linmid

What are the pros and cons of using a blade sharpner. Are they worth buying?

pocoellie

What kind of sharpener, hand or electric, they have both? I don't have any experience with the electric ones, but the hand type are virtually useless, in my opinion.

grammasharon

I have two of the hand type and I agree, they are totally worthless. I usually purchase blades on line and they are very reasonable.

Snooze2978

The electric blade sharpner I purchased from Nancy's Notion worked just fine for me once I read the instructions. Had been using it incorrectly so the blades weren't getting sharpened as they should. Now I sharpen my blades only once for fabric. When the blade gets dull again I'll sharpen them and use them in my "Paper Only" rotary cutter. They'll never go dull or not for a long time. After they do get dull I place them in the blade container they came in, once its full I toss it. Also found out my blades were getting dull with my old style cutting mat. Got a better cut on a self-healing mat so changed over to those. Now they last longer for me.

mermaid

I have the truesharp and am very unhappy with it's performance..it's been stored in a bag now for 3 yrs, just waiting for my estate sale. LOL I just buy new blades usually, but have a good stash now that I got at another estate sale last Fall.

SillySusan

I used the manual one years ago and it was useless. It made the blades even worse that the dullness I started with. I hope they are better now, but I hadn't bothered to try to sharpen blades since.

Peckish

Nope. Waste of money.

JustAbitCrazy

I have the electric true Cut and love it. I think many people are unsuccessful with it because they don't wipe off the dirty oil and put a drop of clean oil on each side of the sharpening stones every time they rotate the sharpener. Dirty oil (oil with tiny bits of metal in it from sharpening) fouls the stone with embedded bits of metal, making sharpening impossible. You have to wipe off the dirty oil on the stone, put a drop of clean oil on it and rub that into the stone with your finger to dislodge the metal bits, wipe that off, then re-oil the clean stone with every rotation of the sharpener, on each and every stone surface. Do that and you'll have success.

lindaschipper

Yes, the hand held sharpeners are worthless unless you use them to hold down a stack of papers. I've tried the blades from the Quilted Twins and they are Sharp! Very pleased with them and so reasonably priced.

Shorebird

buy new blades...………..None of the sharpeners are worth the cost, frustration - and none of them come close to getting blades sharp, or corrected if they have developed a flat spot from being dropped, etc.