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

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.

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.

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

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.

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. 😂

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 !

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!

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! ✌🤠

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

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

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

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.

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.

So helpful - thank you!!

❤️tysm for clearing this all up for me.

Jared! Thank you for sharing this great info!

Thanks I needed that

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 💫

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!!!

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

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

Thanks great information!

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. 🙃☕

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

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.

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. 👍

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?

Thanks soo much for doing the leg work much thanks 👍

You never dissappoint!

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!

Great lapidary channel, I haven't seen much on KZfaq. 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.

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.

Nice video!!

Found the video. Thanks again.

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

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

Good video.

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

I agree using a file works best

Shine On You Lapidary Diamond

That was good.

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

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?

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

Can you make a mohs scale vs speed vid

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

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

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

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.

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?

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?

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!

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.

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 KZfaq is a great platform for learning.

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

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...

🎉❤🎉❤❤

👁👁 🍷

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

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