Woodmaster C Blades

[ladylake]

Lynn, for someone who has cut way over a million board feet, and the manner in which you do it, I am amazed that you in the  least have no way of sharpening your own. I know you are a man of means, and it is hard for me to figure sending blades to someone else, regardless of how easy it is, cost is cost.  Blade sharpening is not rocket science or time consuming it is a business that either cost or pays.  Take this how you wish, but in the time you have a glass of tea and snack break you could pay yourself and for the snacks,   david

The thing is once you put the blade on the sharpener you can have snack break while it goes around.  Steve

[Magicman]

 :D  I completely understand the question why. 

The fact is that I made a personal choice of what to do with my non-sawing time.  My off time is more valuable to me than the $$$ I spend on ReSharp. 

A normal day's sawing will bring in about ~$350.  That is $50 for blades, Diesel, etc.,  and $300 for me.  I am OK with that since my sawing has always provided supplemental income.  As I approach my 70th birthday, the value of my off time becomes more significant.  For me, I made a wise choice.

[WH_Conley]

I guess my trial period is over as I have used the C-sharp blades enough time to break them, 2 anyhow. When I first got them the weather was nasty, logs half froze, muddy. Typical conditions.

All logs here are cable skidded.

I sharpen with the old style WoodMizer sharpener.

I Have the Mark 1 debarker.

Blades 1 and 2 started out in Oak, muddy oak and ended in Poplar. First time around I got 400-500 feet, (did I say muddy? Sometimes I wondered what species I was sawing. After sharpening I was getting 600-700 feet per sharpening in Poplar. Both blades broke about time to change on the 4th use. 2200-2700 feet per blade. I can't complain on that. The third blade just came off the mill today and will have to be set. That was it's 4th go around.

As I was also using WM blades at the same time I was able to compare both blades. Note that I did not have the proper cam and the blades were taking on a decided WM profile.

I change blades every little bit. I have used WM, Timberwolf, Cooks, Simmonds, Lennox Woodmaster C, and some not worth mentioning as I am not sure they are still in business. I would not hesitate to place these blades in the premium blade class.

I will not hesitate to use these blades again.

I think the ideal blade would be one that you put on the mill, saw 2000-2500 feet and throw away. No resharp charges and no time in the basement doing my own blade maintenance.

[drobertson]

I have known a few that do the throw away method.  In fact the sharpener and setter I have now is from one of them, real glad of their technique,  no way throwing away a blade after 2000 ft  makes cents to me,  just my opinion,  david

[WH_Conley]

Seldom does a blade even think about getting that kind of mileage. As a guess I would be about 500 ft to the sharpening,(cable skid, gravely ground), I would rather get 2000 and throw away that 3000 in 6 sharpening's. People in different locations/log handling might get better than that, not around here. Say $25.00 per blade, if it would get 2000 ft the cost per ft would be about 1 cent. I don't know about resharp, just say it is worth $10.00 per sharpening, 5 sharpening's per 3000 ft, that would be more like 3 cents a foot blade expense. I am sure every bodies mileage varies. The point is, I would sacrifice some footage per blade for the convenience. I have other things that I would like to do in the evenings besides sharpen blades. It amounts to what a person values their time at.

[drobertson]

I hear ya man, just saying 30 minutes in the garage, a night a week and I can get 4 fold from a blade,  it has paid me, but, I did not pay for my sharpener, or setter, so, I can understand your view for sure, going outside for a service can be expensive and a pain, but only if the bucks are coming in,  here, I bout give stuff away at times, if you don't believe me just ask my wife ;D  but all said, resharps can actually out perform new blades most of the time, (not counting the ones that are destroyed by debris of course)   david

[5quarter]

Hey Magic...have you had a chance to field test those woodmaster C blades yet? Curious to know how they cut in SYP and measure up to the blades you normally use.

[WH_Conley]

My sharpener and setter have paid for their selves many times over. I could not operate if I did not sharpen or have sharpened. I could if that magic blade with high footage at a reasonable price existed. I did get close to 2000 ft of 1 inch lumber per blade once. It was the spring of the year and the bark was slipping on Poplar. The logs were naked :D, hit them wit the water hose, not even turn the debarker on. That is the only time I ever got that kind of footage. The blade never even slowed down til it broke. I did not complain.

[drobertson]

I might suggest trying the Cook's super sharpes, I have ran these for real close to 2k and the same for resharpes,  I don't rely on luck, but this might be the case,  david

[Magicman]

Hey Magic...have you had a chance to field test those woodmaster C blades yet? Curious to know how they cut in SYP and measure up to the blades you normally use. 

Yes I did and I made my report but I guess that it's in the "other" Woodmaster thread.  I had forgotten that there were two threads going at the same time.

I'll have to do some searching.

OK, I found it:  LINK

[Ga Mtn Man]

The other thread is about the Woodmaster C-Sharp blades which are different than the Woodmaster C blades.

[Magicman]

The other thread is about the Woodmaster C-Sharp blades which are different than the Woodmaster C blades.

Yes, it is all confusing.  Dan Sawyer brought the C-Sharp blades into this thread in Reply #18.  This is the thread where Dan offered to send me some trial C-Sharp blades, but I posted my results in the other thread about C-Sharp.