Sharpening blades.

[Jack Peterson]

Everybody loves sharp blades, but how do you sharpen yours?

I recently bought a $5 dollar "temporary blade sharpener." It's made by Lazer or something. I think it's made for taking out on the lake and making a temporary edge every once in a while. Not sure.

Do you sharpen your blades with a special tool, or just with any sharpener?

P.S. Don't touch your sharp blades or your hand will look like this!

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-s...3_4977398_n.jpg

[JimBuck]

I send them in to get sharpened by Strikemaster. F.W.I. maybe try to avoid posting such a graphic image and instead post a link to the image. It's not particularly relevant to sharpening auger blades and some folks don't like to open a thread only to find an unexpected photo of a flesh wound.

[Jack Peterson]

Ha, sounds great. I guess some people do have weak stomachs

[Jack Peterson]

How much does strikemaster or eskimo charge? I can't remember what brand of auger I have. Either one of those two though.

[Esox_Magnum]

When I owned Stikemasters I always carried a spare set of new blades, tried the resharpened once once on a trade in deal the local bait shop offered they lasted half as long as new ones. Tried sharpening them myself with several differnt methods including some sharpener supposedly designed for ice blades and wasted both my time and money.

Best advice I can give on my experience is buy a new set and keep a new set on hand.

[Surface Tension]

Jack, thats a pretty good gash.

The sharpener you have might be good enough to save a fishing trip if you drill into an obstacle or something. At least you can try it before you pack it in and head home.

You'll notice there is one cutting edge that will go on the top of the blade.

The other part of that sharpener is to guide and de-burr.

It doesn't do either well. Take very lite strokes to finish.

Flat blades like a Mora can be done on a system like a Lansky, or a perfectly flat surface, adhesion, and sandpaper. If you have chips forget it. If it is just dull or very small burrs then wet sand and work up to 1000 grit. When you get into curved blades it gets difficult. Each pass needs to be exact. The flat stone won't work there either will the V stone.

Lastly if you get replacement blades, pass on the ones made in China.

[herefish101]

Yes, as posted above, never buy the blades "made in china" they will break into pieces.

[JimBuck]

Jack, don't quote me but I think it was 15-20 bucks shipped. Good luck.

[Surface Tension]

Ironically the steel probably came from the Iron Range.

Not that that has to do with anything, its how it made and treated.

[headcheese]

a file worked good for my jiffy, but those arent teh high tech lazer blades

[deadeye]

I have one of those lazer blade sharpeners and it does a decent job of keeping the blades maintained. If you chunk one out or have very dull blades its not going to do much but it does keep a edge on them. It has made my blades last a couple seasons vs. changing them every season so I am happy with it. You do have to be careful and use it the right way otherwise you can do more harm than good, but it is still pretty darn easy IMO.

Oh yeah, I learned the lesson with getting the hands too close to the blades too. My index finger on my right hand has never been quite the same lol. I wasn't calm enough to take a pic of the carnage though lol.