The LumberWorksForums

O.K.
I use a Hudson automatic sharpener, I bought it a couple years ago, It does a pretty good job, but it is a bit finakie { spelling } to dial in,, once its dialed in you can walk away from it and do something else while its working,, If I had it to do over I would probably buy a Cooks, mainly because they do build quality equiptment, and they dont build light weight,, the motor on my Hudson is a little stronger then a typical portable sowing machine motor, I have to turn the grind stone faster then I like in order to get thru the cycle of the face - gullet - and back, by the time its up the back it may be struggling to keep the rpm.s...
I do have Cooks dual tooth setter, and its a very, very fast machine, and accurate,, I set all my blades 1st before sharpening,,
I do own a variety of blades, I use to own 10 Cooks but I have hit nails, fences,, and have ate up about 3-4 of them,, I have a few genarics that came with the mill,, and I also own 7-8 Stirling blades, I dont like them, they have a bit thicker body, and there a bit wider then 1 1/4" so all that said, I have no problem setting them, but with 3 speicies of blades, it takes just a little set up to tune the sharpener, when I change manufactured blades,, I usually wait till I have about 2 blades left in my barel, and the other barel is full of dull baldes, then I set up and do the sharpening deal,, I also tag each balde just to keep track of its sawing life,, My blades are the typical woodmizer length of 13' 2"

My sharpener has a beard and no mustache.

I have an ultra sensitive, micro adjustable, fully portable sharpener that sharpens my blades while they are still on the saw. This sharpening system automatically adjusts for the micro-angle differences in up-set, down-set, and straight teeth, and almost always gets blades sharper after the first sharpening than they were "out of the box. Should I also mention that they are free?? (well almost) Here are my sharpening tools.

They consist of variable speed dremel tool with a 3/16 chainsaw stone, a pair of magnifying safety glasses, and a portable 120V inverter that is pwered from the sawmill's battery. The first step I take when sharpening is to brush the whole blade clean with a stiff bristle brush or steel wool and a little of the kerosene/bar-oil mix that I use on my rails. On a few rare occasions I have sat down to sharpen a dull blade but after cleaning it, realized that it was just "gummed up" from cutting some messy wood like walnut or rich pine.

Then I sit on a bunk with the saw raised up to a comfortable level, and begin sharpening each tooth from right to left, carefully starting at the tip and grinding all the way past the gullet and to the front of the next tooth, I usually make three passes before moving to the next tooth. The magnifying glasses help me to correctly place the stone at the crucial point at the tip when begining each sharpening stroke. I anchor my left hand up on the blade and use my thumb to help guide the tool.
With much practice, I have acheived a blazing fast speed of sharpening five to six teeth per minute. (160 teeth divided by 5 = 32 minutes or less to do a whole blade).
The drawbacks are obvious: it's kinda slow. It's very monotonous work. At first, you will ruin some blade tips if you let the stone "roll" over the tip. The sharpening stones are short lived (one stone does two blades if you are careful with it, stones are about $2.50 each.) And after three or four sharpenings, the blades are much less effective, I havent figured out yet whether that is due to losing the set in the teeth or if it's because of other irregularities caused by hand sharpening. So basicaly for now, I am saving two sharpening charges (at $8 to 12 per blade?) = $16-24 minus $2.50 for cost of a stone = $13.50 to 21.50 per hour PLUS postage, and the time saved in not having to dismount/package/ and send blades somewhere! I'm sorry guys, but I am just that cheap! I will not turn down much work for that kind of money. I suspect that there are quite a few part time sawyers out there that use this method.

I believe you Jinglejim. A man with three hands can do anything. If you don't believe me, look at that third photo where you took a picture while having two more hands in the shot.

All kidding aside. Your a patient and determined man. I admire your skill.

But watch that your sharpening service dosen't charge you more if the profile is too out of whack. (That's what our no mustache bearded sharpener did to us.) But they are due a setting. Usually 2-3 sharpenings per setting. So maybe their profile is ok?

A blade that is performing well has 3 things working together, , the set of the tooth, the sharp point of the tooth, and the ability of the gullet to carry the sawdust,,2 things that start slowing down the cutting, is the tooth looses its chisel point, but what works with that is the set,,, the top of the tooth is posta be square across the tip/point, just like that of a chisel,, so when it is set correctly, each tooth acts like a chisel, and cuts clean, but the 1st thing that begins to happen is the outer corners of the teeth begin to wear round,,and the set is not as great as it used to be,with rounded teeth corners the blade starts cutting in the path of least resistance,wavy cuts begin,,,just grinding the surface does get the chisel squarness back on the teeth, probably in most cases, but the kerf is smaller and the heat that can build up during cutting can be marginly greater, which will effect how far the blade will go before performance is an issue,,,a blade that is set first, then sharpend, could easily cut, say 1500bf of 4/4,,and a blade that is not set, but sharpened only might struggle to reach 1000bf of 4/4

Thanks for your information and insight Robert, that explains why I get such a big payoff the first time I "dress-up" one of my blades but get decreasing payoff for my efforts after that. I have hand sharpened a blade as many as five times, but by that time I reckon the set has been taken down so much that it struggles to cut two or three logs before it needs more attention. A tooth setter would likely bring many of my old "thrice-touched-up" blades back to life. It would take me many many years to ever re-coup the money from a sharpener purchase. Maybee a setter might be justified? One of my neighbors, an old timer jack of all trades, says he can set the teeth by hand, but I kind of doubt that you could get consistent enough results without spending hours per blade.

I Have a hand setter probably just like that your neighbor has,, its a pistol grip like device, but it is used more on handsaws, where the steel is much thicker then band blades,,I screwed up at least one band using that lil device.. your most economical band blade setter is a bench mounted device with a cam clamp lever that push's a pin against the desired tooth and bends it a tad, , most have a lil dial indicator so you can adjust it to set at about 20-25,000th per set,, when your done setting every 3rd tooth then your posta invert the blade and do the next tooth,, But I belive you can set up the setter on a small bench and sit inside the band, and do the job that way,, then you wouldnt have to invert the band..these lil single tooth setters are cheap and there made by LOTS of different people,,you can do a google search on Bandblade tooth setter and I bet you get enough links to keep ya busy for a good while..