Ace Sharpening & Co

Ace Sharpening & Co

How To Sharpen Clipper Blades

To start with you need to know a few things. First what is grit? Grit is an abrasive powder. The type of grit used to sharpen blades on an aluminum clipper sharpening wheel is called ‘brown fused aluminum oxide powder’ it is the same material used to make grinding wheels for bench grinders, also it can be used as a medium for sand blasting to blast the paint off of metal parts.

Clipper blade sharpening is just another use for this material. I use what is called ‘wheel quality’ brown fused aluminum oxide. What this means is that all of the impurities have been removed so all there is left is pure brown fused aluminum oxide.

This is the quality that is required to make grinding wheels for bench grinders. If the impurities were not removed, then as soon as the grinding wheel heats up it could explode causing bodily injuries to who ever is standing by.

Not that this could happen while using powdered grit to sharpen clipper blades, (The aluminum oxide must be bonded together like it is in a grinding wheel to explode.) but I am thinking why not get the kind of abrasives that have the impurities already taken out, the impurities don’t sharpen anything, so it is best to get the kind of grit that doesn’t have any in the first place.

Anyway, the next thing is what type of cleaner do you use to clean the grit off of a sharpening wheel? That would be ‘mineral spirits!’ Mineral spirits does a good job of cleaning the wheel. I have tried most everything, but now I have found another product that works even better and that is Sunnyside odorless paint thinner. It is truly odorless and you can get it at any True Value hardware store.

You can purchase mineral spirits or Sunnyside odorless paint thinner from your local True Value hardware store for cheap, or you can purchase ‘clipper wheel cleaner’ online for big bucks that has some coloring in it to make it look good and confuse you as to what it is, but all you are going to get when you open up the package is colored paint thinner.

Some groomers use a product called ‘blade wash’ this stuff is very expensive also. What’s in it? It is 3 parts paint thinner, and 1 part clipper oil. If groomers really want to clean their blades tell them to use Sunnyside Odorless Paint Thinner without the oil. The oil is not necessary, it serves no purpose in cleaning a clipper blade and there is not enough oil in the mix to lubricate the blades. All you want this stuff to do is clean the blades lubrication is a separate process.

If a groomer leaves their blades in commercial blade wash over night the blades will rust. If they think the blade wash is all they need to lubricate their blades for the next days grooming they are in for a rude surprise. Even though there is oil in the commercial blade wash it still takes most all of the oil off of their blades. Blades must be oiled before using them if they have been in contact with commercial blade wash. This applies to paint thinner too.

Spray lard oil. What is it? Lard oil is an old plumbers cutting oil mostly used by plumbers in the old days to cut threads on pipe. I understand that plumbers don’t use it much nowadays so you can’t find it at your local hardware store anymore. (Check out my list of suppliers on my home page to find out where you can purchase lard oil and other items.) has lard oil for cheap just call them and tell them what you want. Their lard oil comes in a one gallon jug for around $25.00.

To make spray lard oil all you have to do is mix it one part lard oil, and one part paint thinner, and put this mixture in a spray bottle, or you can buy it pre-mixed for big bucks on the internet. It might even have some cool coloring in it!

The round ‘hardwood rubbing block’ has a handle coming up through the center of it. What is it? It is pretty much what it sounds like. It is a round 3/4” thick X 3” diameter hardwood block of wood with a dowel rod coming up through the center of it. It is used to spread, and rub the grit into the aluminum sharpening wheel. (You will get a couple of these when you buy one of my clipper sharpening machines.)

OK, now that we have all of that out of the way, let’s get started sharpening clipper blades! But first, let me break this down into and easy format. If you just read everything below it will seem like wow this is harder than I thought, but remember I am telling you how to sharpen clipper blades in great detail, and it takes a lot of writing to do that.

In practice all of this is very easy and it goes very fast. It only takes 5 minutes to sharpen one clipper blade, and you will make over $1.00 per minute or $6.00 per blade. Of course at first it will take you somewhat longer than five minutes to complete a blade, but speed comes quickly once you become familiar with this process. I now do my blades at a rate of 3 minutes each for $2.00 a minute and you will too if you learn a good process and stick with it. The key to speed is to learn to do each step the sameway every time with as little “fumbling” as possible then speed will naturally kick in as you your skills increase.

