Sharpening Cigar Cutter

[Jason55555]

Just wondering if this is possible without sending it back to the manufacture? Has anyone had any luck doing it themselves?

Here is a picture of my cutter,any ideas how to sharpen this type? It works great but I would like a sharper cut it feels a little dull.

Thanks

[Ryan]

I would imagine sharpening a curved bevel like that would take a fairly specialised tool/machine.

Don't think it's possible to do it yourself unless you have a round file/dremel tool and a very steady hand.

It raises another issue I've thought about, every now and then I've seen "self-sharpening" cutters mentioned.

Is there really such a thing? I can see when the blades overlap that a very sharp edge might self-straighten, something like what a steel does for a kitchen knife.

But how do cutters with a single bevelled edge (like all cutter blades as far as I know) self sharpen, is that possible? I don't think so.

[ckay]

Send the stick my way, I'll cut it for ya.

[JSPEC]

As far as sharpening goes you can really dull it down even more if yo do it yourself. I have the same cutter and found that Colibri cutters aren't bad but aren't the greatest. Xicar cutters usually have a sharper edge that is sustained longer IMO. Or you can go to your corner store and pick up a plastic cutter for 5 bucks...they usually have a good edge.

[nick17]

you might have luck calling a kitchen supply store or somewhere that sells and sharpens knives and blades they might be able to take it a part and sharpen it for you

[TWalker]

Maybe I'm thinking or Xikar, or maybe I'm completely wrong, but I could have sworn they had a free service whereby you could return the cutter for a touch up.

Have you contacted the mfg about it?

[Fuzz]

Maybe I'm thinking or Xikar, or maybe I'm completely wrong, but I could have sworn they had a free service whereby you could return the cutter for a touch up.

Have you contacted the mfg about it?

Xikar do offer a free sharpening service. Palio will replace any cutter free of charge (as long as it was used only to cut cigars... mohelim be warned ).

[PigFish]

There are actually several ways to sharpen one of these but I would not recommend trying it. Certainly the best way involves separating the blades.

Tools (knives) that one uses to cut (pare out) the sole of a horses hoof are also curved. One of the best ways to make them really sharp is with a belt sander (the stationary type) with a thin belt and a hard buffing wheel. While they do make dowel shaped and oval shaped diamond hones, and stones for such purposes the cost of many can rival the cost of the cutter.

I have also used ceramic honing stones for honing the hammer and sear set for combat handguns. They have a very fine cut but if you are not skilled with them you will file a notch right in your cutter.

It used to be that Davidoff would simply replace worn cutters and I would take mine to a Davidoff store and they would just swap mine for me. I have not done that in years so I cannot tell you if that is still their practice.

I can probably lay my hands on my honing stones if you really want to see what they look like but I really don't want to dig through a pile of gun stuff to find them right now!! -Piggy

[CigarAsh]

As an avid woodworker, I'm sharpening tools constantly. If you can get it apart, you can greatly improve it's cut by not sharpening the beveled side, but by "sharpening" the flat side.

All a sharp edge is, is the convergence to a point of 2 intersecting planes. The flatter each plane, the sharper the point of convergence - meaning a sharp edge to your blade. With wood tools we usually flatten one side and then work a bevel on the other to make the intersecting planes. The advantage to sharpening only the bevel in later resharpenings is that it's a much smaller area of iron to grind or hone compared to the flat side.

By running the flat side of your cutter blade over very fine sandpaper (move from 400 to 2000 grit) , you can enhance the edge of the cutter. It's a relatively small surface area and should be feasible versus the difficulty of trying to sharpen a curved bevel.

My 2 cents!

[Murri]

As an avid woodworker, I'm sharpening tools constantly. If you can get it apart, you can greatly improve it's cut by not sharpening the beveled side, but by "sharpening" the flat side.

All a sharp edge is, is the convergence to a point of 2 intersecting planes. The flatter each plane, the sharper the point of convergence - meaning a sharp edge to your blade. With wood tools we usually flatten one side and then work a bevel on the other to make the intersecting planes. The advantage to sharpening only the bevel in later resharpenings is that it's a much smaller area of iron to grind or hone compared to the flat side.

By running the flat side of your cutter blade over very fine sandpaper (move from 400 to 2000 grit) , you can enhance the edge of the cutter. It's a relatively small surface area and should be feasible versus the difficulty of trying to sharpen a curved bevel.

My 2 cents!

A little more info on the actual sharpening method.

This is what i use for my chisels and plane blades.

Have not tried it on a cutter but have thought of it.

For a cigar cutter I would not use the coarser grades, starting at 400 grit sounds about right.

The only issue is doing the curved side, I would skip it and see how the cutter works.

This is referred to as the "Scary Sharp" system.

Condensed Version or How to sharpen a plane blade with sandpaper.

by J. Gunterman from the Original by the Steve Lamantia.

To lap the back behind the cutting bevel:

Use a very light coatings of 3M "77" spray adhesive to temporarily glue small 1-1/2" x 3-1/2" rectangular pieces of sandpaper along the edge of a sheet of 1/4" plate-glass.

