Do Dressing Sticks Work? // Testing Lapidary Saw Blade Sharpening Sticks

These dressing sticks are often recommended by people and manufacturers as a way to sharpen or clean up your lapidary blades. Well, let's put them to the test and see if they perform as suggested.
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#CurrentlyRockhounding #Lapidary

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Did you enjoy this video and find it to be informative? You can help ensure that more videos just like this get made by supporting the project on Patreon. www.patreon.com/currentlyrockhounding

[@83KJack]

love the vids bro keep'm coming, huge help and you're saving people money not buying useless crap lol. preciate ya buddy

[@Mr2eyedjack]

I did tile work for year. Lots of new house construction. When I was ready to dress the blade and I couldn't find my white tile running stone. I used stucco mud. It's just sand and cement. It would dress the blade quickly. And I actually preferred it over the rubbing block.

[@mattmag3089]

Here's an anecdote: my new rigid saw was fairly chippy. I didn't have an adaptor/ reducer to put my higher quality blade on (1" hole. Rigid is 5/8). I decided to dress with a coarse diamond stone. Not knowing what I was doing, I did the sides for maybe like 4 seconds each, as well as the leading edge. After that the blade didn't cut. Like, making sparks on porcelain... but It seemed to start to cut after a few seconds. So I then "dressed" with a chunk of concrete. After that I pushed through a scrap of tile and what I saw made me laugh. It cut absolutely cleanly. I thought I ruined the cheap rigid blade that came with my saw, but it's cutting like a freaking laser. Edge looks factory without a single tiny chip.

[@estycki]

I love the effort you go to, nice whiteboard with infographics. As a newbie I really appreciate it.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Thank you!

[@musicalmind9591]

I do tiling for over 25 years, today I used a dressing stone on my blades Hilti, Festool, Sigma and Montolit continuous, turbo and meshed blades (4.5 and 5 inches), it worked fantastically, I tested on ceramic and porcelain before and after. In my job I guess is a little different, I think there’s a lot of debris from burned ceramics and all kind of materials that I cut and the dressing stone clean that debris while also exposing some diamonds. Also what worked for me in the past is is taking the blade off and grinding it with a flap disc, but just a gentle touch alll around, that took about 5 min and I was able to have nice clean cut, but of course a special dressing stone is much better, bricks and other similar stuff never worked for me

[@j.ericswede7084]

"And everybody wins".....Yes we certainly do! Thanks for another informative video Jared.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Thank you for watching! :)

[@geecee1990]

Dude, I love your enthusiasm :) I don't do gem work. All my work is on cutting bottles, but I've still learned a lot from what you've shown. Keep up the good work!

[@dustinfindsrocks]

Oh yeah!!! I’m tuned in to ALL this stuff!!! I’m selling off some of my big nice pieces soon… My dream for the future is a whole lapidary workshop! Even if I fall short of that goal… Greg the owner at Haunted Ridge has similar plans and he’s already poured the foundation for his lapidary workshop. I will most definitely be involved with that!!!

[@dustinfindsrocks]

I suspected the file was going to be the way to go 👍🏼

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

It's a slow process for most people (myself included) to put together a shop but over time it can happen and be really nice to have.

[@hockeyrace]

Thanks Jared. Great continuation of the topic. I use my file all the time, since your first video. It definitely extends the life of my blades. I even found a stash of old blades in the basement, and it was like Christmas to me. 😆😆. I’m set for a while now. Im always looking for the arrow on my blade. I always wondered what would happen if I reversed it. Thanks so much for explaining the comet. You probably saved me from wrecking a blade, experimenting. Thanks again for sharing. Stay Crystal 💫

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

You can reverse a sintered blade but I would suggest you put your own arrow on it and keep it going that direction so the diamonds are supported. If blades are well cared for they will last a very long time.

