sharpen blades with torch?

[dirt clod]

Brown mentions sharpening the blades on there tree cutter with torch. Is this done by heating and hammering to shape? I'm guessing it is more likely cutting off the rounded edge. Anyone do this?

 

[dirt clod]

From the manual..........

"Blade sharpening procedure:
The Tree Cutter blades are manufactured from Ultra-Kortm alloy, a space age material. When sharpening
this blade material using a side grinder, use extreme caution not to over heat the material. Allowing
the grinder to stop or rest in one spot will cause the material to turn 澱lue? Avoid over heating
by keeping the grinder moving at all times. Remember that the first 1 to 1 1/2 of the blade and the
blade tip is where all of the cutting action takes place. This is point of contact and the blade bevel
must be maintained and kept sharp. If you have the skill to sharpen the blades with a torch, less heat
will be transmitted into the material and will have longer blade life if sharpened in this manner.
Always remove equal amount of blade material from the paired blades. Blades must be kept within
1/10 of a pound of each other. Always keep blades in the same pairs, as removed from the cutter"

Don't make sense to me that grinder would cause more heat damage than a torch

 

[Hollow]

I sharpen my blades by heating and pounding them out with a hammer then cooling them off in a bucket of water. You have to be careful doing this because if they are heated and cooled to much the steel gets brittle a will chip off if it contacts gravel... ect...

 

[Soundguy]

can always anneal it.. slow cool instead of quenching...

 

[Baby Grand]

My interpretation: If you need to remove a lot of metal, say to get a deep gouge out, and you use an oxy-acetylene torch just right, with a straight edge as a guide, it cuts steel like a hot knife through butter without heating the rest of the piece beyond a small fraction of an inch from the cut. I have to guess that you'd come back and touch that edge up with a grinding wheel taking a much lighter cut than if you were trying to hog off all that steel that you just sliced with the torch?

 

[Soundguy]

hmm.. I detech some sort of chinglish missinterpretation where something was lost in the uni-tran....

 

[pjbci]

My interpretation: If you need to remove a lot of metal, say to get a deep gouge out, and you use an oxy-acetylene torch just right, with a straight edge as a guide, it cuts steel like a hot knife through butter without heating the rest of the piece beyond a small fraction of an inch from the cut. I have to guess that you'd come back and touch that edge up with a grinding wheel taking a much lighter cut than if you were trying to hog off all that steel that you just sliced with the torch?

Correct.

 

[dirt clod]

Looks like mine are to worn. These things sure are pricey