Bevel buddy

[Wilson Tree Care]

My local bandit dealer is selling the bevel buddy,
They say you can sharpen your knives 2-3 times without taking them off your chipper.

Anyone try the bevel buddy yet?
Would like to know if it's worth it,
Price is quite high at just over 700 U.S. which is over a grand Canadian lol

Thanks,
Shaun

 

[Oak Savanna]

My local bandit dealer is selling the bevel buddy,
They say you can sharpen your knives 2-3 times without taking them off your chipper.

Anyone try the bevel buddy yet?
Would like to know if it's worth it,
Price is quite high at just over 700 U.S. which is over a grand Canadian lol

Thanks,
Shaun

When I bought my new 15" Morbark last spring the dealer left me a bevel buddy to try. It did seem to work. Its not as effective as a full proper sharpening job but it did put a nice edge on allowing for longer use of the knives. I tried the cordless one that you have in the picture. You can get one that plugs in for quite a bit cheaper if you don't need it to be portable. Its on my list of things to purchase this spring. Maybe they will let you try one out first.

 

[Merle Nelson]

I was hoping there would have been more responses/info in the way of feedback on this.

I suppose it depends on what chipper you run and your habits with regard to clean material that would dictate how much benefit you get out of this tool. I get a lot of value out of just dressing my knives every 4 hours or so with a hand sharpening tool. But, that is on 37 and 50 horse chippers and me being fanatical about only running clean material through the chipper.

 

[Pelorus]

I saw that thing at Expo in Pittsburgh last November.
Not for me, thanks.
Looks like it puts a back bevel on the blade??? If so, sharpening back to a factory edge is gonna grind away a lot more knife.

 

[limbcontrol]

I have the portable one. I have only used it a few times but it does seem to be great for touch ups.

 

[Randy McKenzie]

I have 3-4 of the 12 volt in stock for $349!
They come with a long enough cord to reach your battery.

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[craneguy1]

I asked about these last year here....not any response either....funny cuz the name of our company is wilson's also....lol

 

[Randy McKenzie]

Pelorus,
The Bevel Buddy puts a slight back grind on your knife which in some types of wood is recommended. This also keeps you from having to adjust your anvil as often. The sharpening companies (machine shop) normally take an 1/8" off when sharpening a knife so it takes the back grind right off. This tool is so simple even a caveman can do it!
No pun intended...


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[Pelorus]

Thanks Randy.
Does the Bevel Buddy grind the face also (factory edge), or just the back of the blade?

 

[Randy McKenzie]

Just the back side. It uses a diamond bit to put a quick slight back grind and doesn't disturb the factory angle.


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[Merle Nelson]

Ahh, first time I've seen this. That answers that question in my mind.

 

[Merle Nelson]

So... the Bevel Buddy seems like an interesting consideration but, I just stumbled onto one other answer I've been looking for for years and have one other question yet to be answered.

What I just discovered is that there is a way to dress the chipper knives and only dress the cutting edge side

 

[Merle Nelson]

The Accusharp "Garden Sharp" tool has carbide on only one side for hoes and etc that have one bevel. The other side is steel that just slides along flat side of chipper knife not cutting a back bevel.

 

[Merle Nelson]

Here is an example of the Garden version just cleaning up the cutting side of my 90XP disk chipper knife.

 

[Merle Nelson]

While the "Garden Version" just rode along the flat edge of the knife without cutting a backbevel. This is what I've always wanted.

Now for the test...this is a new knife edge with only 10 or 15 hours chipping on it. So when it does decline in chipping I'll dress it with this Garden version of Accusharp and see if performance stays up. The drop in performance I've had in the past was that the knives didn't seem to pull material in as well over time with my dressings putting on back bevel. (That was my interpretation.)

 

[Merle Nelson]

So this is me trying to photographicly catch the backbevel that my Accusharp knife sharpening version has always put on knives. This is after about 100 hrs use and dressing the knife had it chip some better each time but progressively degraded the ability of knife to pull in material.

 

[Merle Nelson]

Just the back side. It uses a diamond bit to put a quick slight back grind and doesn't disturb the factory angle.


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Randy hasn't posted in awhile so I'll ask @VenasNursery what would you say the thinking is of not sharpening the cutting edge and only putting the grind on the flat side of the knife - thus adding backbevel?

 

[VenasNursery]

Correct you sharpen the backside or flat side of a knife. Nice thing is you can do them on the chipper and only takes maybe five minutes.

 

[Merle Nelson]

Correct you sharpen the backside or flat side of a knife. Nice thing is you can do them on the chipper and only takes maybe five minutes.

Okay, so three questions. One is, do you notice any degradation of pulling power from new knife sharp to 2nd or 3rd time sharp with Bevel Buddy? And two is, how much bevel is on the flat side of knives by your 3rd BB sharpening? Then, when you send knives out to be sharpened on a machine do they come back with that reverse bevel fully removed?

 

[VenasNursery]

Okay, so three questions. One is, do you notice any degradation of pulling power from new knife sharp to 2nd or 3rd time sharp with Bevel Buddy? And two is, how much bevel is on the flat side of knives by your 3rd BB sharpening? Then, when you send knives out to be sharpened on a machine do they come back with that reverse bevel fully removed?

I don’t think the pulling power changes and after three times of sharpening we put new knives on.