Sharpen your auger blades at home!!

[3300]

wonder why no one mentions leather straps like they used on razors. seems like that would work too.

[Agronomist_at_IA]

wonder why no one mentions leather straps like they used on razors. seems like that would work too.

The leather strap doesn't really get blades like these any sharper. The leather straps knock a burr off is all. On a double edged blade knocking off the burr helps that fine edge. On a single side like this when sharpening the burr is on the back edge and doesn't really matter for cutting. Once you start cutting ice the burr on back knocks off. The buffing wheel with a compound gets the edge really sharp because it is almost like putting a micro edge on it if you use really fine compound. Don't get me wrong really fine sand paper and sharpening stones do a great job, but with a buffing wheel and fine compound it's like your using a fine dust to finish the edge. I have a knife sharpener and was getting disapointed because I couldn't get my knifes sharp like my leech lake....so I did some research and put the buffing wheel on my wheel grinder and used some compound to "finish" the knife edge after using the knife sharpener. I can't believe how ignorant I was all these years. Now my knifes are so sharp I'm almost scared to use them. So I started to buff my auger blades after I hand sharpen them, and I've checked them with a factory new set......the factory set isn't any sharper. Using stones and a buffing wheel I've even been able to sharpen blades that were claimed to be shot and unable to be sharpened........

[OldSailor]

They are properly called razor strops, and they work very well. I have one that is older than I am! (70+) that's been in the family and it works great on knives!! Might be a little hard to use on auger blades, but would help get them wicked sharp!!

[chilly-willy]

sorry cw, it's not my post. i just fixed it so the images are back for all of us to see w/o the photobucket plugin.

i just buy news ones. my buddy owns a store and i get his wholesale prices. i should own enough to play around with sharpening some by now and my store owner buddy gave me his old mora that i could try it on.
i have 3 lazers tho.

Thanks was just wondering if there was any comparison between the two.. cool thing about the Lansky type sharpeners you maybe able to sharpen laser style blades ?? Got to do more checking but not sure if its got the right angle needed I am sure I could make something work for it.. I would need to use a serated blade hone on the laser blades cause the square edges may screw up a good blade I will see what I can find out any how thanks for the reply and answer..

[chilly-willy]

Just checked you need a lansky curved blade stone set to sharpen laser blades with the Lansky type sharpeners  you can order them individually or as a set of four at like 25 to 30 bucks I just ordered them on ebay for 25 plus ordered the guide rods a set of four of them for 5 bucks since I got a smith set up I had to order the rods .. any how it's about a 35 *angle the stones held at on the Lansky they sell strops etc threw lansky and other stones for those intrested.. this set up make it very easy to hold the angle to get what you want "a very sharp auger blade".. best I found yet is the Lansky for blades...

 also thinking it may work on nils if done right I got a blade I may try it on... that is old and cracked.. hit some really bad ice by a beach sand must have blown off beach and it screwed up blade.. any way I will try it sooner or later once I recive the new stones..

[jackpine]

As someone who has sharpened auger blades for over 15 yrs. I found this enjoyable to read. There is some reel good info here. The 1 that mentioned patients is very accurate.

"Don't forget(shimming)."

[itsbeal]

why cant i see the damn pictures??

[lefty2053]

why cant i see the damn pictures??

That is because everyone was using Photobucket and it doesn't work anymore. They decided they were going to charge everyone to use their service.  If you have questions just ask and maybe the person that posted it can report for you.

[3300]

why cant i see the pictures??

mike, you can if you kept reading this topic, but here is a short cut to page 3 that shows the pictures and instructions.
https://www.iceshanty.com/ice_fishing/index.php?topic=309016.msg3699607#msg3699607

[Fisherman 1]

sorry cw, it's not my post. i just fixed it so the images are back for all of us to see w/o the photobucket plugin.

i just buy news ones. my buddy owns a store and i get his wholesale prices. i should own enough to play around with sharpening some by now and my store owner buddy gave me his old mora that i could try it on.
i have 3 lazers tho.