[@free2trudge]

Love the video! I sort of disagree on the AO microscope evaluation. It really looked to me like the diamond inclusions were just a bit more crisp after the dressing. (Meaning they were actually smaller looking) I’d take this to mean the block cleared out some of the buildup that lodges itself against the cutting edge of those little “diamond dams”. I’m not sure there’s a whole lot you can do to actually expose them further. But you can “unclog” the business end of them. I suspect you achieved that with that AO block. I could be wrong of course. 😂

[@bunk9991]

I did the bastard file approach and it worked great! It took 2 times of striking the front edge of the blade rather hard and I am using this blade currently, well beyond what I have experienced before. There is no doubt that the bastard (i love saying that) file works and works well.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

I'm glad it's working well for you.

[@TheAdventureCloset]

We haven't experimented much with playing with our rocks yet. They mostly just pile in our van and in our yard at home, but it's good to know this stuff for when we have time to play. Helpful vid! We do all win from watching.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Thank you! You never know when a saw might fall into your lap.

[@kennethchristie5167]

Hey Jared, excellent work man. Loved this experiment. I wonder how long the blade stays dressed once you dress it. It probably depends on what you are cutting I guess. But overall I 100% buy your assessment that not much improvement or gain with the dressing strips. 👍

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Yeah it really just depends on the the rock, feed speed, and coolant used.

[@oldgamerchick]

Very interesting experiment. As I am a beginner I only have my tiny dremel type tool. I know what not to waste my money on 🤗. Thank you for this video. 🙃☕

[@sandmaker]

Once again, great job. My experience has had the same results. Keep the fun and useful information coming. Be happy, safe and stay healthy 😷⚒

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Thank you Sand Maker! It's unfortunate that so many companies sell these things that are pretty much useless.

[@kylaabegglen1275]

Awesome video!🙌 I have seen the other two videos and I so appreciate the information you put out, on everything. Very understandable and common sense. We can all learn from your videos and do if we watch the entire video and pay attention, it's that simple. Thank you for everything you and Sarah, and Laika, do for the rockhounding community! ✌🤠

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Thank you! I'm glad you liked it.

[@melnordquist4061]

thx so much for this info. I have a blade to try it on. I will let you know how it goes.

[@Rookie_Rockounding]

So man, I watched the other two videos and love this series. Now, I had a quick look at some forums (which of course obviously is not the best way to research but), i think I found why people thought about using the red Fire Brick. Because the dressing stick that did the most (the silicon carbide one), this dude said “You can also take a slice off of a fire brick, as the main ingredient in Fire rated bricks is Silicon Carbide, which is also the main ingredient in grinding wheels and dressing sticks.” I’m not backing what he’s saying but it’s interesting to see where these methods were born kinda thing. To be honest though dude, I wanna try the bastard file method you suggested the first vid. It looks to do the job well. Really enjoyed this nerding delve into lapidary blade preservation! Curiosity dude, it keeps that loop goin. I reckon I learnt a bunch from these vids. Do you have a playlist set up that I could link?

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

You know I never thought about Silicon Carbide being in a red fire brick and that being the ingredient that is important. I don't have a playlist of the three videos but I can go make one.

[@mjoyparks]

Thank you Jared for explaining how/why in your 3 video series. I’ve worn out my first blade and learning how to care for it just in time.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

I'm glad you liked them!

[@christinaelainechesser735]

❤️tysm for clearing this all up for me.

[@BackcountrywithShaughn]

Thanks for the post my friend, much appreciated. 👍 My biggest concern personally with peening the blade is the potential of dishing/bending the edge of the blade as I have no good means of keeping the blade stable during the peening process but that's just me and my situation. 🤔 I've tried using the dressing sticks in the past but eventually gave up on that and just bought new blades after around 200 or so cuts when I could really tell the difference in the cut quality. Am personally looking for quality clean cuts more than quantity of cuts but don't like wasting money either as i'm just too poor~ haha Thanks again, hope you have a great rest of your week!

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

I don't know if that's much of a concern really. It really is just a light tapping, the amount of force used it's really enough to dish a blade. I just take my blade and clamp a metal rod in the vise that is the same size as the arbor hole and work my way around lightly. If you don't have a vise you could just clamp it to a work bench. You should be able to achieve both quality and quantity with the peening method.

[@davidraines368]

Get vid!, Thank You. Have you tried sharpening the small diamond bits for rotary tools.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

I haven't. I think most of them are plated.

