Where You Can Sharpen A Hacksaw

The question "How to sharpen a hacksaw with your own hands?" does not lose its relevance, despite the presence of a modern power tool in every home.

The saw is needed on the farm, indispensable on vacation, is used to cut boards, logs, chipboard.

It is also necessary for construction, carpentry and installation works; in the garden and workshop.

In the city, in the country or in the garage. everyone has this time-tested tool.

How to sharpen a hacksaw yourself

The hacksaw on wood belongs to the “eternal” values.

But, in order for the hand saw to always perform its functions, it must be sharpened correctly.

Where You Can Sharpen A Hacksaw

Here, basic knowledge about the type of cutting edge and its features is useful.

From the existing methods, we will consider the safest and most popular, using improvised tools and available for home use.

Hacksaw tooth shape

According to GOST 26215, adopted in the USSR back in 1984, hacksaw teeth have a configuration depending on the type of blade:

for transverse sawing. in the form of an isosceles triangle or with one cutting edge;
for longitudinal. as an oblique triangle;
for universal. in the form of an inclined or rectangular triangle.

Each type has its own secrets and rules for sharpening the cutting edge.

Why grind and when

With constant use, the teeth lose their sharpness, the cutting edges wear out, worsening the quality of the saw cut and increasing the time to complete the task.

Buying a new one will not fix the situation for long, and it will take no more than half an hour to restore the old canvas.

Timely sharpening of the hacksaw will restore the cutting ability of the cutters, and will always allow you to have a working tool on hand.

Correcting the sharpness of the cutting edges is at the first sign of wear, which may affect local areas and the entire working surface.

The dimensions of the wiring of the cutters also change, and this leads to jamming during operation.

How to determine the moment that it’s time to sharpen a hacksaw?

How to determine that the time has come to sharpen the teeth of the tool.

An experienced owner knows when and how to sharpen a hacksaw, but it is not difficult for a simple layman to determine this moment on his own. As a rule, the sound produced during operation and the uniformity of the color of the cutting edge change.

Sharp cutters are characterized by uniform wear on the cutting edge.

The following signs indicate the need to “correct” the saw:

sawing is difficult and uneven;
the cut is uneven;
the canvas often gets stuck;
it becomes difficult to maintain a given trajectory.

In addition, a blunt hacksaw often gets stuck and it takes a lot of effort to complete the process.

How to sharpen a hacksaw with your own hands

How to sharpen a hacksaw yourself, if the need arose?

First you need to decide what material the working canvas is made of.

Ordinary steel can be adjusted independently, and teeth with victorious brazing can only be machined on specialized industrial machines.

Some craftsmen, at their own peril and risk, undertake to sharpen a hacksaw using an angle grinder. but this is an unreliable and dangerous method.

To put in order the usual manual hacksaw for wood at home, you need to determine the shape of the teeth, prepare everything you need, and be sure to observe safety precautions.

General sharpening requirements

A special machine for sharpening hacksaws is not in every garage or workshop, but this will not hurt to fix the tool with your own hands.

There are, of course, exceptions. hardened teeth cannot be sharpened.

Diamond drills and other tricks will not help.

Such a saw has an increased resource and should not be repaired, but replaced by a new one.

It is easy to identify hardened steel. it is distinguished by black color with a blue tint.

As a sharpener for a hacksaw, a grinder or file and file are usually used.

A prerequisite is to pre-perform the correct alignment of the teeth, because the thickness of the hacksaw blade affects the width of the cut, so the edges must be bent to the required width.

Essential tool

Sharpening a hacksaw with a grinder or angle grinder requires certain skills.

Mechanically sharpening a hacksaw is much safer and easier.

Before starting work, prepare a vise or clamp, caliper, hammer and other necessary tools:

Video: Where You Can Sharpen A Hacksaw


Cross saws sharpen at an angle of 60 degrees with the help of a trihedral small file.

Longitudinal with an angle of less than 60 degrees. a large file is used or a rhombic file with a small abrasive.

For the mixed type, you need a file with a rough notch or a rhombic file with a small notch.

For this operation, a special sharpening device is useful. a wooden block with a cut out socket for protecting hands from cuts.

To sharpen a hacksaw using a grinder, you will need a cutting wheel in thickness from 1.2 to 1.4 mm, with a diameter of 115 or 125 mm. The angle grinder must have a speed control in the range of 5000. 8000 per minute. Installation of protection is a prerequisite for using this method. As a rule, a home-made visor made of transparent plastic is used.

