Ts 55 blade sharpening. Reliable as a new blade?

[Rosco]

Hi,
First off, apologies if this has been covered. I've had a search and couldn't find anything obvious. Anyway...

So I had my festool ts 55 blade resharpened recently. New blades are expensive as we know. A place local to me sharpened it.

I've been using my rail saw recently. Lots of plunge cuts made mid length on the rail. Now the rails' splinter guard in that area is diminished.

I'm worried that the blade now doesn't match how it was prior to sharpening.  I'm now going to have to change the splinter guard on my rails again due to cuts not being where my pencil marks are.

I don't have a problem changing splinter guard the same time as using a fresh blade. My fear is resharpened blades can't be trusted to replicate an original festool blade accurately.

Any similar experiences folks? Recommendations please

Many thanks

Rosco

 

[Naildrivingman]

A good question for which I don't have an answer, but I would guess that a qualified sharpening service could.  My gut tells me that the leading edge is the only one that gets sharpened to a significant degree.  If correct, the only loss is depth of cut which would be in the range of single to low two digit thousandths of an inch.  Depth of cut obviously does not affect the splinterguard.

If the sides of the teeth are dressed, I can't reconcile that there would be much loss of tooth.  If true, then that difference would be nearly immeasurable in regards to lining up the splinterguard with the witness mark.

My general approach to sharpening a proprietary (or expensive) cutter is to send it back to the manufacturer.  In the case of FT blades I believe Leitz is the manufacturer.  I have not had the need yet to sharpen my FT blades, but when I do, they will going to Leitz.
http://leitztooling.com/

 

[Distinctive Interiors]

Hi Rosco,

What kind of material have you been plunge cutting into...?

I also use my TS saws for doing a fair bit of plunge cutting (kitchen sink and hob cutouts mainly) and have found the blades do tend to deflect slightly more when doing so than when you plunge the saw at the start of a board or panel, then make the cut. Obviously, you have more of the teeth in contact with the material at one time than the other.

I can't see how having the blade sharpened would affect its cutting width, unless the blade has somehow got inadvertently bent slightly and is now cutting wider than its 2.2mm kerf.....!

 

[gunnyr]

I've had my blades sharpened by Burns Tools.  I have also used my General Contractor to send them out to an unknown local service.  In neither case did I notice a change in the alignment of the rail or the cut quality.  When my GC sent the blades out it was only because I know other carpenters who have used the service. 

In the future I will likely continue to use Burns Tools simply because I trust them.  There is nothing particularly special about the Festool Blades other than their price but I would rather use a service who is familiar with the FT blades and does not treat them as just another random blade.

 

[Stone Message]

H Rosco

I have had all of my TS55 blades sharpened more than once and have not had any issues with the splinter guards (on 4 rails) or accuracy. I do not do many plunge cuts and so cannot contribute to that side of the debate.

Peter

 

[bertv]

The Supplemental Guide for the TS55 details a procedure to (re)set the blade distance to the rail. Mind you: it is included there for people that use different TS's on one rail, but the procedure should work for you anyway.

 

[J373]

H Rosco

I have had all of my TS55 blades sharpened more than once and have not had any issues with the splinter guards (on 4 rails) or accuracy. I do not do many plunge cuts and so cannot contribute to that side of the debate.

Peter

Hi Peter where in the UK do you get blades sharpened?

 

[Stone Message]

H Rosco

I have had all of my TS55 blades sharpened more than once and have not had any issues with the splinter guards (on 4 rails) or accuracy. I do not do many plunge cuts and so cannot contribute to that side of the debate.

Peter

Hi Peter where in the UK do you get blades sharpened?

You can get them done through any Axminster store.

Peter

 

[J373]

excellent . thank you

 

[Rosco]

Cheers folks. Thanks for the input. Food for thought

 

[Holmz]

Some areas of the splinter deal get a bit chewed up... It is just the "patina of use" and more of a badge of honour.
I have one section where the wood normally ends that is pretty daggy, and often gets slide onto the wood where the pencil marks are at.

Does the sharpened blade cut OK?

 

[Michael Kellough]

Some areas of the splinter deal get a bit chewed up... It is just the "patina of use" and more of a badge of honour.
I have one section where the wood normally ends that is pretty daggy, and often gets slide onto the wood where the pencil marks are at.

Does the sharpened blade cut OK?

When there are bad spots in the splinter guard which prevent you from knowing exactly where the blade will cut you can stick a Post-It note on the bottom of the splinter guard and trim it with the saw. Even though it's just paper it will be reliable (for guide rail positioning) for several cuts at least.

 

[Job and Knock]

I can't see how having the blade sharpened would affect its cutting width, unless the blade has somehow got inadvertently bent slightly and is now cutting wider than its 2.2mm kerf.....!

The teeth on any TCT saw are designed with a small amount of side relief (i.e. they diminish from front to back) so if you grind the face the width will diminish ever so slightly. In any case because of the inevitable minor blade deflection caused by plunge sawing I think it's good practice when mounting a new or reground blade to "shuffle" the anti-splinter track across and make a first cut to get a good edge to work from. In terms of grinding I use either Leitz or another professional service who have no less than five fully automatic multi-axis CNC saw grinders (who seem to be able to get more grinds out of a blade). I regrind my blades in two batches with the instruction to keep the kerfs identical and I never mix the blades between the batches (this only applies to tail saw blades). The guys with old-fashioned manual grinding jigs just aren't in the same league