[@paigelee6321]

Interesting topic , always enjoy your experiments, thank you 😊 for sharing 😊💙

[@larryclarkjr.1256]

Got a set of bastards already the vid showing how to use it for sharpening blade was great. Thanks.

[@Tall.af12]

Just found your channel. I love how thorough and informative you are n your personality ties it all together. You’re killing it man i rly appreciate your videos n all your footnotes !! Looking forward to the new videos !

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Thank you! I'm glad you like the channel. I do put a considerable amount of effort into it.

[@patriciamckean4186]

I love that you do the research. Thanks, the "basterd", I know you didn't name it. How do you use the file? Any water or oils before you peen (sp) with the file?

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

I have a video up on the process of blade peening. If you go to the channel page there is a Lapidary Blade playlist that you can find in under.

[@blainetaylor3006]

Thanks I needed that

[@faithrigolosi1028]

Thank you for this. It’s awesome to have someone like you sharing this info. Going to save me money for sure. I have a question, Can you tell me where the video is to show how to use the basterd blade? I couldn’t find it. Thanks again.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

If you go to the main channel page its under the lapidary saw blade playlist.

[@garydean6552]

Thanks soo much for doing the leg work much thanks 👍

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

I'm glad you liked it.

[@stone2knife984]

Great lapidary channel, I haven't seen much on KZbin. I'd definitely clean the blade after cutting jade or epoxy resin. That material is so "viscous" and easily sticks to diamond. I've never done microscopy by myself, would be interesting to watch.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

I have a good playlist of lapidary stuff on the channel if you're interested.

[@invictusfarmer7188]

just like grinder wheel dressing discs. just meant to expose the grit. if you use it everytime you cut you will see decent results. i call it the status quo keeper. my blades feel like they cut the same all the way till i replace the empty one from new. and im pretty cheap on my blades lol.

[@mikedodge3910]

Awesome video Jared! I truly appreciate these type of tests and Mythbusting.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

I'm glad you liked it.

[@pattiklaus9580]

You never dissappoint!

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Thank you.

[@faithrigolosi1028]

Found the video. Thanks again.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

I'm glad you liked it.

[@BubuH-cq6km]

Shine On You Lapidary Diamond

[@reiki11]

Jared! Thank you for sharing this great info!

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

I'm glad you liked it.

[@markattardo]

Interesting results. That microscope is the gift the keeps on giving👍👍

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Having this microscope is absolutely amazing.

[@stephaniephelps3539]

So helpful - thank you!!

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

I'm glad you liked it.

[@gator83261]

Good video.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Thank you!

[@zachberry9391]

Yo!!! Huge fan. I'm like a passive hobbyist mostly dremel on agate and I can't get a good polish. I have the equipment but my main question is... am I not being patient enough? Should I keep trying or use oils?

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Trying to polish with a dremel is a hard thing to do for anyone I think.

[@zachberry9391]

@@CurrentlyRockhounding challenge accepted.

[@Rocktwister]

Thanks great information!

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Thank you!

[@vance7354]

I would love to see you test it on a Notched blade lol

[@DonohueLabs]

Maybe you oughta put out the call for some junky notched blades and see if they can be restored with these/other methods. If they don't work, nobody's lost anything. If it does work, you could return it to the sender sort-of restored.

[@ssteele1812]

@currently rockhounding. Jared, I have a used up knotched blade you can test if you have a saw that can hold a 10" blade. Let me know and I will drop it in the mail to your PO box.

[@bunk9991]

I have 4 notched blades that I havent tried to sharpen yet. Id love to send him one but I managed to get this technique down and am looking forward to reusing them. The trick to it is to strike the blade rather hard. Its a touchy/feely kind of thing.

[@DonohueLabs]

@@bunk9991 So the "whack it with a file" method works with notched blades, too?

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

I do have some older blade that I have been messing around with as I try to determine what makes for a good blade.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Thank you Sean I would love to see your blade that you have, I have been collecting all kinds of old blade to try and determine what makes for a good blade.

