Sharpening Services Updated
A survey of the cost of getting tablesaw blades sharpened.
Former Fine Woodworking Associate Editor Tom Begnal wrote a great article in 2007 about sharpening services and their prices. In it, Tom notes the importance of a sharp edge, and stresses that if blade edges aren’t sharp, they won’t work as designed. Knowing that, Tom set out to find if it’s better for your wallet to sharpen or replace your dull blades. It’s been 11 years since that article and it’s possible his findings are out of date. So we thought it was time to do some research and update his price findings.
We weren’t surprised to find out that the prices haven’t changed that much in the past 11 years. It costs about the same to sharpen most blades, but the cost of shipping your dull blades has gone up. Therefore, if you do decide to sharpen, it’s best to ship all your blades together at the same time. Some hardware stores offer services where they ship out bulk packages to sharpening centers on a weekly basis.
What has changed is purchasing methods for new blades, and in your favor. Eleven years ago, most companies didn’t offer free shipping on orders above a certain price. Nowadays, you see a free shipping offer with almost every online purchase.
Does this mean you should ditch sharpening those blades all together? Definitely not. If you’ve purchased more expensive blades and bits, it simply doesn’t make sense to buy a new one altogether. For a blade worth over $40, it’s worth it to have it sharpened once or twice before tossing it. Those higher quality blades deserve to be sharpened several times before being put to rest.
Of course, finding a local store to do your buying, or a local sharpening service, will save you the shipping costs and change the math.
As of February of 2018:
*straight knife blades; blades for segmented cutterheads are usually disposable
More on FineWoodworking.com:
- Tool Test: Tablesaw Combination Blades – Nine blades tested from Amana, CMT, Delta, Forrest, Freud, Infinity, Ridge, SawStop, and Tenryu
- Dispoz-a-Blade Knives – Dispoz-a-Blade uses double-edged, disposable knives on a reusable holder to make it easy to change knives or reverse the blades to a sharp edge
- All About Saw Blades – Although blades for a miter saw or a tablesaw represent a sizable investment, they have a great deal to do with the quality of cut
Fine Woodworking Recommended Products
3M Blue Tape
Starrett 12-in. combination square
Rikon 10-3061 10-in. Deluxe Bandsaw
The saw has two speeds: 3,280 sfpm (surface feet per minute) for wood and 1,515 sfpm for soft metals and some plastics.
Comments
Hi, I live in France where sharpening of circular saw blades is quite expensive. About three and a half years ago I bought a machine so I could do it myself, it cost 75.00 Euros (about 90.00 US dollars). It works well , it takes about 30 minutes to remove the blade, sharpen it and refit it, so I don't think Oh well I can keep using a dull blade for just another week. I always have a sharp blade.
I have always lived in rural areas and have always found a local guy to do my sharpening. I have had my favorite Forest Woodworker II blade sharpened about 10 times over the 20 + years that I have owned it and it still has life in it. My 18 inch planer blades are 37 years old. How many times have they been sharpened? I have lost count.
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