[nikpearson]

I sharpened my LMI fret saw with a fine triangular file. It took about twenty or thirty minutes and the difference afterwards was amazing. The saw had become blunt after only 4 or 5 fretboards.

Have a look on YouTube for a video on how to do this. Paul Sellers has a particularly good one I seem to remember.

The kerf of the saw is critical when cutting fret slots. Repeated sharpening will change this and then the teeth will need to be reset. I’ve not done this yet as the kerf remained accurate after the first sharpening. I’m guessing this would be pretty tricky with the small teeth of these saws.

So you can restore a fret saw’s sharpness easily. What I would say is that the Japanese fret saws such as the one StewMac sell is much quicker to use and is my preferred option for initial fingerboard slotting. I tend to use my western fret saw for deepening slots as it doesn’t cut as fast.

Hope that helps.