How to sharpen a Silky Saw...

[treeseer]

The guys got a point- do you use a silky until it's blunt then chuck

Well, if thats the case, you're using it blunter than sharp for most of the time.

 

Brilliant; that seals the deal; no answer for that. I'm SO glad I did not chuck mine!

 

I have a groundy who would excel at sharpening; he's too myopic/detail oriented to be good at much else.

 

me i would need some excellent tunes going to stay on it, and then i might still muck it up.

[Woodworks]

Some good quality files for Japanese saws here. Saw Blade Sharpening Tools

Someone said their diamond file lasted 6 sharpens. I can only say you get what you pay for. I have diamond sharpening stone that sees regular use and it still going strong and is at least 15 years old but was not cheap.

[face cord]

Some good quality files for Japanese saws here. Saw Blade Sharpening Tools

 

Which of thoose files would be best for silky sharpeing do you reckon?

 

 

 

They have a silky type saw there for € 669.00 wouldn't bin that after it got blunt

 

[treequip]

Try this page first.

 

There is a list of ones that can and can't. When I find it again I will post it up.

 

Sharpening File | Silky Saws

 

Found it. The saws have a mark the is a file above the blade. On this link near the bottom.

 

Silky Technology

 

You missed the point, you said they cant be sharpened yet they are sharp when they arrive so they must be able to sharpen them.

 

Re sharpening is difficult to the point of becoming uneconomical but they can be sharpened.

[Woodworks]

I am not sure how silkys are made but the reason some saws are considered un-sharpenable is the tips of the blade are heat treated after they have been ground to shape. This heat treating only goes into the very outside of the steel so if you then sharpen it you file off the heat treatment exposing the softer base metal. This will be sharp briefly but will quickly blunt again. The usual signs of this sort of heat treatment is the tips are a dark colour like on a bow a saw blade but there is no evidence of this on my Silky so I suspect it is sharpenable.

As to which file to use from the link I posted I am afraid I don't know but I am sure an E-mail to them would give you an answer.

[agg221]

You missed the point, you said they cant be sharpened yet they are sharp when they arrive so they must be able to sharpen them.

 

Re sharpening is difficult to the point of becoming uneconomical but they can be sharpened.

 

Kind of. The saw blades are set and sharpened first, then induction hardened on the teeth only. This means that the blade in the condition you receive it is not in the condition it was in when sharpened. It's a bit like the effect on a chain of leaning into it when sharpening with a grinder - same metallurgical process and afterwards a saw file won't touch it. Hypothetically you could reverse the process, i.e. anneal the whole blade and then sharpen, then re-induction harden the teeth, however the blade would distort due to the uneven stresses, so you would also have to put it through a set of rollers, then re-set it and start from scratch again. The above thermal cycle for annealing would induce grain growth, so you would not get back to the same metallurgical properties (it would be much more brittle once re-hardened). As such, the only way to get right back to where you started performance-wise would be to re-cast the steel, re-roll the plate and start all over again.

 

Practically speaking though, the steel is not as hard as diamond, so can be sharpened with a diamond file, but the teeth are harder than a steel file so can no longer be sharpened conventionally.

 

The 'sharpenable' blades are made in either 'blue steel' or 'white steel'. They are not as hard as the disposable blades, so can be sharpened with a Japanese saw file. These differ from conventional Western files not just in shape but in hardness - the steel is left almost dead hard which makes it extremely brittle, but capable of cutting the tool steel teeth.

 

Alec

[Woodworks]

Kind of. The saw blades are set and sharpened first, then induction hardened on the teeth only. This means that the blade in the condition you receive it is not in the condition it was in when sharpened. It's a bit like the effect on a chain of leaning into it when sharpening with a grinder - same metallurgical process and afterwards a saw file won't touch it. Hypothetically you could reverse the process, i.e. anneal the whole blade and then sharpen, then re-induction harden the teeth, however the blade would distort due to the uneven stresses, so you would also have to put it through a set of rollers, then re-set it and start from scratch again. The above thermal cycle for annealing would induce grain growth, so you would not get back to the same metallurgical properties (it would be much more brittle once re-hardened). As such, the only way to get right back to where you started performance-wise would be to re-cast the steel, re-roll the plate and start all over again.

 

Practically speaking though, the steel is not as hard as diamond, so can be sharpened with a diamond file, but the teeth are harder than a steel file so can no longer be sharpened conventionally.

 

The 'sharpenable' blades are made in either 'blue steel' or 'white steel'. They are not as hard as the disposable blades, so can be sharpened with a Japanese saw file. These differ from conventional Western files not just in shape but in hardness - the steel is left almost dead hard which makes it extremely brittle, but capable of cutting the tool steel teeth.

 

Alec

 

Ha ha

 

As usual a much better explanation of what I was trying to say.

 

Nice on Alec.

[White Noise]

Haha, once you get used to it, buying a new blade once ones gone dull seems as daft as buying a new chain when the same the same has happened 😃

 

I admit I was wrong now got a sharp old silky which was destined for the scrap heap I really have gone overboard on the sharpening though as it seems more aggressive giving a rougher finish on a branch . All good though

[treequip]

Kind of. The saw blades are set and sharpened first, then induction hardened on the teeth only. This means that the blade in the condition you receive it is not in the condition it was in when sharpened. It's a bit like the effect on a chain of leaning into it when sharpening with a grinder - same metallurgical process and afterwards a saw file won't touch it. Hypothetically you could reverse the process, i.e. anneal the whole blade and then sharpen, then re-induction harden the teeth, however the blade would distort due to the uneven stresses, so you would also have to put it through a set of rollers, then re-set it and start from scratch again. The above thermal cycle for annealing would induce grain growth, so you would not get back to the same metallurgical properties (it would be much more brittle once re-hardened). As such, the only way to get right back to where you started performance-wise would be to re-cast the steel, re-roll the plate and start all over again.

 

Practically speaking though, the steel is not as hard as diamond, so can be sharpened with a diamond file, but the teeth are harder than a steel file so can no longer be sharpened conventionally.

 

The 'sharpenable' blades are made in either 'blue steel' or 'white steel'. They are not as hard as the disposable blades, so can be sharpened with a Japanese saw file. These differ from conventional Western files not just in shape but in hardness - the steel is left almost dead hard which makes it extremely brittle, but capable of cutting the tool steel teeth.

 

Alec

 

I had a go at sharpening a silky, just out of interest.

 

The induction hardening goes deep enough that you can get a new edge in it and still retain the durability (depending on how bad it was to start with)

 

I wasn't overly happy with the finish, it didn't glide like a factory finish but I keep one back for sacrificial works like cutting roots.

 

I am saving all the wrecked ones and when I have enough I will forge them into a Katana:laugh1:

[spudulike]

Oh not this bloke again. I'm sure he looks like spud.

 

I think you will find that some silky saws are not able to be sharpened. The details are on there website.

 

Not sure we have met, this guy is far better looking than me and 20 years younger