Ken Grunenberg wrote:
I have a question about carbide blades.
In the past I have been using the cheap $6-$10 Harbor freight blades and dressing the teeth as needed until the blade nolonger cuts well.(very dull) I than toss it out and use another new blade. With $12 to $20 for sharpening my method seems, on the face, to be best.
I would like to hear other ideas from fellow wood chippers.

KenG

What I'm curious about, Ken, is what you mean by "dressing the teeth".
Do you have the proper tooling for sharpening (if that's what you mean
by dressing) carbide? Most of us don't. In some circumstances, a
diamond file can be used to hone or even sharpen carbide, but
practically speaking, the inaccuracy of hand sharpening a circular
blade makes the effort not worthwhile.

I doubt the carbide on some HF blades is that much different,
practically speaking, than on the higher priced blades. But the
sharpening, the balance and design make a world of difference. I
suspect you could send one of the better HF blades to Forrest and have
them sharpen it, and you'd see a tremendous improvement. But at that
point you're only a few bucks away from getting a better designed and
balanced blade, so the effort again might not be worth it.

My 2¢,
H