Sorry if this is on topic. :-)I suppose I could just google it, but here goes...There was a 10" Delta 60 tooth on this table saw and it was covered in all kinds of gunk and baked-on sap or something. I cleaned it all off and scraped off every tooth individually.... yeah, I was bored and there was a good CD on. :-)Is there a way to tell if a saw blade is still sharp enough or needs to be sharpened?Is there a tried and true testing technique?Or is it as simple as just trying it and seeing if it cuts clean, smooth and fast?

I'm not aware of an official method, but I would make a cut with it,then switch to a known sharp blade, and make another cut from the samestock. You should be able to feel if it's sharp or not.

How to tell if a saw blade is sharp?

Sep 24, 2009 24 Replies

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-MIKE- 16 years ago

I guess it's sharp.

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J. Clarke 16 years ago

Trick I learned by accident a while back--if your blade is all gunked up, use it to saw a few strips off a piece of UHMW.

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-MIKE- 16 years ago

Hmmmmmm.

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HeyBub 16 years ago

Isn't UHMW the same as PVC only different?

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J. Clarke 16 years ago

No. PVC is vinyl, UHMW is polyethylene or polypropylene processed for very long molecular chains with much crosslinking. It has quite remarkable resistance to abrasion and some self-lubricating properties--I don't know what it does to a saw blade when you cut it but I do know that I had a blade that was burning everything I cut--I was ready to send it out for sharpening--and I cut a piece of UHMW with it and after that it was working like new. I don't know whether it got some UHMW in the pores or whether the UHMW gave it a good cleaning or both.

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