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Sharpening bandsaw blades with chainsaw sharpener
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I have one of these styles of chainsaw sharpeners...
Attachment 502666
https://www.swartstools.com.au/assets/full/SWB1705.jpg?20200703030159
...and decided to have a go at sharpening a large (1” tpi) bandsaw blade with it.
As described by Derek Cohen in his thread on Sharpening bandsaw blades, I just lightly touched up the back of the tips.
The advantage of using the chain sharpener is that it has a pawl that holds each tooth precisely in place and a depth setting for the grinding wheel, which controls precisely how much is ground off every tooth. This gives an even depth for all of the re-sharpened teeth.
I set the depth so that it only took off enough to create a new sharp tip. The amount of metal removed to achieve that was very small. The abrasive wheel only had to kiss the back of the tip to achieve that.
It wasn’t particularly quick, but probably as quick as any of the other methods I have used to touch up bandsaw blades. However, it is more precise than any other means I have used.
I don’t touch up enough bandsaw blades to warrant expending that amount on a sharpener just for those, but as I had this one already for my chainsaws it came at no additional cost to me and I expect there are others that have similar chainsaw sharpeners that they could also put to this additional use.
More expensive bandsaw blade sharpeners will also reset the teeth, but they are in another price category altogether! Just reset the teeth by hand if you think the blade needs it.
Having to remove the blade from the bandsaw to touch it up is one of the downsides of using the chainsaw sharpener, but you get used to having to do it that way with chains for this type of chainsaw sharpener.
Note: These chainsaw sharpeners are configured to fit the standard range of chainsaw chain drive link widths and those all have thicker gauges than any bandsaw blade that is going to fit (height wise) into the sharpener. I found a shim fitted behind the blade helped hold the bandsaw blade firmly in the clamping slot while grinding.