What % sawyers on this board sharpen /set own blades ?

[John Bartley]

I sharpen and set my own. I use a Champion single tooth manual setter and a Champion grinder, manual, hand crank, with two cams (one for profile and one for feed). I always clean first, set second and sharpen last. I cut almost exclusively softwoods now, including a lot of Tamarack and Spruce, so I set the teeth to about  0.028". I get about 10 to 12 sharpenings to each blade, but I tend to sharpen early rather than  make the mill (and me) work too hard, so the sharpening is pretty easy.

John

[tommone]

On the first sharpening I am going around 5 times. On the following sharpening I can clean it up in 3 passes. The reason for 5 times on the first sharpening is that that (RIP Tom) is what it takes to clean up the very edge of the set teeth. I have and use a magnifying glass. If you use it regularly, it will show you when you need to take another pass. It is easier to take another pass then it is to have the blade on the mill and it not cut right. ;)  I don't worry about how long it takes me to sharpen the blades. My main concern is how the blades cut. If you saw the other video that Mooseherder put up of me sawing you can see that I am pushing these blades pretty hard, so they have to be right.

Interesting sharpening technique and understandable when you see the video of the mill in action. The set teeth edge corners probably incur the most stress and wear . One question, do the grinding lines across the gullet reduce after each pass or are they still visible with the naked eye after the fifth pass?

[Kansas]

We let our old Cook's sharpener and Suffolk Machinery dual tooth setter go when we sold the LT 40. Bought new Cook's to replace them. They work better on the 2 inch wide blades than the old ones. Usually, its one pass only on sharpening. We have a guy come in twice a week and set/sharpen. The thing I like about the Cook's is we can vary hook angle easily. Sometimes that comes in handy. We also have to use more set on cottonwood. It gives us the ability as well to sharpen from 1 1/4 resaw blades up to 2 inch wide blades. If we had only one mill and always used the same hook angle, I think the CBN wheel grinder would be the one.

Unless we hit metal, I don't see multiple passes. Who knows. Maybe we been doing it wrong all these years.

[Goodndusty]

The topic of multi passes with the sharpener is a good one.  When my blades are new I just touch the tips to get them sharp.  Of course this removes some set so the blade needs to be set after the 3rd or 4th sharpening.  After they are set I use multi passes to form the gullet back again.  Then its back to sharpening the tips which is the quickest way to get the blades back sharp.  Now I have opened up a can of worms concerning the best techniques to sharpen blades.  The idea of keeping the same tooth and gullet shape as the blade manufacturer has created (with testing differences) every time you sharpen your blade is a valid point.  I find that the blades don't last for too many more sharpening s after I set them.  Anyone else have this experience? 

Back to the original question.   I think I would have let someone else sharpen my blades if there had been someone doing it when I started about 12 years ago.  My set up to sharpen and set was close to $5,000.00 with taxes back then.  The closest custom grinders were 70 miles away.  So to me it was a no brainer.  ;D

[customsawyer]

Tommone the lines are still there but very faint.
One of the reasons that I sharpen like I do is it gives me a larger cutting surface that is square to the blade. This helps the blade cut better and stay sharp longer. I normally only get 2-4 sharpening per blade but they are able to produce a large amount of lumber per sharpening. My sharpened blades cut better than new blades. This has me thinking about sharpening my new blades before I use them, I doubt if I will but sure have been thinking about it.

[drobertson]

Custom, I think you are right about the complete square face,  I have rushed a few times not getting all the rounded edge off, and it  really shows on the length of time the blade will last.  As far as the quick fuzz job before running a new blade, it does make one wonder, we know that a fresh resharp is always sharper than the new ones,   

[GAB]

Customsawyer:
You said "My sharpened blades cut better than new blades".  I've been told that a new blade is punched and a re-sharpened blade is ground.  If that is true it is very possible that your re-sharpened blades are sharper than new ones.  I am not the best when it comes to sharpening tools, and after attending the seminar that was held at the OSU campus in Piketon, Ohio, I decided to not bother with trying to do it myself as the blade is the heart of the machine.  This week W-M personnel were at the VT Farm Show and I gave them 2 boxes of blades to bring back to W-M Re-sharp in Hannibal.  Should have them back by mid week.
Gerald

[customsawyer]

Gab I think that the main reason new blades don't do as well is the cutting edge of the tooth. My new blades are 1¾X.055X10° and are set at .027. If you look strait down on the teeth of a new blade the teeth that are set will not have the cutting edge of the tooth square to the body of the blade. This puts most of the cutting being done by just the corner of the tooth. If you look strait down on the cutting edge of my resharpened blades the cutting edge of the tooth is square to the blade and gives me much better performance. 

[rooster 58]

    Very informative thread. Thanks Custom, for sharing your knowledge here I have the same mill, so when I get ready to sharpen my own blades I'll have to look this thread up. I didn't know you could run 1 3/4 blades on the 70. 1 1/4 was recommended to me. Is there a reason why you prefer the wider bands? Thanks, Scott

[customsawyer]

I run the wider bands on the mill that cuts to long timbers due to how hard I push it. The other mill that I do my portable stuff with runs the 1½ blades. It don't get pushed as hard so don't need the extra body of the blade.

