Anyone have a favorite vendor for clippers blade sharpening?
Shipping isn’t an issue. I have a bucket load that need to go out because between the poodles and Cushing horses, there’s a lot of hair. 
I use The Blade Lady and she has always been quick and great.
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Another vote for Premier 1. I’ve been using them for years and they do a fantastic job with quick turnaround
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Be aware: she says that unless she also services your clipper at the same time your blades are sharpened they may not work, and she won’t do anything about it. I’m not the only person that’s happened to apparently.
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Quite a few of us at my barn grouped together and sent blades off here for sharpening at the end of the winter one year.
When we all pulled them out to clip again in the fall, none of them worked. Apparently we were supposed to know we also had to replace the blade drive and latch on the clippers at the same time.
I just looked back at all my receipts and given the shipping and the cost of those other pieces it was a total of $50 to get the first blade sharpened and useable. At that cost, for me buying a new blade every year or two is preferable.
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Premier! Fast turn around and they’re always in great shape.
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That’s terrible. I’ve used another company to ship to before and never had an issue but was curious who is available now.
I probably have 20 plus blades to sharpen so I should probably stop buying new ones and get a few sharpened instead… 
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Interesting… that has not been my experience but good to know. On average it costs me $12 per blade to have them sharpened by her including shipping (USPS priority flat rate boxes) and the blades and clippers have always worked great afterward. I have never had her service my clippers, just put the sharpened blades on the clippers after and they were totally fine. I think I’ve used her three times in the past three years.
This is good to know. It has not been my experience to date but I appreciate the information. I may consider Premier for the blades I need to send out this week.
I’m sure this is a stupid question, and I’m super abusive to my clippers so don’t really know the ins and outs of care…but wtf, what is she doing and why would parts on the clippers need to be replaced for resharpened blades to work? Isn’t the whole setup pretty straight forward in that the clipper moves the blade thing back and forth, and if it’s sharp it cuts? How can sharpening go so wrong?
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I send mine to Premier1. They do a great job, charge reasonable prices, and have them turned back around and back in my hands in a week. If there’s a problem, they’ll give me a call.
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I have no idea - all I know is that brand new blades work perfectly in my clipper, while the many blades she sharpened don’t work at all. I am mystified by this approach…
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For example, on Andis AG line clippers the drive assembly is plastic and does wear out over time. I saved a farm about $500 because they’d put brand new blades on, but they were still leaving tracks. I replaced the drive assemblies on two sets (the third was dead-dead and needed electric servicing) and they called me and said they worked good as new. They thought they needed to replace all three sets of AGC-2 speeds.
I end up replacing them about every 8-10 clips or so depending on heavy coats are.
We used to sharpen blades in store, but when we had to move the grinding wheel into an unheated warehouse, the lubricant gelled on the grinding surface meaning the blades didn’t even touch the grinder. It would do so around 50°, making sharpening impossible during peak clipping season. We discontinued the service since so many blades didn’t actually get sharpened.
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…huh. Wow, I bet that’s what’s borked in my A5s. That’s fab to know, thank you!
But why would blades resharpened in one particular way be totally ineffective, while brand new blades work fine? What’s going on with that?
I haven’t worked with Oster A5s, so I’m not familiar with their set up. I know larger clippers (the big two blade sets) have a metal drive assembly, which I have seen break but those we had to send for service. Andis makes the AG line ones very easy to replace. There’s a place in Maryland that escapes me at the moment.
We briefly worked with a fellow in Keedysville, MD that specializes in sheep shearing blades and did a good job sharpening. Red Hill Sharp Shop I think? It just got cost prohibitive to charge for the service and mailing back and forth. He tested sharpened blades on plush fabric before sending them back. It can be a crapshoot resharpening used blades from what I’ve seen.
I am equally mystified-it doesn’t make any sense.
