Hit 50,000 board feet of lumber through my sawmill and finally changed my mind about sharpening

For the last 3 years I was one of those guys who would run my bandsaw blade until it literally started smoking. Figured I was saving time by not stopping to sharpen every few thousand board feet. Then last month I hit 50k and decided to actually count how much time I was losing to dull blade cuts and having to sand rough edges. It was like 4 extra hours per 10k feet. Now I sharpen every 5k and honestly I'm getting through logs way faster. Has anyone else done the math on their sharpening schedule and been surprised?

2 comments

2 Comments

stone.thomas14d ago

Man that's exactly what I found too. Ran mine into the ground for way too long and once I actually timed the difference it was a no-brainer to just keep the blade sharp.

daniel51114d ago

Did you actually time both ways though? Because I did my own test and honestly I couldn't tell a big enough difference to make it worth the hassle. Sharpening takes me like 15 minutes if I do it right, and I have to do it every other day if I'm cooking a lot. Replacing a cheap blade every few weeks takes me about 30 seconds and costs maybe two bucks. I get that keeping things sharp is good but for me the time and effort saved by just swapping a blade way outweighs the tiny bit of performance I lose on day two. Maybe your sharpening setup is faster than mine but I just don't see how it's a no-brainer for everyone.