[WDH]

Jake,

Good video.  I like the new digs  ;D.

[tommone]

Custom sawyer, reason that I asked about the grinding lines is that I know of a major commercial mill who used to remove the grinding lines from the gullet of swaged bandsaw blades using a rotating abrasive band like a conveyer belt in the direction of the blade. Claimed they could run mill 15% faster as the surface was smoother.
They later eliminated the process when they changed to Stellite tipped blades. Something to pore over. Tom

[customsawyer]

I haven't tried nor have I seen a benefit to getting rid of the lines.

[LeeB]

Jake, you get better results with the squared blade because it works like a chisel and gouges out the long grain. Same as with a rip blade on a table saw. A crosscut blade has a beveled top angle to slice through the grain and as you said it doesn't cut long grain very well. The best reason for setting and then sharpening. If you sharpen then set you end up with a beveled top angle.

[bandmiller2]

Jake,do you use finer grit wheel or the standard.??Myself I sharpen often and usally just once around the block.I should try your method of multiple light passes.I get very long life from my bands they start off 1 1/2" and start to dive around 1 1/4" when I junk them.I leave the Timberwolf cam on my cats claw as I prefer the deep gullet and that does them all.Hook angle is about 6 degrees.Usally a new band won't get its gullet cleaned til the second or third sharpening,I take the bare minimum off for a sharp band.If I'am getting good straight cuts I don't mess with changing the set or hook. Frank C.

[terrifictimbersllc]

WM CBN sharpeners, do you have any trick for getting the amount face grind vs. back grind (how far the blade advances each time)  just right? Do you go by seeing sparks or not off the face? By feeling the wheel rubbing against the face?  if not how do you make this setting for each blade?

In my use of the shop series CBN, it looks like to me that the secret to a light grind that is complete all the way up the back of the tooth,  is to have very little face grind.  That way the grinder is contacting the back all the way up.  Sometimes if the setting is a bit off it can go around several times removing 15 thou or more, and the top of the teeth especially the inside set one is not fully ground.

[slider]

Jake and I had this conversation a while back about finishing up with a finer stone .I would think the profile on each stone would have to be the same.Wonder where someone could find a finer stone and what grit.It might come in handy when your trying to show off with a big old ugly piece of pecan.

[bandmiller2]

Slider,going around the band so many times and taking so little off per pass you could just leave a finer wheel on the machine.Grinder manuf.'s know that average joe muff sawyer is only going to make one or at most two passes so they have to put a courser grit so as not to burn the teeth. Frank C.

[LeeB]

Cooks sells 3 different grits. The pink ones are really soft and loose their profile quickly unless you take a super light grind. The blue ones are a little more forgiving but still soft and work well with a pretty light grind. The black wheels are 36 grit, same as the ones you can get from WM. They also sell a 3/8 thick wheel. I never tried one but imagine it would make it easyer to get a complete grind.

[Chuck White]

I have only used Cook's blue "rocks", right from day 1.

EDIT:  The blue rocks are 60grit!

They seem to give a good smooth finish and last quite a while.

I touch up the profile after doing 3-4 blades.

[Peter Drouin]

I had made a mark on the cbm wheel when new with a new blade, when I sharpen a blade I hit the mark with the depth and my blade is right on face, back side and gullet in one pass top of tooth is 90 to the blade I set first ,thats what works for me,

Good luck with what works for you

[steve marek]

I sharpen my blades with a wm cbn and dual setter just learning but is working well

[HaroldSiefke]

I sharpen my own blades. It sure is nice to be able to sharpen your blades how you like them.I use an older woodmizer drag type grinder with home built tooth setter. I check my set with a sorta clip on dial indicator. Its been working well for me since I have all these great people on here to help when ya just can't figure it out  ;D

[customsawyer]

I use the the grinding stones from Timber Wolf. They are pink and I think they are 80 grit. I will double check on that. I have tried the doing less passes and it works okay on about 75% of the blades. By doing the multiple passes I haven't had a blade not cut right in a long time. When I am at the big mill it is more important that all of the blades work. One of the quickest ways to get by blood pressure up is to put on a blade and it not cut right. I would rather take a little more time in the shop, then loose time at the mill.

[Peter Drouin]

I sharpen some blades to day , I went around the blade with the setter then the sharpener but I think I hit a rock or some thing the outher day , one pass was not enough ,  :D I don't know if you can see it a shiney spot on the top out side of the tooth

 

I have to sharpen past that so the pont is there :D
heres a short one, winter is bad on blades :D

 

 

It's about 1/16 short where the red mark is , I tryed to use the pencil to show it, I use the red die to show me that the cbm is hitting the hole profile on the tooth, I did go around 3 times to get it right,
customsawyer is right your blood pressure will go up when a blade misbehaves :D :D


now I have to something with this mess, I have to get the oil to run back it the oil bath and not on the floor :D It drips off the blade