Anybody out there with a Timberking sharpener?

[JB Griffin]

I am lookin for a sharpener and setter and there price got my attn. little more than half of what Cooks cat claw is.
Just wonderin how good they are and how easy to use they are.

[Tom the Sawyer]

JB,

I bought a TK Talon sharpener and setter about 2 years ago.  I have been very happy with the sharpener - it is quite versatile and you can sharpen different hook angles gullet patterns and pitches.  I am now using a Suffolk setter and am very happy with it too.

[jssmitch]

I bought one with my mill.  Very easy to set up.  Very easy to use.  Very happy with the purchase.

[xlogger]

I have one also and like it. I've never ran another one so I can't compare the two.

[JB Griffin]

Does the Tk Talon use cams for different hook angles and tooth shapes?

[Tom the Sawyer]

The mechanism uses a couple of cams to time its operations.  You don't plug in different cams, you make adjustments to the rods and cam pivot points to match the profile you are sharpening.

[JB Griffin]

Thanks all, Tom Is it pretty easy to set for a certain tooth profile?

[Tom the Sawyer]

It is probably pretty easy for those with experience.  I only sharpen for myself so my skills are limited.  There are several functions going on at the same time.  You should turn the drive motor shaft (there is also a motor for the grinding wheel) slowly and learn how the movements interact.  Put on an old blade and tinker with it until you get it where you want it.  It is not a 'set it and forget it' operation.  I fine tune the depth and removal for each blade and you might need to touch it up slightly within a pass around the blade.

The manual is very basic and, as of yet, I haven't found any detailed videos about this sharpener.  It will grind the entire tooth profile once you get it set.  I was also trying out various brands of blades (with your own sharpener you can use anyone's blade you wish) so I tried matching several different profiles but, truthfully, I found one I am comfortable with and eventually all of my blades will have the same profile.

From blade to blade, I think that adjustments to the set will give you more options than slight modifications to profiles when sharpening.  I am in the set, then sharpen, group.  I don't use my setup frequently.  I usually run between 50-60 blades in rotation so it might be 2 months before I need to sharpen and set (cold and/or wet weather work).   

[JB Griffin]

Thanks Tom I think when I buy a sharpener it'll be a Tk
I like and hate the idea of cams (like change the cam change the profile, hate cams aint cheap)

[barbender]

When I want to adjust the profile on my Cook's, I just put the file to the cam :D Really, it came with a Cook's Supersharp cam and I run WM 7° blades, I just kept filing til it matched. Definite trial and error. I'm not familiar with the TK sharpener but the adjust-ability Tom describes sounds like a nice feature.   

[Quebecnewf]

I have been using a Dionsaw sharpener for many years. Rebuilt it once already. It has done the job for me so far. Learning curve was a bit steep but after a while I got the hang of it.
Thinking it is time for a new sharpener . Leaning towards a Catspaw but price is steep. Supposed to be one of the best out there. What other options should be considered???

[goose63]

Any one here know any thing a bought the Big cat sharpener?
Found then on the internet this morning

[barbender]

I have a Cook's Cat's Claw sharpener and I have been happy with it. The price of these things is steep, they are half the price of an entry level sawmill :-\ It is a heavy duty machine, it weighs in excess of 100 pounds. I've never monkeyed with changing cams or any of that, so I don't know how that would go, but everything is pretty straight forward on them. I puts a nice edge on my blades, they cut better than new.

     Goose, I've never heard of the "Big Cat" sharpener, unless you have it confused with  the "Cat's Claw".

[goose63]

bartender it kind of looks like the one hud son hash http// bigcatbandbladesharpeners.com I don't know if it would be a good one or not

[barbender]

Ok, I looked at the website. That is a modified chainsaw grinder, they only do the face of the tooth. If you are handy, you could put one together with a chinese grinder (that's what they are using) and some scrap steel for $150 or less, I have seen those grinders for $150 before. Otherwise I'd save my dough until I could afford a Cat's Claw ;)

[goose63]

Thanks barbender will save my $$$$ may be look at hud son

[backwoods sawyer]

I have both the basic WM sharpener and the Cooks, Cooks is a lot heavier built, but one big advantage of the WM is the cooling system as it catches all the sparks so they are not scattering all over the shop. I run the Cooks outside as sparks in my shop are not a good thing both do the same job equally well.

