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how to sharpen mini dike cutters, nipper cutters?

B

brownnsharp

Jan 1, 1970
0
Joe (#7 in the responses) has the right idea. But the best tool for
sharpening small dikes is a one inch belt sander, used where the belt
is not backed up. It is pliable enough to follow the contour of the
cutters. Try to use a grinder and you will have to be six times as
careful. The magic trick is to grind where the cutters touch, and not
grind where they don't touch. Eventually they will touch everywhere.
Cut a piece of cardboard ever once in a while during the grinding
process to keep the feathered edge from faking you out. The cutters
will come out as flush cut cutters. A little touch-up with a stone to
get a more severe angle at the edge will make them a little tougher.
I usually don't bother.

I have sharpened cutters like this for probably 25 years. When I
throw away a pair of cutters, the metal on the handle side of the
hinge pin is probably hitting before the blades close. I have filed
away the handle side a couple of times when I liked the cutters and
wanted to sharpen them one-more-time. The mark of a good pair of dikes
is whether it will cut a hair right at the tip.

Brownnsharp
 
A

Asimov

Jan 1, 1970
0
"Alan Horowitz" bravely wrote to "All" (29 Dec 03 09:15:44)
--- on the heady topic of "Re: how to sharpen mini dike cutters, nipper
cutters?"

AH> Xref: aeinews rec.crafts.metalworking:31628
AH> rec.radio.amateur.homebrew:4294 sci.electronics.repair:16152
AH> sci.physics:52067 sci.engr.manufacturing:450

"You people" are most definitely naughty crossposting pigs!

.... # <--- electrocuted tribble
 
F

Franz Heymann

Jan 1, 1970
0
[snip]

Until I had seen this thread, I would have said that it was imppossible to
have so much to say about sharpening a pair of cutters.

Franz
 
M

Mark Fergerson

Jan 1, 1970
0
Franz said:
[snip]

Until I had seen this thread, I would have said that it was imppossible to
have so much to say about sharpening a pair of cutters.

How many pairs have you ruined? I've notched quite a few
in my time. It ain't trivial when Accounting comes a
knocking. ;>)

Mark L. Fergerson
 
how to sharpen mini dike cutters and nipper cutters ....
.... Biggest problem is with people that try to cut hard stuff (nick
the blades) or ....

Reminds me of a "Scratchi" article in an early ham magazine: a true
"HAM" (Hardly Any Money?), he made solder by melting lead and pouring
it into spaghetti and then tried to cut it with a pair of "dikes". I
still remember the final line of the story:

"Anybody want to buy a pair of badly-nicked sidecutters?"

--Myron.

P.S.: Please, no flames about Scratchi. Even though such stories aren't
"politically correct" these days, the anecdote in the above story
was timeless!
 
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