I do a lot of woodworking, most of it small-scale, and am slightly obsessive about sharpening. After about an hour of using my Xacto to cut out cardstock, I start getting ticked off at the dullness of the blade.

And yet, I've been using the same blade for over a month now. How? Honing them on a ceramic sharpening stone.

Here is my current blade resting on top of a brand-new blade. You'll notice a couple of things:

1) Mine is noticeably smaller. It will lose about 30% of its mass before I chunk it.

2) Mine is noticeably sharper. The edge on mine has a much smaller bevel, and is honed to the point that it looks kind of like chrome. Look at the bottom blade, you can see the rough scratches on it from the industrial sharpening machine that cranks out the blades.



I do this with an 8000-grit ceramic sharpening stone (from $30-$60). By vigorously (I mean it -- this is not the time for slow, careful stropping) sharpening both sides of the blade for about 5-10 seconds at the start and end of each modelling session, it cuts better-than-new every time.

Yeah, blades are relatively cheap -- but I really like the fact that I get way more use out of them than most. Good for the planet, saves money, and cuts like a dream.

Interesting. I hate using xacto blades, the tip always snaps off after all of 2 minutes of use. So I can't see myself spending that much on a stone to maintain them. But hats off to you for conservation.

I use those large utility knives with the snap off blades, I get them at the dollar store with 10 extra blades. So its very hard to beat that price.

Quite interesting, I use the snap-off kind as my regular blade handle is too small for my hammy fingers.

I've thought of getting from MicroMark but just haven't done it. I don't have problems iwith the tips breaking off but they do get dull quickly.

That Micro-Mark sharpener is only $5 less than a decent stone, and you'll be able to sharpen things other than Xacto blades. I'll be able to pass this sharpening stone down to my nephew 50 years (I hope) from now

I found a great art supply website that has #11 blades very cheap-check out -100 blades for less than $14! I still use the cheap snap off ones for most of my work, but you can't go wrong with that price for #11's!

I too snap the tips off of X-acto blades often. I've noticed it's more how I'm using them than the actual blade. Depends on the angle you hold the knife at and the amount of pressure you are putting down. I tend to put a lot of pressure down and a high pitch which puts too much stress on the fine tip.

Usually I just keep going with a broken tip. It's not that important in most cases anyway.

What bothers me more is that the blade gets dull but only about 1/8th of the blade! The whole rest of the blade rarely sees any cutting at all and is perfectly fine. However the part I use the most gets dull in about an hour and almost always has a snapped tip.

Think I'll try the snap away cheap knives first. If that doesn't do it for me then I'll try the stone. Thanks for the info here!

Meh. I've decided to buy the blades by the hundred and just toss them when they get dull. Life's too short to sharpen craft knife blades.

Anyone who wants the dull ones let me know and I'll gladly mail them off to you.

Actually, I'd recommend the #2 blade, then keep that sharpened as above.

A little thread necro, but I worked for two years at a print shop doing foam core cuts daily. The #2 blade was a life saver. It's significantly heavier and larger, so doesn't work as well for detail cuts, but it still comes to a good point that won't break off anywhere near as easy the 11s.