Sharpening burs

Jewelry Discussion
1

Hi Everyone,

I was just wondering whether it is possible to make use of worn out
burs, the Shallow-angle or the Hart Bur type, by sharpening them
again instead of throwing them!! Does anyone can lend a hand and can
give us a good advice on how we can utilize for once more a worn out
bur?

Thanks in advance.
JOSEPH TANTI
http://www.jostanti.cjb.net

2

If the burs are highspeed you can have these resharpened. The best
benefit for this is that the burs are slightly smaller than the
original, so you actually have sizes that are not standard. Most of
the better bur companies offer this (or at least used to) service.
The last time I had a set done it was about half the price of a new
set.

Regards to all,
Bill Wismar
wismargallery.com

3

yes, burs can be resharpened as long as they are hih speed steel and
not the vanadium burs.We have resharpened burs for years with very
good results.

4

Joseph, I sharpen some of my burs often. But, it depends on what I
plan to use the bur for and how precise I need the tool to be. The
three rotary tools I resharpen most often are drills, larger hart
burs and knife-edge cutters. In a pinch I have sharpened krause
burs and cylinder burs but they are tricky and you may need to use a
relatively high magnification (10X) to cut precisely.

I use cutoff disks to sharpen. For drills, I do not modify the disk
at all, but for other burs, some modification is neccesary. Mount a
disk on a mandrel, place it in your flex-shaft handpiece and using a
diamond abrasive wheel or diamond abrasive block grind the disk
sharply so that the cutting edge on the circumference of the disk is
ground away. For sharpening burs I don’t use the outer cutting edge
of the disk (the circumference) to grind, as much as I use the side
of the disk. The disk must be cut sharply so I can grind precisely.
By cutting the disk an angle (basically removing the main cutting
surface) I can run the edge of the disk along the non-cutting edge
of the tooth and use the valley formed between the teeth as a guide.
With this method you are sharpening the tooth edge of the bur one
edge at a time, like faceting. Since you may have to grind 3 or 4
sides of a tooth, depending on the style of bur, you should devote
this process to larger burs only.

I don’t know if this was the best description of the process, but it
is the best I can do at 11:00P.M. the day before I leave for my
(hopefully) busiest show of the year. If there are any questions,
I’ll be glad to answer them when I get back.

Larry

5

Hi Joseph, I use my old burs as burnishers and carvers to apply
decorative markings on metal. Also, if you use a Universal Work
Holder and lose a peg, depending on the size of your burs, you can
cut them down as replacements.

Terri Collier
Dallas, TX
@Terri_Collier

6

Etch them with muratic of sulfuric acid. Check out
http://www.ArtMetal.com and do a search of the archeives on bur
sharpening. There was a discussion on this on that forum some time
back.

JD

7

Hello Joseph, It is possible to sharpen you burs, like sharpening
files with acid, The only difference will be the size will be
smaller.

The recipe is mention a few day ago again by Niels Lovschal

Martin Niemeijer

8

I need to know when is it cost effective to re-sharpen burs. In
checking my catalogs the smaller size burs (round, cylinder, inverted
cone, cylinder cross cut) cost from 50 cents each at the smallest
size (.5 mm) to $3.20 each (5 mm). These are Grobet USA brand at
retail (Stuller catalog). Other shapes cost average $1.50-1.75 each to
a high of about $3.45 each. The above is for steel burs. My question
is, considering the time and materials needed to sharpen burs is it
cost effective? Coming from the dental trade where we never
re-sharpen burs, I really want to know. Flames gladly accepted as
constructive criticism.

Mike
Lone Star Technical Service