What do you pay to have your blades sharpened

[just_sawing]

I am thinking about starting to sharpen blades for customers. I did this years ago but was wondering on what people charge. 

[B.C.C. Lapp]

Are you thinking just sharpening for local boys that drop blades off or you going to ship back and forth?

[Percy]

There is lots of variables, and I dont do it that much but when I do, its 15.00 Canadian(roughly 10.00 US). If I was gonna do it seriously, I would get a setter that could be dialed up quickly as opposed to my suffolk dual tooth setter.

[Gere Flewelling]

I am fairly new to sharpening for others but have decided to charge $10.00 each. I am finding that for some bands 10.00 is not enough, but others that are in better shape 10:00 is plenty. I am hoping that it will average out as time goes by.  I reserve the right to lower my price if a customer brings a large quantity of blades that don't require major work. So far it hasn't happened.  I consider "bad shape " is when a band needs to be sharpened prior to setting. I am hoping I can educate customers to change out blades sooner rather than later and result in a little profit in this business.

[barbender]

Percy, I wish my Suffolks had a foot pedal to operate it. While it is plenty fast, after about 5 bands I can always feel a blister forming on my hand from the operating handle. But since 5 bands is about all I ever set at once, I've never gotten around to doing anything about it😁

[barbender]

I've only sharpened a few bands for others. If I were doing a bunch I would have seperate charges for what the blade needed. One big item is cleaning- if someone brought me blades with caked up sap on them I'd charge $5 to clean them up, and encourage the customer to see to it that they bring clean blades in for service. I don't set every sharpening on my blades, I find every third sharpening completely sufficient. So I might charge for sharpen and set separately.

[Chuck White]

I sharpen for a few of the locals in this area and I can understand receiving a clean blade.

When I get one that is rusted (left on the mill a week or so) the customer gets told about it and will pay a little extra, same as a pitched up blade!

I remind them to wipe them down with ATF, but never leave the blade on the mill when unattended.

[MaineMilling]

Paying 9/blade at the moment

[WV Sawmiller]

   I'm paying $10/blade and he picks them up and returns them. That is about what I was paying WM resharp by the time I added in shipping but response times are much better and the local guy is willing to change the hook angle (I am standardizing to a 4 degree blade and still have a few 7 & 10 degree blades) and WM said they could not do that for me.

    BTW - he had an annual family pig picking (BBQ) last month and my wife and I were invited and went and had a great meal and a good time visiting with his family who are long term friends.

    He cleans them as part of his normal processing but I like the idea/proposal suggested earlier to charge extra for that to customers with extremely dirty blades.

[Bruno of NH]

I'm thinking about getting the Suffolks setter 
I only have a single tooth and I'm looking to up grade 
I do about 10 bands a week for my operation 
I haven't got the 2nd mill set up yet
So I will be adding more bands to the weekly count 

[barbender]

I like the Suffolk's, but it will wear your hand out. It's fast once you get it dialed in, I think I can probably set a band in under a minute.

[SawyerTed]

IIRC Resharp was costing $7-8 per blade 2 plus years ago.  Add shipping and time for preparing the blades for shipping etc. cost was $12+ each. 

$10-12 each without additional cleaning or other attention seems about right.

[Gere Flewelling]

Bruno- The Cook's Dual Tooth Setter works very well once you learn the procedure. Easy on the elbow and shoulder joints as well.  Somebody has one for sale on FB.  I can do 3/4-7/8-1" tooth spacing as well.  A good co-purchase would be their hand held set checker to go with it. Easy way to be sure the setter is doing what you want it to.

[OlJarhead]

I pay about $10/band for my LT40 through WM.  I think they show it at $9/ea but with shipping it comes out a little more.

[jimbarry]

I have Woodmizer's BMT250 automatic setter and two BMS250MU sharpeners. I charge new customers CAD$10 a blade, that includes setting and two rounds through the sharpener (typical of what is needed if the blade was taken off at the right time). Returning customer get a 10% discount. 

Most customers drop off. Some ship them. Those that ship, it gets return shipped in the same box and they pay the shipping. Some use the really large Rubbermaid bins and cardboard separating each coiled blade. Works well.

If a blade needs to be cleaned, it's an extra $3.

If a blade requires more than 2 passes through the sharpener, each additional pass is $2.

Most customers have come to realize they need to take their blades off sooner and keep them clean. A few customers have opted not to return due to the extra charges I apply. No problem for me, because I don't do this for beer money.