Bandsaw blades ?

[Kirkll]

I remove the blade, soak it in kerosene over night and then power wash it with hot water.

Kirk, good point on straighten out the set.

There ya go Buggs-Boy.

Let us know how long it takes you to tap the set back in.

Now that’s something I’ve never tried on a band saw is tapping the set in a band saw blade. My grandpa gave me an old craftsman setting tool for steel saw blades that I really neve4 used much. But he used to sharpen all his own saw blades back in the day before carbide tooth blades took the helm in the industry.

I think I’ve seen a setting tool that looked like pliers once upon a time. Now THAT would be something worth while to do me thinks…. Kirk

[onetone]

Here’s a saw set for hand saws and a vise for sharpening.

[Kirkll]

After posting that yesterday, I found a set up just like that I inherited from my grand dad in a box out in the shop. My Dad never messed with sharpening hand saws, and had a few shops he used that did the sharpening. So that’s just something I never learned how to do….

I did learn how to use a back saw in a hand miter box to set door and window trim at a young age. We also got door blanks and had to mortise our own hinges , bore for hardware with a brace and bit, and build the door frames too. That disappeared in the early 70’s and everything was pre hung in frames and delivered.

Quite honestly…. When I can set down for 5 minutes and order a new blade for $15-$20 bucks on Amazon and have it arrive the next day. I see no reason to be messing with this stuff anymore… times have changed.

[Appalachian Hillbilly]

I still have a lot of my grandfather's saw sharpening stuff. Cross cut saw and handsaws. Could not begin to tell you how to use any of it. Sadly he passed when I was an infant. My other grandfather though, taught me how to harness a work horse, hunt, fish, farm.

So much is lost these days. Unfortunately my kids have no idea what a horse collar is or what trace chains even are...

[Buggs]

If you guys think cleaning 374 teeth is nutty, it's nothing compared to setting and sharpening.
Then you can take it too the next level and sharpen a Japanese pattern dovetail saw with a feather file

The files come with a warning to only do one saw at a time to avoid potential mental heath issues and a 1-800
24hr crisis hotline.

[Kirkll]

I was very fortunate to have both my Granddads until i was 25 years old. One of them spent time with me in his little workshop building cabinets and furniture. The other one was a custom home builder that my grandmother did all the design work and drafting on. I did a bit of wood framing with him when i was pretty young. I remember separating the lumber deliveries and removing any wood that had knots and setting them in the "return pile".... Grandpa Corey wouldnt use wood with knots in his homes.

  Could you imagine building homes with clear lumber?  No knots?  Back in the 60's there was still old growth timber being milled. 200' tall and over 8' at the butt were quite common... I remember a lot of One log loads on trucks back then. MASSIVE douglas fir trees. Some of them 10-12' thick at the butt.

Those days are long gone, but i'm fortunate to have grown up seeing that....    Kirk

[Mark R]

Your bringing back memories Kirk, slab doors hundreds of them install site made wood frames, slab doors, and lay out and mill and mortise on site, had a gang box full of templates for door hardware. Nothing like running a boring mortise machine for eight hours a day.

[Mark R]

Wait, sorry this is about bandsaw blades. Carbide tipped bandsaw blades are the bomb until they break and you realize what you paid for them.

[Kirkll]

Wait, sorry this is about bandsaw blades. Carbide tipped bandsaw blades are the bomb until they break and you realize what you paid for them.

I've had those carbide tipped blades welded back together several times with good success.


Back in 1976 there was a flood disaster in Eastern idaho when a damn broke. Wiped one city right off the map and flooded two more cities with 4-5' of water. I worked on that mess for a few months, but when we first started there was no power. Only generators.... I had all my hand tools with me and hung a lot of blank doors and set trim completely by hand. I had all the work i wanted because my dad taught me to set finish by hand proficiently before he let me use the power tools.  That experience came in handy during that time.

later on in 77 we were framing a bunch of  houses and the weather got bad, and work ran out. So i decided to move indoors and contracted the finish work for a few homes. At that time i had no power finish tools of my own, or finish nail guns. So i set up my hand miter saw, sharpened my chisels and block plane, bought some finish nails, and rolled up my sleeves.

The home builder was so impressed with my skills by hand, he started bringing his home buyers in to see my "Old School" workmanship, and loaded me up with work. I had people waiting an extra month to have their finishwork set by hand, and the builder even paid me 25% more for my work too.

But truth be known.... by the time i finished a dozen houses i did purchase a power miter saw and finish nailers for other projects in the future.      Kirk

[Horsey]

For years I have used Kerfmaster blades available from Spectrum Supply.  They are scary sharp and slice through exotic hardwood like butter and waste is minimal.  They are also relatively inexpensive.  They stay sharp for quite a while.  When they start getting dull, they start to drift a little.  I can still slice laminations for a while, but put on a new blade to slice veneers.  This is the same blade used by Rosewood with great success.

[Buggs]

Looks like Spectrum uses Lennox blade stock, which is good stuff!