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Excellent tool for quilters: no more dull blades with TrueSharp

by Jennifer Houlden

There’s nothing worse than a dull blade or one that has nicks in it. We’re all guilty of using a rotary cutter blade longer than we should and then have issues cutting precise clean lines. I must admit I cut other things with my rotary cutters such as paper and so does my husband!

But here’s a tool that redeems this less than good habit and I was quite happy to have found it! No more dull blades with TrueSharp, the rotary blade sharpener from TrueCut. It’s quite the power tool, so little and so effective! It’s electric and you just press a button.

With its high quality sharpening stones, it sharpens 28mm, 45mm, and 60mm blades.

You might recall yesterday I was making HSTs for my quilting project and I hadn’t quite made them the size I wanted them to be. Well, I changed my mind on the project and I’m going to create this week and am swapping those little HSTs for bigger pieces.

And I’ve come up with a completely new design. A bit of a modern design with curved piecing and circles to make a couple of placemats.

Hint: These can make great holiday gifts…

Revised design - fun with curves and circles

Revised design – fun with curves and circles

As you can see I have directional fabrics in my pile. I need to decide what direction I want these fabrics to be oriented in my project – vertical or horizontal?

I auditioned the two directional prints and found this one to be most pleasing to the eye with the prints oriented in a horizontal fashion. I had to decide this before cutting because it makes a difference as to whether I cut across the WOF from selvage to selvage or along the length of fabric which runs parallel with the selvage.

Auditioning directional prints look best in the horizontal orientation

Auditioning directional prints look best in the horizontal orientation

Since I chose the horizontal orientation it means cutting along the length of the fabric. I placed the dotted fabric on my Unique cutting mat and lined up the TrueCut ruler at the 21″ mark of the mat. I don’t usually use the lines on the mat as cutting line but this is a quick cut and I can be more precise when I do my next cut.

A rough cut using the cutting mat lines

A rough cut using the cutting mat lines

Uh-oh! It looks like I’ve got a nick in my blade and the blade didn’t seem to be rolling down the fabric as smoothly as it should.

Nick in blade means threads didn't get cut

Nick in blade means threads didn’t get cut

Time to get my TrueSharp power rotary blade sharpener out and sharpen up the blade.

It really is important to keep your rotary cutter blades sharp as it allows for smoother, clean cut lines along your piece of fabric and makes your cutting so much more pleasant when the blade is in tip top shape.

TrueSharp power rotary blade sharpener

TrueSharp power rotary blade sharpener

6 steps to sharp blades

Step 1

Put a drop of honing oil on each sharpening stone – there is one at the top of the cutter and one in the lid.

Oil the sharpening stones

Oil the sharpening stones

Step 2

Center the blade in the blade tray using a pair of tweezers to drop it in place.

Place blade in cutter with tweezers

Place blade in cutter with tweezers

Step 3

Close the lid, slide the lock in place to secure lid.

Secure lid with locking device on side of unit

Secure lid with locking device on side of unit

Step 4

Make sure the sharpener is plugged in and press the black button down for 30 seconds – it’s a little noisy.

Press the black button to sharpen the blade

Press the black button to sharpen the blade

Step 5

Open cover and flip the blade over and repeat step 4.

Step 6

Test the blade on a piece of scrap fabric and repeat steps 1-5 as many times as needed to get the blade sharp.

Important Points

1. Don’t sharpen a new blade only dull blades

2. Nicked blades may sometimes not be repairable depending on how bad the nick is.

3. Follow the instructions – using it for the first time the sharpening stones will need to be saturated with the honing oil before its use.

I’ve got a sharp blade again which is awesome. Now I can proceed and cut the fabric for my project.

Never fear, there’ll be no more dull blades with TrueSharp!

Join me tomorrow, we’ll get going on the quilted placemats.

This is part 2 of 5 in this series.
Go back to part 1: Perfect cuts every time with the TrueCut System for your quilts

Go to part 3: Sure fire method for sewing curves – no pins or clipping required

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3 comments

Bridgett November 19, 2017 - 9:14 am

What a very handy tool to have.

Reply
Linda Fast November 17, 2017 - 10:51 pm

This is an amazing tool, every quilter could use one!

Reply
Caro Dean November 17, 2017 - 3:31 pm

I really want to try this blade sharpener…

Reply

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