Has anyone sharpened a Silky?

idroptapul

idroptapul

Joined
Nov 23, 2006
Messages
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We've got 6 Silkies in our shop at work and they're dulling out after a couple seasons of use clearing trail. At $40 a pop, replacement blades aren't cheap. According to the Silky website,the blades that aren't impact hardened can be sharpened. Anyone ever try to sharpen their handsaw blades?
 
My Silky has the impulse hardened teeth: I know those can't be sharpened. As for the ones without hardened teeth, I have no idea, but I'll watch this thread to see what you come up with. Good luck.
 
dawsonbob said:
My Silky has the impulse hardened teeth: I know those can't be sharpened. As for the ones without hardened teeth, I have no idea, but I'll watch this thread to see what you come up with. Good luck.
Click to expand...

Why cant you use a diamond abrasive?
 
I just tried a Smith Abrasives 4" diamond sharpener (325 grit on one side, 750 on the other) on a Silky Super Accel 210. I applied it to the quarter inch of steel right behind the tip and in front of the teeth. That should be within the impulse hardening zone. The steel is so hard that it sharpens very slowly, but the diamond sharpener did remove material.

For the non-impulse hardened Silky's, I've read that people use a small, fine file.

DancesWithKnives
 
Hey DWK2, you made me curious, so I whipped out my Silky Super Accel 210, and gave it a try (on the same portion that you tried). Wow! That's some hard steel! I used a DMT Diafold and, yeah, it will remove some steel, but very, very slowly. Even if I could get the DMT between those small teeth, I don't think I would try to sharpen this saw.

I've sharpened bow saw blades with a small file, but I don't know how hard the non-impulse hardened teeth are on a Silky. Think it's worth the time it would take?
 
i have some small diamond wheels that would probably work good for sharpening a saw blade like that. if anyone has a dull blade i would give sharpening one a shot.
 
I've seen some small, fine diamond files that I'd be willing to try on a dull Silky blade while sitting around watching TV or the like. However, I bought Silkys with the impulse hardened teeth because I don't want to be doing that often. One professional arborist said that he was still using a Silky Zubat 330mm (impulse hardened teeth) after three seasons with no sharpening. I bought that model and the SA 210.

For the OP's non-impulse hardened blades I'd still try to find a small diamond file. If Silky's steel on those is even moderately hard (as I expect it would be), I'll bet the sharpening work would go a lot more quickly than with a regular file.

DancesWithKnives
 
belt sander,finish on leather covered dowl, i use valve grinding paste to charge the leather.gets my kukri scary sharp
 
Sounds like a good knife/kukri setup, but how would you sharpen the teeth on a saw with that rig?

DancesWithKnives
 
Yesterday I took a needle file to the teeth on a few saws. It removed material without any problem and restored a sharp tip to most of them. The problem I've run into is that now the teeth are not a uniform height. I tried out the saws on a 2x4 and they were cutting much more aggressively, but not very smoothly. I've got jigs for maintaining the correct tooth height on crossuts, but (to use knife terminology) crosscut blades have "belly" whereas the Silkies are more of a hawk's bill profile. It's convex vs. concave.
 
For a fine woodworking saw, I could see smoothness being critical. But if you're using them for trail clearing, it sounds like you got them good enough to go.

There must be a big hardness difference between those blades and the impulse hardened Silkys if a needle file worked that easily. Glad to hear it wasn't a big pain.

DancesWithKnives
 
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