How to Sharpen a Rotary Cutter Blade
If you have a large tool collection, there's a good chance that several of those tools use rotary blades, those flat round discs of metal with alternating beveled teeth all around. Circular saws, table saws, miter saws and others use essentially the same principle of spinning that blade forward through the wood. Like any blade, rotary blades get dull with use. If you're doing trimwork or other jobs that require precision cuts, you'll want to buy a new blade. But if you just need to sharpen a saw to finish some rip-out or rough cutting, take 10 minutes and do it yourself. (This plan isn't recommended for carbide blades, as the metal is likely to be harder than your file.) Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Remove the blade from your saw according to the instructions. Clamp the blade into the vise on your workbench.
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Put a crayon mark on any one of the teeth.
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Note which of the teeth have their beveled edges facing you as you look at the flat side of the blade and which are turned away from you. They will be alternating. Set the tip of your file against one of the teeth in which the bevel is facing you, at or near the crayon mark. Stroke the file along the bevel, climbing toward the tip and back down. Give it three or four strokes.
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Skip a tooth and go to the next tooth on which the beveled side is facing you. Repeat the process. Continue around the saw, taking it out of the vise and rotating it as necessary to get to the bottom teeth. Continue until you come back to your crayon mark, so you know you've gone all the way around the blade.
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Flip the blade around in the vise so you're looking at the other flat side. Repeat the whole process, starting with marking a tooth with the crayon and again sharpening the teeth with the bevels facing you. Put your blade back on the saw.
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Tips & Warnings
Make sure your saw is unplugged when you remove or reinstall the blade.
