Breathe new life into your dull blades and kiss rough cuts goodbye! Sharpen up those tired old bandsaw blades in a snap with nothing more than a trusty Dremel and a steady hand. Don’t waste time and money replacing blades when a quick DIY bandsaw blade sharpening session will have them slicing like new.
First things first, you have to get comfortable. I like to rig up a simple jig to hold the blade steady while I work. A flat board with some slots does the trick just fine.
After that, preparation is key. Whenever the teeth get inconsistent, I take a few minutes to flatten them all even with a stone. This ensures nice crisp cuts later.
Then it’s time for the money shot. I grab my Dremel fitted with a thin cutoff wheel and systematically work my way down the blade. Just a quick kiss on the tip of each tooth is all it needs to restore the slicing edge. Keeping the wheel at a slight angle for that slicing bevel.
The whole process goes faster than you’d think. My 6 tpi blade only takes about 10 minutes to fully rehab. Way faster than running to the store! A few more minutes buffing with some memory paper leaves me with a mirrored edge, good for 5 more shapenings at least.
Give it a try, you’ll be amazed at how well your saw cuts with a freshly sharpened blade. And the time savings pays for itself in no time. Mark my words, with some practice this Dremel method will have you cranking out edges like a pro shop. Your cuts will thank you!
One important thing before opting for Dremel bandsaw blade sharpening is to evaluate your blade. For coarse resaw blades with fewer teeth per inch (TPI), using a Dremel or other small grinding tool to reshape and sharpen the teeth is a practical approach. These blades have larger gullets between the teeth that provide more material to work with when sharpening. For resaw blades this thick, you can get multiple sharpenings before replacing.
Fine resaw blades with 10 TPI or more have much smaller teeth and gullets. Attempting to sharpen these by hand would be extremely tedious and you could easily ruin the delicate tooth geometry.
In general, it’s better to invest in professional sharpening or simply replace ultra-fine resaw blades once they become dull. The cost of a replacement may be comparable to the time and effort to manually resharpen such a blade.
