I have lots of general woodworking and specialty circular sawblades, 8" to 12", carbide tipped, some cheap some expensive. I have tried local sawblade sharpening shops with poor results and would like to know if any of you have preferences or recommendations for circular sawblade sharpening companies or machines?
Thanks,
Our sponsor , to the left , sharpened saws for me , Menominee Saw.
YH
When I was building and doing lots of finish work I have lots of blades like you mention .
There was a store in New England called Woodworkers Wharehouse.
They would send my blades to someone in CT.
They did a super job even add missing teeth on the high cost blades.
I haven't had any done since.
I never got the companies name.
I don't like dull blades.
YH,
I am lucky that I have Cammel Saw Co. 30 minutes away in Canton Ohio. They are true professionals when it comes to saw sharpening. I used to use another local sharpener with less than spectacular results. Then I switched to Cammel and the difference is night and day. They sharpen so well that if I buy a new saw blade, I have them sharpen it before I ever use it. Yes, a sharpened circular saw blade from them is sharper than a brand new Freud that has never been in wood. I know that is a bit far for you, but they offer commercial shipping for those far away. I would highly recommend them even if shipping blades. They have a 7 day turn around time, I drop them off and pick them up a week later.
Cammelsaw.com
I am sure Menominee Saw would be exellent as well, but I have no experience with them.
You sell to some cabinet shops, right? Maybe they have a good local source.
Alan
I used to have a good place to sharpen my circular blades, but the owner died. The folks who took it over said they couldn't sharpen a 12" ATB carbide, it would take too much time. Well, then they said they could do it but would have to charge double because they would have to reset the angle of the sharpener, so it would be like sharpening two blades. So twice the cost. Really?? So I walked out, tossed the blades in the back of my truck and drove off in a puff of gravel dust. Fail #1.
Then I had a guy who said he knew what he was doing butcher up a couple for me, free of charge, out in his garage. He had an old school Belsaw type sharpener, but, for whatever reason he couldn't understand he had to set the machine on the lowest, dullest tooth, and if he set it up on just any random tooth, the all the lower, more worn teeth wouldn't get sharp. So I got my blades back with only maybe 3/4 of the teeth sharpened. ::) Fail #2.
I asked around and three local companies recommended a fairly big saw sharpening outfit around here that actually had a service route, computer controlled machines, state of the art, etc, so I thought I had it won. They even picked up the blades at my place. However, although they did OK on a few, they badly butchered up 3 of my straight line rip saw blades ($120 each). Then they said they had to "up charge" because they had to replace a couple carbides on one blade and I could see clear as day, one of their replacement teeth had a cold solder joint. I was a little miffed because when the blade left my shop, the carbides were good, but for some reason, by the time it got to them, it needed some carbides replaced. Hmmm.. So right there in front of the service guy, I "tapped" the questionable tooth they installed against the table and it just popped off, right at the joint. Oops, I don't think that is supposed to happen... :D That caused quite a stir, as the delivery guy vowed to bring the poor sharpening job to "Management's attention". Yeah, right. Nothing. Crickets. So I canceled my account. Turns out, one of the places that recommended them to me was having troubles with one of their saws, and were about to get it serviced because it "Just wouldn't cut straight". After I talked to him, the foreman pulled the blade and said it was poorly sharpened, along with others, and was causing them problems. He wasn't happy, said he never checked the blades when they come back, he just assumed they were sharpened correctly. Big Negatory, Nope. Fail #3.
Then, last week, I called up another guy who was recommended by some of the local woodworking club, and when he picked up the phone at about lunchtime, he was obviously as drunk as a skunk, telling me how well he would sharpen by blades, even though he could barely even talk. I think he actually fell asleep while talking. So that was a dead end. Fail #4.
Then, much to my wife's amusement, and "I told you so's" after reading some of the reviews of a certain import home owner style circular saw blade sharpener, I went out and bought one, and knowing it was stupid of me to do so. So I did it anyway. :D And guess what? When I brought it home and tried it, it was as bad as I knew it would be. So back in the box it went. I have it in the truck, ready for a return. Fail #5, maybe even #6 for that one. Duh.
