Bevel Buddy hand-held sharpeners for sharpening chipper knives have been shown to be effective and to provide a number of benefits to companies with chipping operations.
The sharpeners, sold by Precision Sharpening Devices Inc. in Erie, Pennsylvania, and also available from Morbark dealers, can be used on small chippers for arborists as well as large industrial disc and drum chippers used by loggers and mills.
Available in 120 volt, 12 volt corded, 12 volt lithium ion battery, and pneumatic models, the Bevel Buddy is used to grind and sharpen the back edge of chipper knives. The knives can be sharpened in the machine without being removed, and the entire process takes only a few minutes.
The Bevel Buddy uses an abrasive — also sold by Precision Sharpening Devices — that averages about 8,000 linear inches of sharpening. For example, a chipper with three knives each 24 inches long has a total of 72 linear inches of knife edge. The abrasive would be good for sharpening the knives 100 times. Some customers have exceeded 15,000 linear inches with the company’s new X-L Extended Life abrasive.
The benefits of the Bevel Buddy include: reduced knife resharpening costs, fewer knife changes, fewer knife purchases, reduced fuel consumption, reduced downtime and increased production time, extended life for chipper parts, such as bolts, knife holders, and clamps, and improved safety for operator handling fewer knives.
The impact of these benefits cumulatively can positively impact a company’s bottom line by hundreds and even thousands of dollars annually.
The counter grinding/back beveling process is very simple. The knife is re-sharpened while remaining in the machine two to three times. The counter ground/back beveled edge is a more effective chipping edge while under normal as well as adverse conditions.
For an arborist with a small chipper who changes knives once per week, one sharpening with the Bevel Buddy should allow the knives to be used another week. This usually applies to each grind, so it would be up three times, three weeks of service from the knives.
For production chipping operations, and chipping frozen, old, dirty wood, a new set of knives may only last for three or four loads of chips; the Bevel Buddy will allow three or four loads per sharpening. Chipping clean, green wood, a company may get 12-15 loads from a set of new knives; the Bevel Buddy will allow chipping the same 12-15 loads per sharpening.
Some customers have exceeded 50 loads of chips on a single set of knives using the Bevel Buddy for the three recommended sharpenings.
Customers report a two to three percent reduction in fuel consumption with up to three sharpenings using the Bevel Buddy.
“It turned a 30-minute knife change down to a five-minute sharpening job, start to finish,” said Ronnie Cahoon of Cahoon Brothers Logging in North Carolina. “This tool is the biggest help I’ve ever had. Sometimes, I get 20 loads of micro chips between sharpening, sometimes more.”
“I can definitely do a better job longer,” said Alan Burkholder with HiddenView Timber in Ohio. “The edge is easy to maintain. I’m able to chip a lot longer on a set of knives. If I didn’t have the Bevel Buddy, I’d have to change knives every day or day and a half. Right now I only have to change knives once every two weeks.”
Precision Sharpening Devices has been manufacturing counter grinding-back beveling equipment for knives used by a variety of industries — mostly for the pulp and paper, sawmill, plywood, and whole tree chipping markets — since 1988.
For more information and to see instructional videos about the Bevel Buddy, visit the company’s website at www.precisionsharpeningdevices.com, or call or email the company at (814) 899-0796 and info@precisionsharpeningdevices.com.