[@larryclarkjr.1256]

Can you make a mohs scale vs speed vid

[@deemushroomguy]

Very interesting! Thank you! Curious as to if a piece of scrap tile would work, either as a dressing stick or used in the same manner as the file and/or if that matters any (haven't seen that video w/the file yet). I use the bottom side of a long cutoff piece of large bathroom floor tile (like a file) to bring back a rough usable edge to my yard machete. I imagine it could work well: The metal, itself is softer than the tile and the diamonds are way harder than the tile. Seems like a good sweet spot as far as material is considered. Also, potentially something obtained for free as what doesn't fit on the floor is cut and discarded.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Are you thinking that cutting a tile would help expose more fresh diamonds on a blade? I don't think its really hard enough to do that.

[@deemushroomguy]

@@CurrentlyRockhounding Fair enough. I imagine the tile reacts very much like certain types of stone. Silly of me to think it could be useful, in that manner. Thank you for the response, anyways. Have an excellent day!

[@jimlancaster6120]

That was good.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

I'm glad you liked it.

[@alwayssearching1882]

I use the carborundum sharpening block and run my blade through it 5 times. Cuts like new.

[@TheKingsSon2403]

Have you ever tested a dressing stick on a sintered diamond wheel? Thanks.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

I have not. I don't have a cabbing machine.

[@marknorthrup4897]

I am still wondering if you can get a similar effect if, rather than pinging the blade with the file, you just ran the blade across the file for a second or two. I guess it would knock as many diamonds loose as it would expose? I have tried this on an old blade but couldn't really tell if it had helped or not.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

If you are talking about running the saw and then holding a file against the moving blade I would recommend against that. The idea behind tapping on the blade is that it upsets the metal and leaves the diamonds.

[@GREEKEXPLORERS]

Nice video!!

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Thank you.

[@RagnarRocks]

Good test! How necessary is it to remove the blade from the saw to sharpen with the bastard file?

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

I think it is necessary to remove it cause tapping on the blade can cause the blade to possibly be misaligned but you won't know it until you start to cut and bend a blade. Since it only takes a few minutes to remove a blade from any saw I think its worth it.

[@RagnarRocks]

@@CurrentlyRockhoundingMakes sense to me

[@bunk9991]

I have a 10 inch tile saw and I left the blade on the machine to do the sharpening. Its a bit awkward but it works.

[@RagnarRocks]

@@bunk9991 I've done the same and had no issue. It's a pain to pull it off after every hard agate cut.

[@debbiewilson6806]

I was just about to order one of those sticks, you save me money and aggravation. What is your opinion on saw brands, which brand do you prefer?

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Currently there isn't one that really stands out of all the ones I have.

[@debbiewilson6806]

@@CurrentlyRockhounding Sorry if I didn't make this clear, I was asking about saw blades in case you miss understood. If not thank you for your reply.

[@yoopermann7942]

thank you for the tips and info on this,, maybe the blade makers should offer this instead of tossing the old blades

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

If you go back to the first video I did on lapidary blades the comment section has so many comments from people regretting throwing out perfectly good blades that were a little dull.

[@yoopermann7942]

@@CurrentlyRockhounding i wait till they no longer will cut then i hang on a nail in the shed thinking one day i`ll do/make some thing out of/with them

[@LeslieLambert-h5j]

I was told using a brick from a kiln (firebrick) is the type used...perhaps you could test that theory please?

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

I plan on giving that a test at some point as well.

[@ryankunz4973]

I agree using a file works best

[@invictusfarmer7188]

can anyone reccomend an amazon brand of diamond blade like what's talked about in this video. i need a thinner blade and my local options are all the thicker ones. any info would be appreciated. thanks in advance guys and gals!

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

I have some other videos talking about blades that you might like.

[@invictusfarmer7188]

@@CurrentlyRockhounding excellent ty. not very good with this app lol.

[@AZRockhoundExpeditions]

Do you use the edge of the file to peen or the file side itself? We too have just bought new blades because they have gone dull, we have saved them because I knew there was a way to expose the diamonds.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

I have a whole video up on how to peen a blade that you should watch as it explains way more than a comment can.

