Clipper Blades

[cammac]

I know it is not exactly a knife question, but you guys seem to know a lot about sharpening things, so does anyone know if it is possible to sharpen clipper blades yourself? I am talking about the type of blades used with electric clippers to shear livestock. They are a bigger version of what is used at the barbershop. I looked around on the web and all I could find was a sanding disc type of machine that does it, nothing about doing it by hand. Thanks for the help

 

[WillyD]

I'm sure you could do this using the ceramic rods of a spyderco sharpmaker. This thing is so versatile I'm sure even that's possible.

 

[the possum]

I've looked at the blades on our cattle clippers, and I think it would be easy to resharpen them yourself, assuming they're of similar design to ours. Take the blade off, and study the angles and design. I think it would difficult and pointless to try to sharpen the sides of each individual tooth, unless we're talking about seriously dull or damaged blades. On ours, the underside of the blade is ever so slightly hollow ground, kinda like good Japanese woodworking chisels. I think it would be best to just lay the whole blade flat onto the sharpener and remove metal from the bottom. If you try this with a stone, it must be absolutely flat, or it will only dull the teeth. I think it would work best to use a new, perfectly flat, whole sheet of sandpaper laid on a big piece of glass. (coffee table?) You probably won't need to start coarser than 600 grit, and you'd want to end up with 1000 grit or so. Just rub the blade in a figure 8 motion on the paper, (might want to finish the last few strokes by pulling away from the teeth) and use water to keep it from clogging.

 

[skintback]

i've sharpened a few thousand sets of clipper blades, and i highly recomend you take them to some one who's set up w/ a real clipper grinder.....clipper plates are by far the hardest things to sharpen properly i've ever done.....way more complex than surgical inst or scissors....most places that offer the service will sharpen a set of plates for $3-$5, a real bargain......the "disc sander" machines you mention still require a huge amount of skill and experience to use properly....it is actually a steel lapping plate, w/ abrasive powder applied....the difference in viscosity in different batches of kerosene used to hold the abrasive on the wheel will throw things out of whack, and you're back to square one w/ uneven blades...do yourself a favor, and avoid the headaches on this one

 

[cammac]

Thanks for the replies. I might try to sharpen an old set using the sandpaper method and see how it goes. I suspect the best, and easiest, way is just to take them to a professional with the propper equipment. I will watch them sharpen the blades though, because now I am interested to see how they actually do it.