How Can I Sharpen My Carbide Saw Blade?

Signs your blade needs sharpening:

If treated properly modern carbide blades will provide you with a long life of clean, chip-free, precision cutting. However, at some point in time, every blade will become damaged or dull and need to be replaced. Here are some of the most common indicators that a blade needs replacing.

1. The blade starts chipping or splintering your work
2. You can smell wood burning, see smoke while cutting and see burn marks on the cut edge
3. The saw seems to be cutting slower and sticks in the cut
4. The blade will not produce a clean, straight cut
5. You notice chipped or missing teeth
6. Your blade has a heavy buildup of pitch or other material on the blade and around the teeth
7. The blade wobbles and will not cut straight, indicating it is warped.

The key to maintaining clean, professional cuts and protecting your equipment is knowing when your blade needs to be replaced.

Should I Replace or Resharpen My Blade?

A good quality carbide blade can be sharpened 3-4 times before some or all the teeth need to be replaced and sharpening is a fraction of the cost of purchasing a new blade. As long as your blade is not warped or severely damaged, the correct answer is yes, the blade should be sharpened. However, this is not a do-it-yourself project; carbide blades can only be properly sharpened by professionals, with the equipment and expertise to do the job properly. Improper sharpening will not only change the cutting characteristics of your blade but could destroy it completely. Carbide teeth are so hard, they can only be sharpened using an exceptionally fine grit diamond wheel. Contrary to some information found online, a diamond blade used for cutting ceramic tile is way too coarse for this purpose and will ruin the carbide tip.

The biggest challenge to restoring a blade to its original factory specifications is the grinding or sharpening process. For optimal performance carbide teeth need to be sharpened on all four sides. Each tooth should be ground on the top, face and sides and each tooth has multiple angles that must match and be ground precisely the same. If even one or two teeth are off by as little as 1/1,000“ the blade with not cut properly, if at all. Imagine if two teeth on a 60-tooth blade are slightly larger than the rest, your fine 60 tooth finishing blade has become a very rough-cutting 2 tooth ripper.

The other challenge with merely sharpening the teeth is that your blade has not been cleaned and more importantly checked for flatness. A sharp blade with rust or pitch buildup will not provide optimum performance. It will leave marks on your material, build up heat on the blade and ultimately cause unnecessary wear on equipment. Heat buildup causes warping and if a blade is not checked for flatness all you have is a sharp, warped blade that will not cut straight or clean.

How To Get A New Blade Every Time:

For the past 45 years, Exchange-A-Blade has been producing a wide range of Professional and Industrial quality power tool accessories, with saw blades being the most popular category. When you purchase one of our blades you are guaranteed that you will always be able to exchange it for a completely new blade, which has been remanufactured to the precise specifications of the original.

Each blade goes through a ten-step manufacturing process which is constantly inspected and quality controlled. After being cleaned and buffed, blades are tested for flatness and any chipped or missing teeth are replaced. All blades go through a complete sharpening process, on robotic, computer-controlled sharpening machines. They are sharpened on the face, top and sides and the carbide tips are honed to a mirror-like finish with 400, 650 and 1,000 grit diamond wheels. This means your blade has the best cutting edge, to provide you with optimal performance and long life. Blades are again polished, and rust proofed, before final inspection, laser identification and labelling.

Our remanufacturing process is so sophisticated that it is impossible to tell the difference between one of our brand-new blades and one which has gone through our state-of-the-art remanufacturing process.

As with any Exchange-A-Blade product, you Buy It, Use It, and Exchange It. It doesn’t matter how dull it is or if it has chipped or missing teeth, there is never an extra charge. You will always get the same exchange credit towards the purchase of your new blade. While a carbide blade can only be sharpened 3-4 times before it needs to be replaced, an Exchange-A-Blade blade can be exchanged forever.

Saving Money, Saving Resources, and Saving the Environment:

We are often asked why we have invested so much into our manufacturing and exchange process when it would be so much easier to simply sell it and forget it. For the past 45 years, our Company culture has been one of providing our customers with the best possible products which save them money, save resources and help preserve the environment.

At EAB Tool, every product we sell has an end of life plan. Each blade that is exchanged is carefully inspected and the best are put through our ten-step manufacturing process and returned to new.

Blades that do not meet our strict remanufacturing standards are recycled back into basic steel. Each year EAB Tool recycles over 65 tons of steel which is kept out of our landfills and reduces the resources and energy required to produce new steel.

With Exchange-A-Blade products you are guaranteed the best quality blades, environmentally responsible products and continuous savings with our green exchange system. Find the right blade for your next job.

Learn more about selecting the right blade for you and your job.

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Diamond Blade Tips & Troubleshooting

Diamond Blade Tips

Open up the diamonds on a new blade with shallow cuts in soft, abrasive material (eg. limestone). This will stop the blade chattering or skipping on the first job.

For normal cutting, multiple shallow cuts (step cuts) are better than one single deep cuts.

Do not force the blade. Forcing or twisting the blade can cause bluntness, excessive wear, overheating, distortion and segment damage.

Do not side grind.

If your slurry colour changes to brown or red, you are most probably cutting the dirt or sub base. This will wear your diamond blade quicker, so raise your blade.

If you're going to change directions on a floor saw, make sure your machine is off and the blade is up out of the cut before changing direction.

If your blade does not have a direction indication on it, you should be able to see a "comet tail" behind exposed diamonds if the blade was "broken in" at the factory. This indicated the direction - the tail should be behind the comet. If you put a blade on in the direction opposite to the directional arrow you may experience a little slower cutting or a little vibration at first until the diamond is exposed on the opposite side. This should not harm the blade as long as you maintain the same direction but may reduce the life fractionally if it is continually reversed.

A smaller blade on your machine will decrease the cutting depth, but increase the power and speed of cutting. For example, many customers use 12"/300mm blades on a cut off saw that could use a 14"/350mm blade.

If you are using the blade dry (not recommended due to dust and safety issues), be aware that it will shorten the blade's life, and you will need to air cool the blade regularly - take the blade out of the cut to allow the air to prevent the blade from overheating.

Diamond Blade Troubleshooting

Glazing - This is one of the most common diamond blade problems. As a diamond blade is used, the bond wears, exposing more diamond that continue cutting. If the bond does not wear back, then eventually there is no diamond exposed, so the blade will slow down and stop cutting. The cutting surface of the blade will feel smooth. This is known as glazing or polishing.
Rectify by re dressing the blade by cutting an #80 grit dressing stone ( we sell them here ).
As an alternative, use an abrasive material like limestone to remove some bond and expose diamonds so cutting can continue.
Possible causes are:

The bond is too hard for the material it is cutting - select the correct blade.

Too much water is being used (sometimes unavoidable if the tile cracks easily with heat)

The machine is not powerful enough for the specification (usually experienced more with professional blades and saws)

The blade has been mounted with the rotation arrow the wrong way.

See this short video on how to deglaze your diamond blade (in this case a tile saw blade, but the basics are the same for all blades).