Here is how it goes;

1. Take the blades apart & lay them out in order on a cloth on your work bench.
2. Tighten or pre-adjustthe tension on all of the springs, and then adjust the sockets on each blade.
3. Place all of the cutters of each blade in order onto a tray, (Mine is a ¾” X 9” wide X 3ft long pine wood tray with raised edgesand a raised divider strip long ways down the center of the tray) and take them over to a fine wire wheel (Mine is a 3” fine wire wheel attached to a small Harbor Freightmini drill press.) and then clean all of the big stuff off of each cutter using this spinning wire wheel.
4. Take the tray full of wire wheel cleaned cutters over to your clipper sharpening machine and sharpen each cutter keeping all of them in order on the tray.
5. Run the tray of sharpened cutters over the top of your demagnetizer a couple of times to demagnetize all of the cutters that are in the tray.
6. Round over the sharp tips of the lower comb cutters on all of the number #40, #15, or #30 blades. If you leave these tips sharp on these blades when the groomers use them they will razor burn the dogs and they will not be happy.
7. Take the tray of cutters over to the parts washer, and clean each cutter in solvent, then rinse with water, and dry each of them on a dry towel. Note: I use a 20 gallon Harbor Freight “parts washer” filled with their best non-flammable biodegradable parts washing solution.
8. After towel drying place them all back into the tray and take them back to your work bench and lay them out in order on the same cloth you dissembled them on. Re-assemble, and adjust each blade.
9. Package each blade (2 each) in a paper coin envelope that is marked as to which blades are in each envelop.
10. Fill out your sales receipt, return the blades to your customer, and collect your fee.

After you read everything below, then come back to this 10 step format and put it all into the correct perspective. Here is something to think about. Once you get your speed up to 20 blades per hour which is 3 min per blade you will have made $120.00 in just one hour sharpening just 20 blades, but even if you take a little longer you still make $120.00 for sharpening just 20 clipper blades.Speed comes with experience and the only way you are going to get experience is to sharpen clipper blades, but you need to learn a method that can get you there.Using the method below that goal is well within your reach so let’s get down to business.

If you have a new machine you will have to break in the wheel before it will work to its full potential. Usually sharpening four or five blades will get it working great. The grit will make some little grooves in the aluminum that look like the small groves on an old vinyl 45 rpm record like Jailhouse rock. This grooving is done asyou sharpen cutters by causing the gritto roll across the top face of the wheel. This is good. These grooves help the grit stay on the wheel better.

Once these little grooves are made, it will be working normal, and your sharpened blades should cut like butter. Even the first four or five blades will cut fine, but until the wheel is broken in, you won't get as many bladessharpened from the first few charges on the wheel.

When you see that the girt is almost gone from the wheel don’t clean the wheel, just recharge the wheel with more lard oil and grit, in my opinion there is no need to clean the wheel every time you charge it with lard oil and grit, I clean my wheel every other charge, but if you prefer you can clean your wheel every time you apply grit it’s up to you.

Most important you don't want to try to sharpen a blade if there is not enough grit on the wheel as this will cause the steel cutter to rub on the bare aluminum, and this will cause unnecessary wear on the wheel. Never sharpen if there is no rolling grit left on the wheel. You can and the blade will cut, but you will wear out your wheel prematurely if you do.

When charging a plate don’t use too much of the spray lard oil, using too much oil will cause the oil and grit mixture to get too wet. If the grit is too wet it will rub off of the wheel to easy when you try to sharpen a cutter and you will need to recharge the wheel again. Use just enough spray oil to hold the grit to the wheel and no more. Try keeping it on the dry side of this equation and you will get the best results.

Here is the bottom line, for an 18” clipper wheel I only sharpen three blade sets per charge, I then re-charge the wheel again. I have found on any brand clipper wheel of this size that after three blade sets there is very little rolling grit left, so before the rolling grit is gone completely I re-charge the wheel. Re-charging only takes about 30 to 35 seconds if you do it like this:

After sharpening three sets of clipper blades using a spray bottle, and while the wheel is still spinning full speed spray about ¼ of a full spray onto the aluminum wheel. (Any more, and you will have too much oil on the wheel and the grit will rub off too easy.)You will see the lard oil quickly spread from the center of the wheel to the outer edge of the wheel. Turn of the machine, then take a wood stick (I use a piece of two by four cut about ½” thick by 1 ½” wide and 2ft long cut off the edge of the two by four.) and put it between the edge of the clipper machine wheel enclosure and the edge of the spinning clipper wheel and press the stick onto the edge of the clipper wheel to stop the wheel, stopping the wheel using this method only takes a couple of seconds.