The paper to use is Aluminum Oxide in grits 50, 80, and 100, and Silicon Carbide (wet-or-dry to you lay people) in grits of 150, 180, 220, 320, 400, 600, 1200, and 2000. The plate glass should be placed with its edge flush to the edge of the workbench. Grits can be skipped, if desired, but more time on each grit will then be required to fully remove the scratches from the previous grit. Using the gradual progression as listed, however, will require only about a minute or so with each grit."

Lap the end one inch of the back of the iron on each grit in turn. You could use it wet or dry.

About every ten seconds or so, stop and brush off the sandpaper with a whisk broom and wipe the blade off on your shirt.

About ten minutes after starting, you should have gone from 50 grit on up to 2000, and there will be a mirror finish on the back of that iron the likes of which must be seen.

Then jig the blade in a Veritas honing jig or go it by hand--

Clamp the blade down in the Veritas blade-holder device, taking care to have the bevel resting on the glass perfectly along both edges. Adjust the microbevel cam on the jig up to its full two-degree microbevel setting -- and hone away on the 2000-grit

Flip the blade over on the sandpaper several times, hone and lap, hone and lap, each time gentler and gentler, to remove the little bit of wire edge

The resulting little thin secondary bevel should be quite shiny by this time.

Remove the blade from the jig, and perform the "shave some arm hairs off" test, or the sharpness test of your own choice.

Of course, the ultimate test of a plane iron's sharpness is what it does on wood.

When it is all done, peel the sandpaper from the glass and throw it away. Then, scrape the little bit of residual adhesive from the glass with a razor blade, a quick wipedown with acetone on a piece of paper towel, and the cleanup is done in a minute.

No oil, no water, no mess, no glaze or flatness problems to worry about, and a cutting edge that is Scary-Sharp ™.

[PigFish]

A little more info on the actual sharpening method.

This is what i use for my chisels and plane blades.

Have not tried it on a cutter but have thought of it.

For a cigar cutter I would not use the coarser grades, starting at 400 grit sounds about right.

The only issue is doing the curved side, I would skip it and see how the cutter works.

This is referred to as the "Scary Sharp" system.

Condensed Version or How to sharpen a plane blade with sandpaper.

by J. Gunterman from the Original by the Steve Lamantia.

To lap the back behind the cutting bevel:

Use a very light coatings of 3M "77" spray adhesive to temporarily glue small 1-1/2" x 3-1/2" rectangular pieces of sandpaper along the edge of a sheet of 1/4" plate-glass.

The paper to use is Aluminum Oxide in grits 50, 80, and 100, and Silicon Carbide (wet-or-dry to you lay people) in grits of 150, 180, 220, 320, 400, 600, 1200, and 2000. The plate glass should be placed with its edge flush to the edge of the workbench. Grits can be skipped, if desired, but more time on each grit will then be required to fully remove the scratches from the previous grit. Using the gradual progression as listed, however, will require only about a minute or so with each grit."

Lap the end one inch of the back of the iron on each grit in turn. You could use it wet or dry.

About every ten seconds or so, stop and brush off the sandpaper with a whisk broom and wipe the blade off on your shirt.

About ten minutes after starting, you should have gone from 50 grit on up to 2000, and there will be a mirror finish on the back of that iron the likes of which must be seen.

Then jig the blade in a Veritas honing jig or go it by hand--

Clamp the blade down in the Veritas blade-holder device, taking care to have the bevel resting on the glass perfectly along both edges. Adjust the microbevel cam on the jig up to its full two-degree microbevel setting -- and hone away on the 2000-grit

Flip the blade over on the sandpaper several times, hone and lap, hone and lap, each time gentler and gentler, to remove the little bit of wire edge

The resulting little thin secondary bevel should be quite shiny by this time.

Remove the blade from the jig, and perform the "shave some arm hairs off" test, or the sharpness test of your own choice.

Of course, the ultimate test of a plane iron's sharpness is what it does on wood.

When it is all done, peel the sandpaper from the glass and throw it away. Then, scrape the little bit of residual adhesive from the glass with a razor blade, a quick wipedown with acetone on a piece of paper towel, and the cleanup is done in a minute.

No oil, no water, no mess, no glaze or flatness problems to worry about, and a cutting edge that is Scary-Sharp ™.

I use this method, except that I use a granite surface plate, to sharpen the blades of horse clippers... and other things where blades can be preloaded by an adjustable means.

One thing that must be noted is that the removal of material on the flat side of the blade will only work when one can reset the preload on the opposing blades. In cutters such as Davidoff cutters, there is no way to replace material removed from the flat sides and put the correct amount of preload back on the blades as there is no means to adjust this. This will work for cutters that have a pivot or a mechanical joint that holds the blades together, but it will allow the blades in other systems separate and bind with tobacco instead of cutting it.

You need to examine the cutter you have in order to determine the best way to sharpen them. The system described above would be the system that I too would use if I could adjust the amount of preload, or friction between opposing blades in a cutter.

Nice post!

-the Pig