Bandsaw Sharpening?

[cantcutter]

I switched to a local old timmer to sharpen my bands and just got the first batch back. I noticed that he only grindes the the face, not the gullet or the back. Said that is the way he has always done them and I am the first to question it. He has an old belsaw sharpener that does not do anything except the face; they cut well and straight, so my question is is doing them this way going to be a problem?

[WH_Conley]

I have never used any that had a face grind only. Some things I would expect though.

The tooth height will get shorter as you grind face away.

Not grinding the small cracks out of the gullet.

Don't know which one will kill a blade quicker, keep us posted.

[Cedarman]

In the good old days before automatic sharpeners, we would only grind the face because that was the only way we could do it. It was totally manual.  You had a jig to hold the blade in position and pulled the grinding stone down to sharpen.  Then you pushed the blade forward until the pawl would drop, then pull back on blade to get it into postition.  You did this for every tooth on the blade.  With experience you could sharpen a blade in 5 minutes or so.  We rigged up a water pump and lines to get water on the blade too.  With a little effort you can grind the gullet but not the back of the tooth.  So you can control tooth height and gullet clean out.
But if not done the tooth will get shorter and you may have shorter blade life.

I thought I had died and went to heaven when the auto sharpener came out.

[John Bartley]

Just a thought here ... WH_C said this :

Not grinding the small cracks out of the gullet.

... and this exactly what would concern me about only sharpening the face. With a properly dressed stone of the correct width, a suitably deep (usable) gullet could be had at the bottom of the face of the tooth, a gullet that would move all the sawdust that you would make.

However, it seems to me (and bear in mind that I'm a complete newbie at bandmilling) that if you don't take the small cracks out of the gullet and off the back of the tooth, then you're just asking for a band to break sooner than it should?

I guess the real answer will come with experience. I'd be curious to see how that type of sharpening job works out over the life of the band.

cheers eh?

[bandmiller2]

Cantcutter,perfect time for rescearch,have the old fella sharpen a number of bands and then have a control lot sharpened your old way,and please let us know.Sometimes things that sound logicle keep being repeted and soon become cast in stone.Many of the cracks i've seen in bands seem to start in the middle and not in the gullet.Good automatic sharpeners [I have cooks catsclaw] are not cheap but over the years worth the investment if only for peace of mind.I sharpen band for outhers and my machine is well on the way to paying itself off. Frank C.

[deeker]

I like to sharpen the gullet also, but for awhile due to time and rush I was unable to dress the gullet.  To my surprise I noticed no difference with the blades durability.  Those dressed in the gullet and those not.  The blades wore out after too many sharpenings to post.  The number would sound un real.  I do believe that if there are small cracks in the gullet they will only get bigger.  Have yet to break a blade in almost two years.  Have knocked a lot of teeth off the blades though from nails and bullets and those invisable saw dogs though.  Seems that the new blades hitting a saw dog makes a neat sound that people can hear a couple hundred yards away.  Even over my "comments" of the event. A shiny saw dog is a sign of accomplishment!!!!  Goes hand in hand with the "sawmillers dance".

Kevin Davis
Ruff Cutts

[ladylake]

I had my sharpener miss adjusted so it wasn't hitting the last part of the gullet and the top of the teeth were getting rounded off right on the cutting tip, it cut good untill I got in to some snarly, crooked , knotty, frozen, naily white oak.  I had sharpened a couple of blade a 9* which wouldn't cut straight  at all then switched to some 4* ones which did better but not great. Then went home that night and adjusted the sharpener to hit the whole gullet, reset with a little more set and sharpened at 4* and they cut great the next day on tha same logs. Then he had about 20 tamarak logs, they sawed like butter.  I think that the top of the tooth being rounded off didn't help any.   Steve