Where do folks send their table saw blades for sharpening? I sent my Forrest blade back to them and they did a good job, but it wasn't exactly cheap. Now I am wondering what to do with the Makita blade that came with my chop saw... Does it even make sense to spend $40 to sharpen when you can get a new blade for $60? Should I be looking for a local service (Nor Cal, around Palo Alto) or does everyone just UPS their blades out?
Cheers, Shawn
I have seen some blades come back from the local service kind of beat up. I did not study them as they were sent out so they could have been damaged before they left. It has been a while ago but I seem to recall weird profiles on teeth. Others have had great luck with local sharpening services. I imagine there have to be a lot of sharpeners in my market. I need to ask the guy I ride bikes with who sharpens the blades in his cabinet shop.
I do have a blade from my radial arm saw that some clown chipped at least a few teeth. That saw I bought when I was at a company. I left that job and bought the saw when they went out of business. I see Forrest will replace those teeth which sounds good to me.
I did a quick google for saw sharpening and I found one shop that has lower prices than Forrest. There are probably lots of less expensive options.
I use my local sharpening guy. Roughly 25 cents/tooth for a typical blade.
They also sell good blades, router bits, sandpaper, planer/jointer knives, etc...
Chris
Lots of good advice here, but are there any good services north of the
49th? I'm in Alberta, and have some blades that have seen better days.
I've dealt with Great Western Saw in Saskatoon.
There's probably someone in Calgary/Edmonton, but I have no personal knowledge of anyone there. Maybe ask around at one of the Woodworkers Guilds?
Chris
The latest FWW just did a review on this topic.
Look for a local sharpening service - definitely.
My Forrest blades go back to Forrest. A few years ago, I got a Chop Master stuck in 8/4 maple. I 'fessed up when I returned it for service, and Forrest reflattened it for free, and it's still a great blade.
Everything else, including better carbide router bits and jointer and planer knives, go out to a local shop via Woodcraft or Coastal Tool. I think the stipend that the retailers add works out to shipping costs, but a round trip is less than a week.
I have a local sharpening shop within _walking_ distance from my home, who took 4 months to do my last set of knives, and screwed up the set before it, so I drive right by him. I so wanted things to work out...
Wasn't Carl Dudash by any chance?
I agree. I send all of my blades to Ridge Carbide Tool.
No.
Check with your local hardware stores. If they don't provide the service personally they may send them out to somebody that does. Although in Alberta it would probably be just as cost effective buying new.;)
How did you guys package the blades for shipping? I have several to sharpen and like the prices on the site..
I use the original box that they came in.
Forrest can restore to original factory specs where as many sharpening services cannot. I switched to Forrest after many years of using a local service that did what I though was a damn fine job with computer controlled sharpening machines to 800 grit. I tried Forrest once and then tried my local service again. I used the blade sharpened by my local service for 1 week and sent it back to Forrest. I always request that the blade be restored to factory specs with a limit of $50 before calling for authorization.
Doe it make sense to spend $40 to sharpen when you can get a new blade for $60? It would be $20 cheaper than buying the same new blade. Put the $60 towards a Forrest blade and you will probably go longer between sharpenings and get better cuts.
My sharpened blades are often better than new! ;^)
Cardboard box with a cardboard spacer between each one.
I sandwich each blade between cardboard squares, tape it together, and pack it in another flat box made from folded cardboard. Each blade is indiviually wrapped in cardboard before going into the master box. This is the same way Forrest returns blades to me. I saved the Forrest container for future use.
The rady to ship package, with one or two blades, looks like a 1" thick record album.
There are a lot of shops who can do every bit as good a job on the Forrest blades as Forrest does, when you run out of the sharpening coupons they give you, look into them. Most blades in the US run around 30 cents per tooth , some higher some lower but a good stack seems to run about 30 cents when averaged together.
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