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Old 01-01-2019, 08:09 PM
John Wagenseil John Wagenseil is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Eastern end of the Mid West US.
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I get my blades at artist supply store. Blades manufactured in the US (like Excel) or Japan or Taiwan are generally OK. Blades from the PRC are questionable. I think Xacto realizes this, because they market both Chinese made blades and blades made in the US at a higher price.

No. 11 blades can be resharpened if you have a fine waterstone, or a diamond or ceramic plate or a fine oil stone (Arkansas stone), patience and basic sharpening skills.
A coarse stone can be used to shape a broken blade tip and create a new point, or form a chisel point.

I have a ceramic kitchen knife from Harbor Freight Tool. It is not a particularly good ceramic knife, but, with a drop of dish soap on its side, it can be used to put a final polish on a metal knife blade, and its edges can be used as a hone.
There are a lot of knife sharpening demos on YouTube.
It is probably not worth it to go out and buy a set of good stones so you can resharpen an inexpensive hobby blade, but on the other hand if you already have a set of stones, why not put them to use?
Also take a look at No.2 and No.16 blades as an alternative to the No.11 blade. I have found the No.16 works well, its tip does not break and it is easy to sharpen.
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