Saw blade sharpening

[Sasha]

Where can I inexpensively re-sharpen table saw blades? I live in NJ.

[Fly-by-Night CC]

"inexpensive" is in the eyes of the beholder. What does "inexpensive" mean to you?

Table saw blade sharpening is priced per tooth; but you're buying the skills and attention to detail of the sharpening guy. I take mine to a local woodturning friend who has just started his own sharpening service. He went to school to learn the skills and has invested a lot of time and money in his new tooling. I don't recall exactly, but I think I paid about $12 - $15 per 50 tooth blade and the cut quality is very good to excellent.

Additionally, I've not found much variation in pricing from one place to the next over the last 5 years or so. I used to take my blades to industrial sharpening shops that cater to the milling shops and the Oregon lumber industry. They charge about the same as everyone else.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Mine came back better than new

[think24x7-google]

Forrest are in Clifton NJ, and charge about $20 for a 40T 10" blade. I don't think you can go wrong with them.

-pb

[Tom H]

Make sure the shop you chooe have CNC Vollmer, Walter and Schmidt-Tempo machines. This is very expensive equipment that some shops avoid, but it is required to get a precise tooth form.

[Ba r r y]

Speaking of sharpening, I just got a WWII and a Freud 50T red combo back from a resharpening trip to Forrest.

The Freud hit a buried drywall screw a while back and had visible tooth damage, so on a lark, I tossed it into the box to see what Forrest could do with it. I told them to just try their best, but not to replace teeth, as I could always use the blade for MDF, etc... if it wasn't all that hot when I got it back.

Forrest returned both blades with an almost apologetic note stating that the Freud was very dull, and they did their best, running it through the process twice, and test cutting it.

I *swear* the Freud cuts better than it did as new. I can't wait to mount up the "properly sharpened" WWII again!

Total cost was $60 for both blades, including test cuts on both and return shipping. A fair deal!

Barry

[Pat]

Expense is relative. It wouldn't make sense to spend $20 to sharpen a $10 Harbor Freight blade. Just buy a new one. It does make sense to spend $20 to sharpen a $100 blade.

[CW]

[Leon]

I have has the same results. While it is ultimately a little more expensive to use Forrest, they can truly return a blade to factory specs which many tool sharpening services only wish that they could. Most only retip and resharpen blades and you can forget about having a blade flattened and trued by most. For me it is worth the extra 5 or $10 to have the blade cut like new or better again.

[Leon]

Does that equipment reflatten the blades also? If not I would not consider those shops either.

[CW]

Having done a fair amount of tool grinding, I can say with complete certainlty that setup is key with either manual or conventional machine. Saw blades are among the simplest form of cutter to grind. Given equal skill and attention to detail of the operator, the results from either machine, conventional or CNC, will be equal. Niether machine will flatten or tension a blade. That is a seperate process.