How many of you hone your carbide TS blades?

Just curious about this. I tried it just the other day, after cleaning up the blade w/ Simple Green (had lots of pitch on it). Finished the job by honing w/ a fine diamond file. I filed only the faces of the carbide tips, three strokes each. Keeping a 90 deg. angle was easy.

The blade cut much better of course, but that may have been from the cleaning, not the honing. I *think* I could feel a sharper edge afterwards, but that may have been wishful thinking. I don't think the honing hurt anything, but it got me to thinking about the whole attempt, and whether I could lure the cognoscentes on the Wreck to weigh in with their opinions and experience.

The blade, BTW, was a middlin' Freud.

Please comment if you know anything about honing TS carbide.

Thanks, H

Reply to
hylourgos
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I'll do a little stone work on carbide tooling, but not much and not on anything with that many teeth. even a slight variation of angle or pressure will mean that the cutting edges aren't quite the same length. they'll then wear differently and cut differently. depending what you cut with the blade it makes more or less difference- a 25 tooth blade for rough cuts in soft wood is a lot less demanding than a 100 tooth blade for melamine for instance.

Reply to
bridger

"hylourgos" wrote in news:1123381665.106407.187940 @g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

My local guy charges about $20 to do the blade right on his CNC sharpener. Why would I screw it up, trying to do it by hand?

Patriarch

Reply to
Patriarch

I tune up carbide router bits once in a while, if I need them to finish up a run of stuff.

I've taken a diamond file to a field grade blade when on an installation without a backup.

I'd hesitate to take a whack at a good blade for a good tablesaw because I think that it would be too easy to introduce vibration due to uneven removal of material. This wouldn't bother me so much on a rip blade, but it might make a fine crosscut blade start to wander more than you would like.

I suspect that most of your increase in performance was due to cleaning the blade.

Many's the day that I have cleaned my blade several times, as I have noticed performance reductions.

Then I'd wonder at how it cut, "Just like it was just sharpened".

Tom Watson - WoodDorker tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (email)

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Reply to
Tom Watson

Why, because you can, of course. And to save $20 while screwing it up, that's the most important point.

Thanks (all), H,

...now looking for local sharpening services for my finer crosscut blades.

Reply to
hylourgos

My DH, who used to own a sharpening business (carbide blades, bits etc...) says that it is possible to use a diamond file to sharpen a carbide blade if it is flat faced. However, you have to be extremely careful not to change the angle of the face or lots of nasty things could happen when you try to use the blade again. (Get lots of blow out, burning, drastically reduce the lifespan of the blade etc...)

Three strokes probably didn't do much but it probably helped clean up the edge slightly. His recommendation is to have it professionally sharpened if there is a place in your area that does a good job. Unfortunately he's no longer in the business. :)

Good Luck, Jen

Reply to
Jennifer Juniper

Absolutely do not breathe the dust. I believe carbide steel has cobalt in it. Rabbit

Reply to
Joe Mama

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