Are these blades worth sharpening?

>I have a pretty good collection, and yes they can be resharpened (and
>often if you use them much). As good as they were, they can't hold a
>candle to almost any carbide tipped blade for durability, especially when
>cutting the sheet goods we use so much of. The resins in MDF and the like
>will dull a chrome edge in one cut. DAMHIKT. Also, almost any carbide
>tipped blade will give at least as good a cut as the old hollow ground
>planer or ply blade if it has 40 or more teeth and is in good shape. I
>used to spend a lot of time changing blades, but now with carbide tipped
>blades, I keep a 60 tooth Freud on the RAS and a 40 tooth on the TS and
>resharpening and splintering is almost a thing of the past.

These are carbide blades - Kromedge is just Craftsman's brand name. They are a
30 tooth rip, a 80 tooth plywood and a cut-off blade (I don't remember the
tooth count). They are from the 1980's. I have some steel blades and I sharpen
them myself for rough utility work.

Dave Hall

David Hall wrote:

> These are carbide blades - Kromedge is just Craftsman's brand name. They are a
> 30 tooth rip, a 80 tooth plywood and a cut-off blade (I don't remember the
> tooth count). They are from the 1980's. I have some steel blades and I sharpen
> them myself for rough utility work.

The Kromedge blades are chrome-nickel-molybdenum steel. they are not carbide.

--
Jack Novak
Buffalo, NY - USA
(Remove "SPAM" from email address to reply)

>I sent two 'low end' carbide tooth blades to Forrest to be sharpened. I had
>a $10 coupon left from when I bought a Forrest dado. FWIW here is a
>comparison I made
>http://home.mchsi.com/%7Elarrylhote/sharp/sharp.htm
>
>There is one thing you should watch out for and I encountered it with one of
>the blades I had sharpened. The arbor hole may be a little loose and cause
>some vibration.
>
>Larry
I've heard that Forrest can sometimes make a cheaper blade perform better than
new. I don't know if these worked well new though. They seem to run with no
more vibration than my WWII so I thnk they are half decent blades. I do know
that the industry has advanced in the last 20 years though with laser cut
blades, better relief cuts and I assume some improvement in carbide. Oh well,
I'll give a little thought and decide in the next few days before I send out
the WWII.

Thanks for your thoughts and the informative page.

Dave Hall

>It may be cheaper to buy new then to try and get them sharpened.Even if they
>aren't worth sharpening they make great clocks.I'd hang on to them just for
>posterity.Some of my tools are 100 yrs old.I don't use them but love'm just
>the same

I can see keeping 100 year old tools and even somewhat newer speciality tools
(like old planes, etc.) that have some attachment, but 20 year old saw blades?
Naw, I will either get them sharpened, use them for utility work or lose 'em.
I've got other junk filling the nooks & crannys as it is ;)

Thanks.

Dave Hall

On 02 Jan 2004 03:50:01 GMT, [email protected] (David Hall) wrote:

>but 20 year old saw blades?

Take up smithing. Saw blades are useful steel (L6 for many, but I
don't know about Craftsman)

David Hall wrote:
> I can see keeping 100 year old tools and even somewhat newer speciality tools
> (like old planes, etc.) that have some attachment, but 20 year old saw blades?
> Naw, I will either get them sharpened, use them for utility work or lose 'em.
> I've got other junk filling the nooks & crannys as it is ;)

Use them for electrolysis sacrificial steel. They're good qua;ity steel
and that wide surface gives good coverage to the tool being de-rusted.

Dave in Fairfax
--
reply-to doesn't work
use:
daveldr at att dot net
American Association of Woodturners
Capital Area Woodturners

Andy Dingley wrote:

> Take up smithing. Saw blades are useful steel (L6 for many, but I
> don't know about Craftsman)

Oh how I wish I could! I really want to learn how to make swords, but I'm
fearful. So much to get wrong, and so much whacking with a heavy hammer.
I fear it would do my carpal tunnel no good at all.

Plus you don't exactly go to Lowe's and buy a forge. :(

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan <[email protected]>
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/

Silvan <[email protected]> wrote in <[email protected]>:

>Plus you don't exactly go to Lowe's and buy a forge. :(


Just saw a Sears Forge recently, that you could have gotten in the 1930's (?) mailorder :)

Jerry

On Sat, 03 Jan 2004 00:45:09 -0500, you wrote:

>
>Plus you don't exactly go to Lowe's and buy a forge. :(
need a hand cranked or power blower?
hand 'used' to be made in upper NY state.
try Cumberland General Store, or Lehmans

--Shiva--

--Shiva-- wrote:

>>Plus you don't exactly go to Lowe's and buy a forge. :(

> need a hand cranked or power blower?
> hand 'used' to be made in upper NY state.
> try Cumberland General Store, or Lehmans

Nah, it's not the indidual components so much as the motivation required to
put everything together. Some kind of thing for a fire pot, some kind of
thing for heat, some kind of blower, some kind of fuel source...

Brake drums I got in spades (bigass heavy truck sized brake drums), but then
it gets complicated. Hafta pay a fortune for coal, or else rig up a nozzle
and pay a fortune for propane. Hafta rig up the blower, or make a
bellows...

Then once I have a forge, there's learning what the various temperatures
look like, learning how to work the steel, learning how to harden and
temper it.

I'd need a real anvil. I'd need some place to *put* all of this stuff other
than inside a wooden shed filled with wood. Oops, I dropped a white hot
sword blank. Where's the fire extinguisher? Oh. Nevermind. Where's my
insurance policy? What, it doesn't cover my smithy? Oops.

On top of it all, working the metal involves beating the hell out of it
repeatedly with a big hammer. Cathartic, mayhap, but my wrists ain't what
they used to be. I fear getting into whacking things for extended periods
of time would surely put me in line for that surgery I'm trying to avoid.
I prefer to keep the ligament holding my wrists together in one piece if at
all possible.

All in all, when everything's said and done, one of these days I should buy
some real swords from some place that sells quality weapons and be done
with it. $400 for a sword is pretty cheap considering what I have to get
through before I can make one myself.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan <[email protected]>
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/