Thanks again for reposting the pics.

[honesdaletom]

My auger blades were relatively new and very sharp. Drilled into the mud trying to check shoreline thickness. It rendered my auger useless. Before buying replacement blades I figured I'd try to sharpen the ones I ruined. I stumbled across this post and followed the instructions. Worked great. Fished yesterday and cut through 14 inches of ice with no problem. I also sharpened my old blades and now have 2 sets of razor sharp blades.  Thank you for posting.

[Jkoht]

I use one of those cheap $10 plastic handle jobs to sharpen my mora style blades. Works best if you take the blades off and put them in a bench vise, and then follow the arc of the blade. Gets them very sharp after 5 or 6 passes each. I touched up my strike master chipper blade once. Took a little effort because I had to try and work each section or tooth of the blade. I wouldn't reccomend it for that, but in a pinch out on the lake it worked.

[A7X]

wonder why no one mentions leather straps like they used on razors. seems like that would work too.

I'm back guys!!

Thank you 3300 for reposting my images. I'm just noticing this now. I appreciate that.

I believe I talked about stropping the blades in my post but didn't feel the need to add the process. Knocking the burr off isn't really necessary unless you were gonna shave your face with the blades. The burr will come off with the first cut.

[3300]

there you are!

i was able to use a hack file to see your images and capture them to repost while your pics were being hijacked by photo bucket. they were not available to see so i helped out being it's a great post and a lot of work from you and is important for others to have the knowledge.

thank you for making it!

[Agronomist_at_IA]

So how many people are just using the gatco or lansky style sharpeners to sharpen the blades?

[SirCranksalot]

ba da bump

[SirCranksalot]

I have one specific question in case the OP tunes in::
"Step 4
Now we are going to hone a primary edge on the blade."

Does this mean you just use the fine stone or do you use all 3? I tried it with 1000 grit wet/dry paper since I just have a coarse/medium stone and that didn't seem to create a primary edge at all. I ask this because 'hone' usually(often?) refers to the last step with the finest stone.

If someone else has successfully used this method feel free to comment----TIA   

[SirCranksalot]

anyone have an answer to this? thx

[esox_xtm]

Just the fine (3rd) stone Sir. After you've removed all the original primary bevel (the very thin, steeper angle right on the edge) this step recreates a brand new one. For that you need a stone, 1000 grit paper is too fine to hardly remove anything and too floppy to maintain a perfect angle unless you glue some to a piece pf glass. Remember you don't need much of a primary edge, "about as thick as a thread" was the OPs description.

I've done this and it works. Good luck to you!

[SirCranksalot]

Thx for that.

I just have a stone with 2 sides  No idea what the 'grit' of the second side might be. I might give that a try and then polish it up with 1000 grit paper. I don't see much wrong with pulling/dragging it across the paper as opposed to pushing it as the OP did across the stones.

BTW---So it's not just silly questions you answer??

[esox_xtm]

Thx for that.

I just have a stone with 2 sides  No idea what the 'grit' of the second side might be. I might give that a try and then polish it up with 1000 grit paper. I don't see much wrong with pulling/dragging it across the paper as opposed to pushing it as the OP did across the stones.

BTW---So it's not just silly questions you answer??

It wasn't a silly question??? 

[filetandrelease]

 I sharpened shaver blades on a fine stone
 Although I didn’t let them get  bad before  I  touched them up

[SirCranksalot]

I have been quite successful at sharpening my auger blades generally following the OPs method. As he suggested, I made up a little jig of sorts because I have very little experience at sharpening. I found little stones of 400/600/1000 grit that seemed to work quite well. Since I posted above I figured out my stone was 120/240 so I used the 240 to create a primary edge.

I have one comment to make on the OPs method, though. He honed the secondary bevel to quite a fine polish and so did I. I don't think that is necessary. The brand new blades from Mora have quite visible machining marks (striations) on the secondary bevel as shown in the attached.