sharpening beverly shear blades

[kenc295]

Has anyone any advice about sharpening the blades of a Beverly B2 throatless shear?  I've done plane irons, kitchen knives etc but this will be a bit different, will probably have to be freehand sharpened?

[RickKrung]

Some close up photos of the bevels would be helpful.  Images of B2 blades online don't show them well enough to tell, but it looks tricky from what appears to be a changing angle on what is visible of the lower blade. 

How often to these need to be sharpened?  Often: might be worth making a fixture/jig that provides for a changing angle on the USB support.  Not often: glad its not my problem   

I'm also not sure how you would clamp the blades either way.  Good luck and please keep us posted.

Rick



TM Technologies

Trick Tools

Piel Tools

[kenc295]

Rich,  I've had this shear for maybe 10 years, it was old when I got it but the blades were in excellent shape.  I sharpened them on my Makita horizontal wet wheel (9820?- I forget) freehand.  It cuts well, but I'm never sure if it cuts like new.  Considering how nice the blades were when I got it, and the fact that I only sharpened them once in a decade I'd say it's very good steel!

Before the B2 I made the mistake of buying the Horror Fright B1 clone, the blades on that p.o.s. were all chipped up within 3 feet of 18ga steel!   Even a decade ago, the B2 used was three times the price of the HF.

Now, the Makita is gone and I have a T7. 
Apparently, the blades pass each other at a 10 degree clearance angle, plus they are curved blades so it's not an easy task to hold them exactly square to the cutting surface, although I think I did a decent job last time.   
I found some better pictures of the cutting edge:

[kenc295]

Actually not too bad. I ganged them together then freehanded them off the side of the wheel, coarse side first, then fine side.  The larger footprint of the two together made holding them at 10 degrees ok.  There was one nick in the blade which did not come out at the point that there was a fresh edge all the way across so I didn't waste more blade eliminating it.