Rotary blade sharpener
 

Does anyone use a rotary blade sharpener? Does it work and is it worth the money?

I had a manual one for a time, but didn't feel it helped. Besides, I suspect my actual problem is nicks, not dullness.

I have the True Cut Sharpener. Works ok, take it to my quilting group for the ladies to use. They love it but I think it is a quick fix. New blades are always better in my opinion.

If you "search" this board, you will find many posts on the same subject. The great majority of us seem to feel the best thing to do is to buy new blades. If you go online and search for blades there are many good deals.

I was told by a professional knife sharpener, Always sharpen a sharp blade and it will never go dull. I sharpen my blade before every cutting job. I use the vertical Grace Sharpener. If the blades starts to skip then I replace it with a new one. My blades lasts a long time.

I can't for the life of me figure how they would work properly. Sharpening a knife with a slightly curved blade is tricky enough because in order to sharpen it, you need a particular angle (whatever the angle was at which the blade was originally manufactured). Every knife is different, and a professional sharpener will know or look up the angle for your particular brand & type of knife to recreate that angle when s/he is sharpening it.

So the first problem I see is that any one rotary sharpener would likely not be the correct angle for every brand of blades. The second issue is trying to maintain a consistent angle on a rotating circular blade so that it sharpens & does so evenly all the way around the blade. And finally, I kind of agree with Onebyone. Although, I think instead of sharpening the blade, it's actually honing the rotary blades. To get any benefit from honing, the blade must already be sharp. If you wait until it starts to dull, it's definitely too late (even if it's the proper angle for your brand of blades & somehow manages to make consistent contact with the blade all the way around)

Honing isn't a bad thing. It's what they do at the knife sharpener shop when you bring them a pizza cutter. It can prolong the life of the blade if done properly. Still, with an average price of $3.25-3.50 at Walmart & Amazon for genuine Olfa 45mm blades, I personally would rather not risk a dull, uneven or partially damaged blade so I just buy the replacement ones.

Bree 123 you are right. Honing is the way to keep a blade sharp. That is what the over the counter sharpeners are, honing stones, but it won't sharp a dull blade enough to make a difference with a few swipes or turns. Remember the man sitting and honing their knife blades? Always honing to keep the sharp blade sharp.

I just buy new blades and usually with a coupon. I did take note of a comment about tossing the bad blades into a jar for disposal and I have a clear peanut butter jar that all my dull blades and needles go into. I am also using the jar as I go through decluttering some drawers and getting rid of other sharp unwanted objects. DH started doing same thing in his shed with bent nails.

I have the true cut manual sharpener. It's the cats meow.

Ditto, Lee....this is my situation too

I had a friend who professionally resharpens items and he tried sharpening my old blades but that didn't work. So far, I don't think there is anything out there that really gives the sharpness of a new blade.

I wasted 50 bucks on a sharpener that doesn't work. 90% of my problem is nicks from running over the ruler or pins and the sharpener can't fix those.

If you get a nick, you have to replace the blade or be frustrated with skips. I see many at guild recut several times because of skips. I use to hand them my rotary cutter but not any more. They are too cheap to buy a new blade but will use mine and say how great it is to use a sharp blade. LOL

I have the true cut electric sharpener. I occasionally use it, but they are very clear in the instructions that you will never be able to get a factory sharp edge using their sharpeners on a dull or nicked blade. It does an okay job at keeping an acceptably sharp blade in acceptably sharp condition if you want to extend the use life of your blades. I wouldn't spend money on it again.

Rob <object type="cosymantecnisbfw" cotype="cs" id="SILOBFWOBJECTID" style="width: 0px; height: 0px; display: block;"></object>

I have the electric sharpener and love it. You need to put a tiny drop of oil on each of the two stones before sharpening. After sharpening, put another drop of oil on each stone and rub it with a fingertip to get all the metal off the stone and wipe it off with a scrap of cotton or tissue. You need to do this with each sharpening pass, because a metal-clogged stone won't sharpen your blade.

I'll try that JustAbitCrazy--I didn't know that you could clean the stones that way, I've been rotating and turning them, but since I've had mine a while all sides show some metal clogging.

thanks for the tip,
Rob<object type="cosymantecnisbfw" cotype="cs" id="SILOBFWOBJECTID" style="width: 0px; height: 0px; display: block;"></object>

I have the Tru Cut Sharpener and feel it gives my blades a little longer life. Once they're no longer decent for cutting fabric I use them in another rotary cutter I have for cutting anything but fabric so I get a little more use out of them. I have my rotary cutters marked for what they are used for so they don't get mixed up. And yes, new blades are always the best.

I also found that having a seal healing cutting mat prolongs my blades too. I found when I was using my rotating mat which is self healing that I got much better cuts so when I went to replace my table cutting mat I got a seal healing one. This one is green on one side and black on the other side so if the time comes that the green side is too worn out (years from now) I can always turn it over to the black side as it also has the markings. My mat is 4' x 8'. Couldn't find a mat to fit the table I had so built the table to fit the mat I could find.