You can sharpen ice auger blades pretty easy if you have one of those little knife belt sander sharpeners (mine is called a Work Sharp). They sell them at Scheels or most places now... I just pull the cover off my sharpener and stick the handle of it in my bench vice so it holds it firm and I lock the sharpener to the ON position so the belt is running all the time. Remove blade from auger of course and hold the blade at the angle of the bevel (to the best you can) and give it 3 light swipes across the belt, do not press hard. Make sure you are sharpening the BEVELED side of the blade, there is a bevel and flat side if you look close. Then flip the blade over and give a very light, fast swipe on the flat edged of the blade to take any burr off that you may have created (hold as flat as possible for this) . Do not apply pressure or do the flat side more then one time, just a light swipe. I use the red belt, medium grit think it is maybe 220 grit or something. Biggest thing is go easy on it and don't over-sharpen, just light passes.
We drill allot of holes on the Missouri river and the ice is covered in sand sometimes after high winds. Will burn up three sets of blades a day some days. If I was not able to sharpen blades the river fishing would be out of the question. Blades are good as new after the above sharpening process. This is with my Eskimo 8" ice auger.
Hope this helps someone save $30 on some new blades!!
BC
