# Restoring old slicer blades



## kfhunter (Nov 19, 2017)

I was asked to create a new post in how I restored an old meat slicer blade.  I have a rival food slicer that was free to me, it's old and I know there's probably 1000's of food slicers out there sitting gathering dust not being used because it's old and dull.    (yard sales ?) 

This was my folks' slicer from years ago and had been sitting on their pantry shelf not being used because no one was able or could be bothered to find a new blade for it.  The meat push guard occasionally makes contact with the blade so naturally it had some nicks and dings.  It was so dull it wouldn't slice pressed ham for sandwiches without fraying out the bottom of the ham so bad you had to flip it each slice and deal with the "tail"  - just easier to let the food slicer sit in the pantry and grab a knife lol. 

Once I started curing and smoking bacon I _needed_ a slicer, so I dusted off the old rival and took a look to see what could be done about it.  After thinking about standard sharpening stones and pucks I decided with the nicks and chips this wouldn't really tune up this old blade well, stones might make it grab meat too aggressively and bog down the motor and heat it up (which it was prone to heating)

I didn't take any pictures, this is a google image but it's the same thing













So what I did was remove the meat tray and guards so the blade was fully exposed, the blade and motor was all installed and hooked up so I could still turn it on.   I got the work sharp and took the guards and guides off it and rotated the belt forward like you would sharpen an axe, then I turned the rival food slicer on and while it was running I turned on the work sharp and gently held the spinning belt to the spinning food slicer blade.  The belt sanded down all the rough edges so it wasn't so "grabby" and sharpened it so it now makes nice clean slices through bacon, ham, cartilage and everything else I've ran through it. 


edit - youtube didn't post.  Here is a worksharp vs shovel to help illustrate, the angle is severe though.  I held it about 30 degree angle off the spinning blade. 








Thanks


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## johnmeyer (Nov 19, 2017)

Thank you so much for posting this! I wondered out loud in a post earlier this year if I could use my Work Sharp to do exactly what you describe.

Can Work Sharp Be Used For Slicer Blades?

I'm so glad to hear that it works.


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## weev (Nov 19, 2017)

Kind of funny I did the same thing a few week ago and it worked perfect


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