Dropped $150 on a clipper sharpening kit and ruined my best blades

Last month I thought I'd save money by sharpening my own clippers at home. Watched a few YouTube videos, bought a kit from a supply shop in Atlanta. First blade came out okay but the second one I messed up the angle and now it pulls hair instead of cutting clean. Tried to fix it and just made it worse. Had to throw out 3 pairs of blades I've been using for years. Anyone else try DIY sharpening and regret it?

2 comments

2 Comments

jade6181d agoTop Commenter

honestly the thing nobody talks about is how those cheap sharpening kits wreck the temper on your blades. you said you messed up the angle but even when you get it right the heat from grinding can ruin the hardness. i learned this the hard way too. took a good pair of wahl blades to a local sharpener once and he showed me the burn marks under a magnifying glass. said once that metal gets soft its done for no matter how good your angle is.

burns.brooke1d ago

Wait, is that actually true about the heat? I thought the whole point of using a slow speed like the Tormek or even those cheap pull-throughs with the rods was to keep the heat down. I mean, I get that if you're using a bench grinder with a coarse wheel you're cooking the edge for sure, but those little handheld diamond stones don't really spin fast enough to build up that kind of heat. I've seen some old timers dip blades in water every pass and they swear by it. But you're totally right that once the temper is gone, you're just fighting a losing battle and it's better to just buy new blades at that point.