Sharpening Cook's blades

[petefrom bearswamp]

Got a cam from Cook's for my WM sharpener and just finished sharpening a dozen or so blades.
All of the blades have a couple of deformed teeth right by the weld and the number of teeth seems to be odd as though one has been skipped.
Is this normal for this make of blade?
I didn't notice this when using the blades before as i sent them out.
Did have several break at the weld tho.
I wonder if the deformed teeth may have caused the breakage.
Cooks did send me new blades to replace the broken ones.
Pete

[beenthere]

I would suspect because the feed rod is out of synch with the teeth at the weld. Until it gets past that wrong "pitch" (see Tom's pic), it likely will make a mess. Not sure how that is fixed other than over-ride the feed mechanism. (if that is really the problem).

[Tom]

Manufacturers are getting better about the tooth-spacing (pitch) at the weld, but that has always been a matter for a person doing sharpening to be concerned about.  There is no trouble with the pitch being off if the gullet at the weld can still be cleaned out.  It used to be that the weld was a manual sharpening procedure for most all bands.  You don't see the anomaly as much any more. 

Where it really generates a problem is when there is more than one weld.  It makes it difficult to do something else while that band is being sharpened.  Sometimes the sharpener's push-rod handles it and sometimes it doesn't.

Most generally, this doesn't cause the band to break unless the weld is not a good one.  Welds should not break

You need to be careful sharpening a band and not let the stone drop into the gullet and make a gouge.  That gouge forms a weak spot that will work harden and eventually break.  The back of the tooth, the transition area at the bottom of the face and the gullet must be polished smooth.  Even grinding too fast or removing too much metal at a time will produce a rough surface that could eventually cause failure.

If your new bands are coming with more than one weld, the manufacturer is using leftovers from the bulk reels.  Get with him and say you don't want them, or arrange for a lesser price, if you don't mind having them.

[bandmiller2]

All the folks we get our bands from get their band stock in large rolls cut and weld to our request.Band legnth has to be a multiple that will allow a full, well shaped, gullet at the weld.Probibly someone new cutting and welding,as their bandstock comes from Simonds or something wasen't just right with the new cam on the mizer sharpener and it just duplicates errors. Frank C.