SHarpening wire cutters?

B

Buck268

Joined
Nov 5, 2006
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Well, I have a pair of opposing-wedge (for lack of better terms) wire cutters which have definately seem better days. I have no doubt with a careful hand one could sharpen them up, but I'm curious if anyone has done this before? If so, how difficult was it? Any tips?

 
I use diamond paddles to sharpen mine. DiaSharp, I believe.
Bill
 
You might want to use a magic marker to blacken the entire edge of both sides, so that you can see what you are taking off and make sure of the angles. Anyway, that is how I sharpen my sharp tools.
James
 
A small diamond hone would be just about ideal for sharpening a pair of dikes; I've done it with AO files and it's pretty slow. Just be careful not to get carried away and try to sharpen completely to an edge like you would a knife -- wire can be pretty tough stuff and you need a "heavy" edge to hold up, plus if you happen to remove too much metal the two cutting sides may no longer meet.
 
Dog of War said:
...if you happen to remove too much metal the two cutting sides may no longer meet.
Click to expand...

Personally, I'd be VERY worried about that facet. If y'all have done it successfully, awesome, but it seems to me that most end-snips (I think that's what they're called...) make contact with the recasso-equivalent just as much as the blades, so if you removed any significant metal, you'd lose the ability to cut all the way through.

Just my $.0002 (.02 cents, but I can't do the cent sign!)
 
^ Do you mean to say 2/100ths of a cent?

Because the expression is "my 2 cents' worth"...which would be $.02 with no need for the cent sign (regardless of how many people type ".02 cents", or how many signs at the store say ".99" followed by the cent sign).
 
Those kind of wire cutters work by displacing the metal in the wire until the two edges meet, and there's no wire left to displace. In order to work, the edges of each jaw must meet perfectly. When they dull, it happens by deformation of the edge, caused by cutting material hard enough to do such damage. Sharpening would only remove the lateral deformations, but the edge gap at the deformation would remain. Making sharpening futile.

The only workaround may be to entirely regrind the edges, but that seems not worth the effort.
 
bobby.t said:
^ Do you mean to say 2/100ths of a cent?

Because the expression is "my 2 cents' worth"...which would be $.02 with no need for the cent sign (regardless of how many people type ".02 cents", or how many signs at the store say ".99" followed by the cent sign).
Click to expand...

I meant what I said, I said what I meant, an elephant(/knife-knut) is truthful, 100%!

I actually meant two hundredths, since I didn't think my opinion on this subject actually warranted two cents.

Zeasor said:
From the Windows character map
2¢ 2¢ 2¢ 2¢ 2¢
Click to expand...

Danke.
 
You can adjust the edges by removing metal at the "ricasso"-not sure that is the correct word.
 
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