what sharpening routine helped you keep clean cuts without killing a lot of blades?

[CommanderVangarre]

I’m still getting my rhythm with my portable mill and I feel like I’m either babying the blade too much or pushing it and paying for it. The cut looks great for a while, then suddenly it starts getting a little wavy and I’m standing there thinking great, did I just smoke another band already.

A specific moment was last weekend when the first few boards came out clean, then by mid log I started seeing drift and a rougher finish even though I didn’t hit dirt. What sharpening and blade change routine gave you the best balance of cut quality and blade life, and what was the first habit you fixed that made the biggest difference?

 

[Nomoregears]

I used to run a portable mill. Do you de bark the cut? No matter how careful we were about skidding logs, dirty bark shortened blade life considerably. There are multiple ways to clean ahead of the blade. It goes from $ to $$$.

 

[Alan]

What mill and blade are you running, like blade width and TPI, and what species were you cutting when it started getting wavy? Also are you cutting frozen logs in February or mostly dry. Those details matter a lot for when a blade starts to go off.