Ice Screw Sharpening

[Fred]

http://www.bdel.com/videos/screw_sharpening.html

[chossmonkey]

That's a pretty good how to video. It almost makes it look easy.

[Fred]

One of they key things I got out of it was to make sure you never scuff the inside of the tube with your file or sand paper.

[chossmonkey]

Anybody try this yet?

I'll hopefully get to test the one I did tonight.

As far as files go, I found a triangular file to work much better than the flat file for the diagonal edges as well as the cutting edges. With the flat file it was tough to get all the way to the bottom of the tooth without hitting the next tooth. The ignition file was to floppy and seemed like it wouldn't give a very flat edge if it ever removed enough material to do anything. The triangular file fit right into both places.

Also, they never addressed how to take care of the notch between teeth. Where the cutting edge and diagonal meet. I found a very small round file to work okay for that. I've heard leaving a sharp angle can leave a stress point where the metal can fracture and rounding it helps avoid it. That was for picks so maybe it doesn't matter on screws, but it also just looked really bad.


I'm still thinking one of these would be sweet.

[Fred]

I wonder if it accepts all screws such as BD and Petzel?

[Fred]

this might be a good investment for someone like the UNB Rock and Ice club. wink wink

[chossmonkey]

this might be a good investment for someone like the UNB Rock and Ice club. wink wink

It would likely just end up missing like the drill.


I don't know if you can buy those or not. It seems like a while back they had them on the Grivel site. Now it it just a link to send your screws off.

1) The Grivel ice screw sharpening machine can sharpen good quality (steel) screws with teeth that are still intact although they may be worn down

2) The machine cannot sharpen Titanium or alloy screws

3) Don’t send junk expecting a miracle

4) Screws must have 4 teeth (not three commonly found on older screws)

5) Screws must measure between 19 and 22 millimeters in diameter

[chossmonkey]

The screw I did doesn't look quite as good as I would like, but it goes in like butter now. I'll be touching up the rest of my nicked up screws soon. It takes a bit of time but really isn't that hard. It is well worth the effort if your screws are all messed up.

[chossmonkey]

I did nine more screws today. once you figure it out it goes really quick. Probably five min. or less a screw.

A couple more things I learned.

Instead of filing all four points at the same time do each one singly. For me it is a lot easier to keep track of how much I have taken off the points to keep them even. I can tell pretty well how much I have filed down on each by how big the flat spot is.

Unless you have two or more points really screwed up or one really really bad point it really isn't worth filing the tips flat to start. Just work the diagonal edges evenly. I would do five or ten full strokes with the file on each tooth then go to the next. making sure to file them all and even amount.

The vertical edge probably doesn't need a whole lot of filing. Unless it is really dinged or noticeably dull don't bother with it.