise joints straight off of a machine, and a rotary disc could probably make my pattern bits (for guitars) last the rest of my life.

Re: Wondering about a change of attitude???

jessecloud

Cheap bits make a lot of sense for certain kinds of work. For "engineered" materials such as MDF, plywood, osb, etc. which dull blades in no time at all I use cheap HSS blades and if they don't want to be sharpened with a modest amount of work, they get tossed.

For real wood where quality of cut is super important and grain wants to break out I spring for better quality bits.