[@AZRockhoundExpeditions]

@@CurrentlyRockhounding thanks! I will go look for it!

[@gjackson6569]

The blade you are testing in this video isn't the exact same style of blade you peened in the other video. Would peening this blade (the one in this video) expose more diamonds? Also, does an aluminum oxide dressing stick do any 'dressing' of the diamonds on the sides of the blade? I love watching your experiments and reviews. Great video overall. I use a Hi-Tech all-in-one for creating intarsia pieces but haven't really found a good method of creating a temporary fence in order to use the machine to create perfectly square and level surfaces. I know there are intarsia machines which are essentially side mounted flatlaps but would love to see a video on how to jerry rig a flat lap to perform that function. It would save from having to buy an intarsia machine. If you are short on experiments or ideas to try, I'd love to see how you would approach that. If you already have done that, could you please point to a link that shows it?

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Yes, you can peen this blade here. Aluminum oxide dressing sticks just about do nothing except remove the glazing from the cutting of tiles. I would love to do something like that, but I am currently overloaded with projects and short on funds for more projects, but if you want to support the work I do, you can do so over on Patreon.

[@standpipestan2778]

Can you not just file the edge of the blade to expose new diamonds ?

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

You can peen the edge with a file which is something I have shown here on video.

[@sfbfriend]

Then nearly any file would work! you are relying on the hardness and the edge of the file not so much which type of file. Obviously a fine file would be better than a rasp. I have a few old bastard files that are pretty much worthless as far as filing goes, was thinking on making knives out of them as opposed to "Filing" them in the round "File".Thanks for the dressing stick comparison, that was interesting and you potentially saved others money at your expense. If you can stay away from politics KZbin is a great platform for learning.

[@ssteele1812]

Jared, I have a used up knotched blade you can test if you have a saw that can hold a 10" blade. Let me know and I will drop it in the mail to your PO box.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

My 10" saw is in the middle of a rebuild so I won't be able to run it right now but I am putting something together for the future.

[@ssteele1812]

I'll try to drop it in the mail in the next few days. P.S. if you decide to make a trip near Quartzite before April, send me a message. I know lots of cool spots to Rockhound down here. I leave in early April before it gets too hot.

[@produceman13]

The carbide sticks are getting very expensive... I already dulled the edge of my bastard file some after sharpening 3 blades in a row. Mabey I'm tapping it a bit too hard... it's a real big file and has heavy weight behind each blow... maybe I should try a smaller lighter file...

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

It sounds like you might be going too hard with it, just light tapping is all you need.

[@vance7354]

I thought Dressing sticks were designed for Grinding wheels? Never mind just saw you say for grinding wheels lmao

[@dennisriblett4622]

Odd,My obsidian has dressed My saws for Years .😮

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

I can assure you it's doing nothing at all.

[@trptrungblogs]

🎉❤🎉❤❤

[@alee5064]

My best friend has been doing tile work for over 30 years and he swears on a brick.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

Cutting rocks is not tile work. When it comes to cutting rocks things like cutting a red brick does nothing at all.

[@joniangelsrreal6262]

👁👁 🍷

[@pijnto]

No body uses dressing sticks just use an old carborundum grinding wheel

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

So you speak for ever single lapidary in the world? Dressing sticks are heavily marketed to the lapidary community and plenty of people have used them in the past. I have proven time and time again that cutting something with a lapidary blade doesn't 'sharpen it' at all. Would you like to buy a carborundum grinding wheel and test that as well?

[@pijnto]

@@CurrentlyRockhounding Does not sharpen but cleans build up from the surface and improve cut, I have been using worn out Grinding stones for longer than you have been on this planet, dressing sticks are heavily marketed you won't find too many using them in Australia

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

@@pijnto Appeal to history lands in the camp of being a logical fallacy and is invalid. I don't care how long you have been doing something, you could have been doing it incorrectly this whole time. I just ordered a carborundum grinding wheel. The proof is in the microscope.

[@jmsdvs5]

Who uses “dressing sticks”? I dress the old fashioned way, 1 leg at a time.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

HA!!! I love it.