Wood Hacksaw Sharpening Technology

Proper sharpening of the hacksaw should maintain the working profile of the teeth.

It is determined by the following parameters:

pitch and height;
point angle;
curvature radius.

The angle of sharpening can be set in the range from 30 to 60 degrees, and depends on the material.

So, for soft wood species, the optimal indicator is 50 degrees.

It is important to properly fix the canvas in a vice. do not tighten it tightly, as the steel will vibrate under the file.

Using a workbench and clamp, you can conveniently fix the hacksaw.

Sharpening is done by alternating bilateral sharpening. first one row passes along the left faces of all the teeth.

Then the tool is turned over, and the passage along the right half of the cutters is repeated.

They do not use the one-way method for editing hand saws. it is applicable only to certain types of knives.

Grandfather sharpening method

The method of sharpening hand saws with your own hands has not undergone any special changes since the days of our ancestors.

Below, watch a video on how to do this “on your knees” with a file and pliers:

How to sharpen a hacksaw with a file

Using a file is still relevant today, so let’s try to figure out how to sharpen a hacksaw at home correctly.

Let’s start by installing the canvas.

It must be fixed, as already mentioned above in a clamp or vice.

Vise cheeks should be made of wood, with a width of “jaws” of at least 200 mm.

The movement of the file should be uniform, and the pressure on the teeth is made only when moving "forward".

It is necessary to move the hand with the tool to the starting point freely, without effort on the incisors.

In one working pass, a uniform layer of metal is removed, this will save the pitch, height and profile of the edge.

The sharpness of the cutter can be reduced due to the formation of burrs on the surface and irregularities after passing the abrasive.

A file cannot sharpen a hacksaw perfectly, but you can get high quality. after sharpening, the smallest file or file and a donkey will come in handy.

The burrs are removed by selective cleaning with a fine abrasive, and the edges are smoothed with a wet donkey along the lateral base of the canvas.

Having set the goal to sharpen the hacksaw correctly. pay attention to the conservation of the tips of the teeth.

The same height of the cutters, the correct stain affect the wear resistance of the tool and the quality of cut.

Hacksaw teeth

The movement of the blade should be free, for which the teeth of the saw are bred by the same amount.

To reduce the coefficient of friction and the clamp of the hacksaw in the cut, its width should be greater than the thickness of the working blade, otherwise the metal heats up and expands, which leads to jamming of the saw.

Hacksaw teeth are bent apart.

Using pliers does not allow you to get the same angle of inclination. with this tool you can only saw firewood.

To spread the cutters evenly and get a smooth, neat cut, a homemade tooth setting tool is used.

To make it, you need a metal die of arbitrary shape with a thickness of 2-3 mm.

In a simple version, several slots are made to indicate the thickness of the web.

The tooth is captured in the hole, and bends until the selected stop.

In the second version, a cut is sawn in a bar with a metal saw and two holes are drilled to set the limiter.

Turning the sector to the side allows you to adjust the angle of bending.

The figure shows a simple model and wiring with emphasis.

The circuit of the device is characterized by intuitive ease of manufacture and use.

It must be taken into account that there are parameters for the limb width.

Hacksaw tooth wiring requirements

Bending the cutters through one on both sides of the canvas to observe a certain value, which can be set on a makeshift device.

The width of the wiring depends on the type of wood.

Soft and wet wood requires a greater angle of inclination than dry wood.

As a rule, hand tools work effectively with an average value of 0.2-0.3 mm.

over, the total value should not exceed the width of the canvas.

In addition, the same nature of the limb on each side is observed.

The wiring for the hacksaw is checked visually or using a vernier caliper.

Pay attention to the size of the tooth. the height of the cutter is especially important.

Link Height Alignment

All teeth should have the same height.

A heterogeneous edge results in an uneven load and significantly reduces work efficiency.

Checking the height of the hacksaw teeth

Check the height of the teeth before sharpening the tool.

To do this, lay a sheet of plain paper on a hard and even surface, and press the cutters tightly until a clear print is obtained.

If there are teeth protruding from the general row, traces of them will be reflected in the print.

In the presence of higher teeth, they are carefully cut with a flat file to a general level.

How to check the quality of a sharpened hacksaw?

Excluding the practical method, the smoothness of the metal can be evaluated visually. the sharp edge does not give glare when reflecting light, and tactfully carefully touching the edges of the teeth with your hand.

For a novice master, the first attempt may seem difficult, but a good tool is worth it.

A little practice, and you can offer your own options for how to sharpen a hacksaw with your own hands.