Auger Blade sharpening.

[Agronomist_at_IA]

Well I have a set of blades from an HT hand auger. What is the best way to sharpen the blades? Just use a hand knife sharpener?

I also have a jiffy ripper blade, but they whant $26 to sharpen it, and it would cost me $5 to ship it there. Heck I can buy new for $36. Anyone have any luck having someone else sharpening a jiffy blade?

[TooTallTom]

Is the Jiffy ripper blade flat? The one on my Legend is, so we just took the blade off, bolted it down, and hit it with a large grinder. Obviously, you want to make sure you keep the angle the same.

I think it'd be pretty sweet to use one of those belt sander/ sanding wheel bench-top combinations, and make a block to keep the blade at the proper angle.

[tsande00]

Well I have a set of blades from an HT hand auger. What is the best way to sharpen the blades? Just use a hand knife sharpener?

I also have a jiffy ripper blade, but they whant $26 to sharpen it, and it would cost me $5 to ship it there. Heck I can buy new for $36. Anyone have any luck having someone else sharpening a jiffy blade?

I tried sharpening my HT blades but made them worse. I picked up a complete set of replacement blades for the HT for around $5 at a big box store.

[bobbymalone]

is there a blade exchange around?

[Pooh]

get a good file.. I touch mine up 3-4 times a year on my strikemaster. much easier to keep sharp than to try to resharpen.

[magnum mike]

+1 for a good & sharp 10" mill bastard file. The Jiffy serrated blade will take quite a bit more abuse than most other blades. If you have a bad spot (usually one of the corners) you can tune it up with a sharp file. Go slow and easy, follow the bevel of the other edges and make sure to hit both sides.

[Agronomist_at_IA]

Well, worked out fairly sweet. I talked to a guy I work with and for the price of a big bopper ice cream sandwich he sharpened it with a metal workshop band sander. It's sharp has hell now with the right angle again. I had it all fubared up trying to do it with the hand grinder at home.

[Esox_Magnum]

The HT one I would just toss and buy a better auger, not often you find something branded HT thats quality....

[Agronomist_at_IA]

The HT one I would just toss and buy a better auger, not often you find something branded HT thats quality....

It's just a hand auger that I use at first ice. It maybe makes it out a few times a season. Then I Switch to the Jiffy. To tell you the truth before the blades got really dull, it cut like a son of a gun.

I've seen replacement blades cheap, just was gonna sharpen the ones I had due to not wanting to be wasteful.

[Great Outdoors]

You do not sharpen an auger blade from two sides like a knife.

Work the beveled side with a file or stone to remove any major nicks, while keeping the bevel as close as possible to the factory angle.

The only time you touch the other side is to remove the wire edge, like you would on a hockey or figure skate.

[Esox_Magnum]

I'm lazy and don't take the time to remove the motor and put the crank on so just dude the gas all season... In reality you only have 4-6" of ice for the first week or so, most of us only get weekends/holidays to fish in the winter and for me thats 1 maybe 2 weekends I would even use a hand auger....Only 20 ponds to carry along and I have the shack along anyway... might be different if I was lugging a heavy auger like te Jiffy....Then again I only weigh 145 so can afford to carry a little more along with me...

[Surface Tension]

You probable don't have a water cooled disc grinder with tool holder sitting in your garage.

If you substitute with a belt or disc grinder keep the RPMs down or length of time cutting short because the heat will ruin the blade.

Really though you can do it by hand.

Those chipper and ripper blades you'll sharpen same as you'd sharpen a chisel but your not going to find a stones wide enough.

A flat surface with 220 sandpaper adhered to that will work but its going to take a while.

First start by removing all chips and nicks from the edge. That means grinding the edge back till your nicks are gone.

Sharpen the grooves of the blade with a round file that is the correct size.

Since the blade is flat go ahead and deburr the backside(flat side). Lay the blade flat to do that and DO NOT put a bevel on the backside.

When sharpening by hand move the edge into the stone like your taking off a slice.

I tool holder or jig to keep the blade from rocking is going to help you more then you know.

Rock the blade once and your starting over. Because of the number of passes it'll take to sharpen, you increase the chance that one of them rocked.

Keep that up till you see a burr across the ENTIRE length of the edge.

Now move to a finer grit and keep at it till the wire edge breaks off.

Of coarse there will be a smaller burr from the finer grit. If this was a chisel you'd continue with a finer grits but good enough for a chipper or ripper blade.

If you have a fixed center point on the auger shaft use a file but remember not to rock the file.

If you have a removable center point and the small extra rippers remove then and sharpen the same way you did the large blade.

[Agronomist_at_IA]

I'm lazy and don't take the time to remove the motor and put the crank on so just dude the gas all season... In reality you only have 4-6" of ice for the first week or so, most of us only get weekends/holidays to fish in the winter and for me thats 1 maybe 2 weekends I would even use a hand auger....Only 20 ponds to carry along and I have the shack along anyway... might be different if I was lugging a heavy auger like te Jiffy....Then again I only weigh 145 so can afford to carry a little more along with me...

I use the hand auger on ponds that have 3-4 inches of fresh ice and walk out with a bucket of gear and hand auger for early ice. Once the ice is 5in thick I'm using a 4 wheeler and a power auger.

[V-12 Merlin]

You do not sharpen an auger blade from two sides like a knife.

Work the beveled side with a file or stone to remove any major nicks, while keeping the bevel as close as possible to the factory angle.

The only time you touch the other side is to remove the wire edge, like you would on a hockey or figure skate.

+1