Well, this morning I ordered several hundred dollars worth of new circular saw blades, to give me a little breathing room. ::) They will be here Friday.
The problem is that I dislike mailing blades, although I may have to do so. Since I'm the "Shipping Department" here at old Hobby Hardood, it's just one more thing for me to do. Or buy a sharpener and do it myself, if I can find one that doesn't cost too much.
So I'm still looking... I was watching YouTube, I saw a guy sharpening his table saw blade with a dull file, chewing gum and old sandpaper. Maybe I should try that....
Let me know if you end up buying one - I will send you my blades. Have had about as much luck as your adventure there, and it's not just with sharpening. Needed a pin made the other day so I stopped into what I thought would be a good machine shop --- I am pretty sure a couple of the folks you described have moved now and all now work at this shop, decided to just do it myself.
When Woodworkers Warehouse got taken over by Western Tool I thought they would use the same vender.
I was wrong the blades came back with the wrong grind on them .
Not a good job.
I have a wall full
I need to try the guy who does my sawmill bands.
My carbide circular blade sharpening is just hobby.
I've always sent them to Forrest in New Jersey. Never disappointed.
I wish you luck YH. If it was me I would buy a good sharpener. And not give too much thought of the price if it did the job I wanted it to do. And have years of no trouble.
This sawmill selling lumber thing can get into a lot of $$$$ :D
I personally sharpened thousands of gang saw blades over the years. we had a foley belsaw sharpener. I found an example on youtube, but we used a diamond wheel, as we were sharpening strictly carbide. There is an art to it. You need to learn what sharp it first. No light glint at the end of the tooth. If the tooth is truly sharp, you will see nothing at the tip, if not, there is a thin whit line. You also need to be careful of heat with carbide. Usually multiple times around the saw to get sharp. If you have to much heat, you will weaken the silver solder connection and loose the tooth.
We used on the average of 20 blades a day, and many times I was the one to sharpen them before and after work. You need to wear a mask. Carbide dust. I leaned that after blowing my nose a few times and having nothing but black. Always wondered if I could literally blow my nose. Carbide + Water equals acetylene gas. :D
Foley circular saw sharpener - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEbIf-OLR3Q)
Eventually all blades would end up at Menominee saw for retipping or other work
Peter, you're right, its bottomless pit.
Jeff, thanks for the video.
I've been looking at a Belsaw 367 sharpener, there's a place a couple hours away that is selling two of them. I understand its an old but pretty good model.
No good if you are doing big commercial quantities but for what I do I have found that ditching the carbide and going back to old fashioned plate saws that I can hand file works for me saves the hassle of sending them away and the up side is a sharp plate saw uses less horsepower than a carbide saw so can cut faster and neater finish
also I am enjoying playing around with adjusting hook angles kerf etc to customise blades for percific jobs
That's something I never considered.
I can remember the stack of regular steel blades on the hump in Dad's truck, a constant churn of changing blades and dropping them off and picking them up, that was the heyday of that belsaw sharpener. You needed a sharpening service in every hamlet. By the time I started in construction blades had switched to carbide and I could build a house on 2 sharpened blades instead of 2 per day. The saw shops dried up, now I usually only sharpen the bigger ones. I was down in the shop the other day playing with a charcoal grinder, I grabbed 20 dull blades off the wall and started playing with those, spacers and some threaded rod. I did drop off 3 Lucas blades at the sawshop yesterday and he was sharpening straight line saws, he hammers my big saw so he could do any of it, he's about an hour away so I only go there a time or two a year. A rig like Jeff is talking about would probably be the ticket.
Oh, calcium carbide makes acetylene, tungsten carbide just makes black mud in your nose :).
Quote from: Don P on March 10, 2019, 10:48:05 AMOh, calcium carbide makes acetylene, tungsten carbide just makes black mud in your nose
Thanks Professor - that explains why the Skipper couldn't get the lamps in the hut to light for Gingers show......:D
He must have got them to work, show on now ;D.
Gilligan's Island- Ginger Grant--"Let Me Entertain You" - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Oj901x8k84)