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
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.
Patriarch wrote:
>
> 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
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.
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
"hylourgos" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> 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
>
"hylourgos" <[email protected]> wrote in news:1123381665.106407.187940
@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
> 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
>
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
Absolutely do not breathe the dust. I believe carbide steel has
cobalt in it.
Rabbit
--
--
Lon Marshall <[email protected]>
On 6 Aug 2005 19:27:45 -0700, "hylourgos" <[email protected]> wrote:
>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
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)
http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1/ (website)