[barbender]

I don't have anything against the Hud-Son, and I don't have any personal experience with their sharpener, but most of the comments I've seen on it have been negative. This was several years back, you may want to do a search of the forum and see what experiences people had with them. You really can't go wrong with a Cook's, other than the $$ part. You get what you pay for I guess, I still haven't saved enough pennies to get a setter because I'm holding out for a dual tooth. I just buy new blades, sharpen them 3 or 4 times, and then put them on my "setter backlog" pile. That's one reason I favor the WM 7° blades, they have more set, .025" I think. When I finally get a setter I don't think I'll need to buy a blade for years 8)

[xlogger]

Tom, like I said I think the TK sharpener is fine but not sure like you on the setter. I'd like to visit someone near by with a cooks dual tooth or maybe one like you got to compare. Do you like your new setter a lot more? On rolling the blades the guy that I buy my blades from said just turn the blades inside out and tighten them up like you where going to saw and run them for about 5 minutes without cutting and that works. I've not try to do that yet.

[NMFP]

Something to consider when looking at sharpeners is.... Are you sharpening just your bands or for other people?  The reason being if you do your own bands and use the same profile, its easy to keep set up and crank the bands through.  If your sharpening for numerous individuals with different tooth profiles, spacing and so on... the wm sharpener is the way to go.  I have been there and have 3 wm prosharpeners and 3 cooks cats claw sharpeners.  The cooks sharpeners are set up for specific profiles I cant do on my wm sharpeners such as 1/2" tooth space, 3/4 tooth space and 7/16" tooth space.  The wm machines are versatile and can be changed exactly in a matter of about 2 minutes and the profile is exact, no need for wheel dressing.

Cooks does grind dry so the grinding dust goes everywhere but the wm oil sharpeners also put fine mists of oil in the air too.  I guess its just your preference.

Those machines that only do the face of the tooth are murder for a guy sharpening for a living professionally.  I cringe every time I have a new customer bring bands to me they have done themselves because 9 out of 10 times, its that type of machine.  I think those machines are ok if your going to touch up and runt he band till its junk but too many think they can sharpen numerous times on them and get good results time after time.

[Tom the Sawyer]

xlogger,

I tried two of the TK dual-tooth setters.  They had a couple of really nice features but I had problems with breaking teeth.  Went through extensive efforts to get them to work (a previous thread on here) and traded it for a rebuilt Suffolk dual-tooth setter.  It works very well.  Checking set is more of a hassle than on the TK but it very rarely breaks a tooth and, when it does, it is usually something I messed up.  To get a consistent set you do have to be very consistent with your stroke.

I would agree that my setup is not the best out there.  You have to go through a cost/benefit analysis to see if doing your own sharpening and setting is worthwhile, and if it is, how much you can spend and make it viable.  I am retired and mill part-time.  I was at a rate of about $800 per year for sharpening.  The setup I purchased will have paid for itself several times over before I re-retire.

[Will_Johnson]

Great discussion as always. Keep in mind that all of these companies -- TimberKing included -- are making a sharpener and setter aimed at a different price point and niche in the marketplace. All of us are trying to offer "value" for the dollar.

For many years we carried a sharpener and setter made for us by outside vendors. They were great machines but the price point for the two was almost $4,000. This put them out of reach for buyers of our small and mid-size machines. So we developed our own sharpener and setter, with a certain price point in mind that would still be a stretch for someone buying a $7,000 machine but would be pretty justifiable for all of our other buyers.

There's truly a place for all of these machines. The Hud-son machine offers a very basic set up for very weekend sawyers at a very affordable price. The Woodmizer and Cooks machines are very well-made but also hit the high end of price range. Our machines we feel are very well-made but certainly don't have the machining etc that's necessary for cam-based machines which helps make them more affordable. The sharpener is also a bit more flexible in not needing a cam change in order to take different profiles.

At the end of the day this decision comes down to what's your budget? Within various budgets I think all of these machines offer good value for the $.

[Nomad]

     Will makes a great point.  Sometimes it's not a matter of what you want, but what you can realistically afford.  A "good" sharpener may not rate with a "great" sharpener, but if it's what you can afford it'll still do a respectable job.
     Like with a lot of other lines of work.  You don't really need SnapOn tools to rebuild an engine.