Opinions: DIY Saw Blade Sharpening

[lothian]

I've used Raleigh Saw to sharpen my 10 and 12 inch blades in the past. The owner is a super nice guy and incredibly proud of his shop--he gave me a comprehensive tour of his place and explained each of the myriad specialized edging machinery. Their per-tooth charge is competitive, but cumulative costs add up. I'm cheap and constantly piqued by DIY solutions.

A bunch of vids demonstrate various contraptions for kludging together a sharpening rig using HF whatnots, modified and improved off-the-shelf tools, as well as straight-up homebrew designs.

Care to start a discussion about experiences with DIY saw blade sharpening?

 

[junquecol]

Don't! In the days of steel blades, it was faily easy to sharpen your own, but with carbide it's a whole new ball game. Very few home made or cheap sharpeners have the accuracy to do justice to a carbide blade. My sharpener uses machines that cost upward toward a million dollars to sharpen my blades. They do everything by computer control.. Take a few readings, program machine and let her run. I can have a 40 tooth blade sharpened for about $12, which If I have the equipment, would take me the better part of an hour. My time is better spent on other things.

 

[riggsp]

By the time you buy all the "HF whatnots" and modify the various tools to do what they weren't designed to do in the first place. Then chance the possibility of ruining a good blade, and or injuring yourself due to an unstable "kludged" together setup, just isn't worth it in my mind...My guess is, you'll be able to have your blade sharpened at least a few times for what it would cost.

 

[bob vaughan]

Its hard to beat a man at his own game.
My local sharpening service, Jamison's Sharpening Service uses a six figure Walter grinder for circular saw blades. They load one side with various blades, hit go, turn the lights out and go home for the evening. Next day they come in, the work is done and stacked on another mandrel. They have an equally sophisticated grinder for planer/jointer knives. When I open those knives to install, I could shave the hair on my arm.

They don't do hand saws.