New blades from old!

[Bugatti Fan]

I have a small pocket sized diamond grit knife sharpener that folds over available from most tool stores. A few strokes of a blade starting to get dull on the diamond grit pad sharpens it up a treat so I get more use from each blade.

Edited September 21, 2021 by Bugatti Fan

[NOBLNG]

I do the same. You can probably triple the use you get out of a blade. For foil work though, a fresh blade works best.

[Bugatti Fan]

Agreed Greg!    New blade for foil every time!

[deuces wild]

16 hours ago, Bugatti Fan said:

I have a small pocket sized diamond grit knife sharpener that folds over available from most tool stores. A few strokes of a blade starting to get dull on the diamond grit pad sharpens it up a treat so I get more use from each blade.

Do you have a picture of that contraption????.... Please post it... Thanks!...?

[peteski]

For the price, I consider blades (hobby and scalpel) to be disposable.  I Doubt any home sharpening method will result in a blade (especially the point) to be as sharp as factory-new blade.  I do however use my blades twice.  I reserve the handle with new blade for the precision cuts. I also have a second handle with the "duller" blades for more coarse model work.

[iamsuperdan]

I'm like Peter. Buy them in a 100 pack, super cheap, disposable.

And I too use them twice.

I have a few knives on the go. A couple with new blades for "fine" work, such as decals, foil, fine trimming, etc. And a couple with re-used blades for "dull" work, likecutting and hacking, mainly getting things off sprues. I have old Advil containers that I fill with the discarded blades before tossing in the garbage.

[Bugatti Fan]

I bought my diamond grit sharpener originally to sharpen knives like my Swiss Army Knife.

I was pleasantly surprised however by how sharp I could re hone craft knife blades with it when I tried it out of curiosity. It works ok on straight and convex blades but concave blades would be impossible to re hone in this way.

Pete and Dan have pointed out about new blades being  both cheap and disposable and it you want a 'cut above the rest' if you will excuse the pun, then I agree that a new blade, factory honed cannot be surpassed.

[Zippi]

I'd have to agree with just buying new blades as cheap as they are.  

Amazon.com: DIYSELF 200 PCS Hobby Knife Blades, High Carbon Steel #11 Refill Craft Art Blades Cutting Tool with Storage Case for Craft, Hobby, Scrapbooking, Stencil : Everything Else

[Tom Geiger]

Agreed! I buy a 100 pack of real exacto blades on eBay as needed.  I don’t buy the cheap knock offs, they just aren’t as good.

And to dispose of used blades, I wrap them in blue tape before they hit the trash!

[NOBLNG]

I bought these a while back and they seem to be pretty good. I will usually grab a new blade if I am doing something intricate. But if I am just scraping flash or hacking away at something, I’ll give it a few swipes back and forth on the diamond hone. It only takes a few seconds.

Edited September 25, 2021 by NOBLNG

[Paul Payne]

We could go really, really old school and knap blades from flint- under high magnification a flint edge is smooth while a surgical scalpel looks like a saw blade- the only problem is that flint is brittle.?

[Chariots of Fire]

On 9/21/2021 at 9:32 PM, peteski said:

For the price, I consider blades (hobby and scalpel) to be disposable.  I Doubt any home sharpening method will result in a blade (especially the point) to be as sharp as factory-new blade.  I do however use my blades twice.  I reserve the handle with new blade for the precision cuts. I also have a second handle with the "duller" blades for more coarse model work.

I do the same Peter.    I have a small whet stone that can sharpen the blade a little but there is nothing like a new blade for shaving plastic or for BMF.  So I replace the worst of the two blades with a new one and use the second best blade for ordinary work.

[Ace-Garageguy]

I've found that using a dull butter knife and a tree-size bow saw for model work really raises the degree of difficulty to where the feeling of accomplishment as I "build for myself" is unsurpassed.

Likewise applying paint with a roller, or better yet a dirty pinecone.

[Tom Geiger]

12 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Likewise applying paint with a roller, or better yet a dirty pinecone.

I read on one of the boards that I need to buy a hair brush for painting!

[NOBLNG]

28 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

I've found that using a dull butter knife and a tree-size bow saw for model work really raises the degree of difficulty to where the feeling of accomplishment as I "build for myself" is unsurpassed.

Likewise applying paint with a roller, or better yet a dirty pinecone.

???

[Rodent]

1 hour ago, NOBLNG said:

???

Yeah. ??? here too. I have never attempted to re-hone an X-Acto blade, but I do the same thing that others have said. The "new" blade(s) are marked with blue painter's tape on the handle and are used for BMF or trimming Tamiya tape for masking. The others live on to shape styrene until trash time.

[NOBLNG]

I bought some of these at Michaels that I reserve for foil work.

 

Edited October 2, 2021 by NOBLNG