After you have stopped the wheel sprinkle on your grit using a salt shaker (with all but the center strip of holes taped shut with duct tape so you don’t apply too much grit.) I use 180 grit for all of my blades except for the smaller blades like #40, #50, T-Outliners etc I use 220 grit. Everything else I use 180 grit only. Sprinkle a little gritall around the wheel, then using light pressure on the wooden rubbing block; spread the grit all around the wheel with a circular motion.

Now using the same circular motion you used to spread the grit on the wheel, using the heal of your hand, put fairly heavy pressure on the wooden rubbing block while you are rubbing the grit into the wheel till the wheel is evenly coated with the grit and oil mixture. Don’t miss any spots; rub it till every part of the wheel is coated. This step takes a little more effort. When you are done the wheel will look like fine sandpaper.

The wooden rubbing block takes a little breaking in too, just keep using it until the bottom is black with grit, and it will start working great. Try not to rock the rubbing block while you are rubbing the grit into the wheel, always keep the rubbing block flat on the surface of the wheel, and again, don’t let one side of the rubbing block lift up while you are doing this step as it will leave a mark on your even coat of grit, and you will have to go over it again to smooth it out. Using the wood stick to stop the clipper wheel you can re-charge the wheel like I said in about half a minute.

To dissemble the blades I use a small block of ¾” plywood with one end cut out in the shape of a horse shoe. The width of the cutout is the same as the width of a blade which is about 2”. With the blades laying in a row on a cloth on the work bench I put the cutout portion of the block over the blade so as to enclose the blade inside of the cutout.

Then while holding the block of plywood with my left hand, with my right hand I use a 6 volt hand drill with a Phillips screw driver bit inserted into the chuck to take out each of the two screws in each blade. Just move the block around to each blade until you have removed all of the screws.

After dissembling all of the blades, and laying all of the parts out in order on a cloth on my workbench, I then place all of the cutters & combs on a tray. As I said I use a ¾” X 9” X 3ft. long board with a 1/2” trim around the edges to keep the blades from falling off the edges and there is a divider down the middle of the board so I can move the blades from the lower section to the top section as I clean or sharpen each cutter. I then clean all of the cutters and combs with a small 3” (fine wire) wire wheel spinning on a small drill press to get the big stuff off the blades before I sharpen them.

When you are finished cleaning the cutters & combs on the fine wire wheel, take the board with the cutters on it over to the clipper machine and turn it on. If you are right handed the wheel should turn clockwise at about 1725 rpm, (for left handed people the wheel should turn counterclockwise.) Point the tips of the cutters, and or the combs in the direction that the wheel is turning. You will need a small 12 pound pull magnet to help you hold the cutters. You will also need a small scale to measure how much pressure you are applying to the magnet as you sharpen each cutter. Only use about three pounds of downward pressure when sharpening a cutter. To test this place the magnet onto the cutter then place the magnet and the cutter onto the top of the scale and press down till the scale reads 3 pounds. When you can do this with your eyes closed then you are ready to start sharpening your first cutter.

While holding the cutter (or comb) with the magnet touch the backside of the cutter onto the wheel first, then let the tips come down keeping the cutter perfectly flat on the wheel. Use enough pressure to get a good shower of sparks (about 3 pounds.) If you press too hard, you will rub the grit off too soon, and you will have to recharge the wheel again with more grit. The key to this step is to relax! Do like Bruce lee said; “Be like water.” maintain control, but keep your whole body relaxed. If there is any tension in your hand or arm you will cut a second face on the face of the cutter and there will be a dividing line showing the two faces that have been cut. To avoid this mistake you have to relax your hand, your arm, and your whole body, and let the dead weight of your arm put the downward pressure on the cutter and not your muscles.

Keeping everything perfectly flat, put a little forward pressure on the front side of the cutter by pressing on the front of the magnet closest to the tips of the cutter. I use my index finger for this job, and my thumb, and middle finger to hold the outer sides of the magnet. Don't rotate the cutter forward, (keep it flat on the wheel) just apply forward pressure with your index finger.