Rotary Blade Sharpening
 

I've seen a few different gadgets that are supposed to help sharpen rotary blades. Does anyone use something to sharpen their blades? If so, what do you use and how well does it work? Thanks!

I have tried several of the gadjets and never found they were worth the effort. Now I just bite the bullet and order in quantity from eBay. Not sure what the prices are now, but several years ago I could get brand-name blades for about $2. Nowadays you can get no-brand blades for about $1.50 each (brand name are more). My guess is that the no-name blades will still work better than a blade sharpened in a home gadjet. Aside from the money tied up in purchasing the gadjet, the way I look at it the time and effort it takes to try to sharpen a dull blade takes away from the time I can be spending on actually creating a quilt. Plus, none of the sharpeners will correct a nick in a blade; at most all they can do is hone the edge, and that they seem to do somewhat poorly so that the new edge either does not work very well or does not last long (or both).

I've not tried one and the things I've read say to save your money and use it be buy new blades.

I have a True Cut blade sharpener from the Grace company and I can't see that it does much good. I just buy the generic blades from E-Bay. They seem to work as good as the name brands except I occasionally get one that doesn't, but rarely. At around $1 each, I don't mind getting a defective one occasionally.

Until last week I two sharpeners, I finally threw them in the trash can. Just about killed me, that was about sixty bucks down the drain. If my story helps someone else not throw their money away the toss wasn't in vain.

Save your money. I have the TruCut, too, and it doesn't work. I think it actually made my blade duller.

I had a sharpener one week. Sent it back. Took about 6 to get my money back but atleast I got my money back will not purchase another. I just buy new with coupons when I can or when they are on discount. If that doesn't happen then pay full price. I could order on line but after paying for shipping and not knowing when they would get here, I just go to the stores here an get them. I always need one at the worse time. Ido try to get them usually when I can get discount on a total purchase. Often 25%.

I've had the little blue one with the sandpaper for a while. It never worked. I guess I need to pitch it.

What do you do with all your dull or chipped blades? Do you throw them in the trash? Is there anywhere to mail them off to have them professionally sharpened? Thanks, I'm reading with interest all of your postings. I would also like to know if you go through so many blades because you sew professionally? Or are you a quiltmaker/sewer who just makes a heck of a lot of quilts?

mike's girl, I wonder if you tried to replace the sandpaper with new? Maybe then it would work better. I have this blue one, too. I sharpen my blade occasionally.