Sorry, a sharpening question...

[Kalimna]

Greetings folks,
Sorry for asking, but can anyone suggest/recommend a method for sharpening planer blades?
I was machining up a whole bunch of reclaimed afromosia planks with accumulated grime at the weekend, and i have certainly made a small nick or two in the edge, but also dulled the edges a fair bit.
Rather than shell out for new blades, sharpening is the way to go.

Cheers,
Adam

 

[RobinBHM]

I guess your are referring to planer / thicknesser hss blades?

Send them off to a saw sharpening company, for re-grinding.

If you have a diamond stone its possible to do 2 or 3 hones with the blades in situ.

I wind the infeed table down to get more room, tape an old metal rule or strip or thin metal onto the outfeed table, or clamp a piece of 6 or 9mm sheet material (about the size of the outfeed table). The edge of the rule or sheet wants to be close and parallel to the end of the outfeed table that faces the cutter block.

Rest your diamond stone between the edge of your sheet / rule and the cutter edge, turn the cutter block until you have the correct honing angle. Gently hammer in a timber wedge to lock the cutter block from turning. Hone the cutter until you have an even hone along the length of the blade (you will need to move the fence right back). Repeat for other knives.

Unfortunately this technique wont work well for surface planers that dont have any height adjustment on the outfeed table.

I dont need to mention unplug!

 

[Fitzroy]

I have the veritas honing guide and find I can secure my planer blades in this and sharpen the edge on apiece of wet and dry on a flat surface (I my case a granite tile)

F.

I have a set i need to touch up this evening I'll try to get a photo.

 

[ED65]

If you have the means to make them this sort of thing supposedly works well:

If you're a fan of Matthias, he's posted this method which I think is only for the very brave or confident.

 

[Peter Sefton]

I would send them away to be resharpened or this article I wrote a couple of years ago might give you some other ideas.

http://www.peterseftonfurnitureschool.c ... rticle.pdf

Cheers Peter

 

[Benchwayze]

Tormek make a planer-knife jig, to fit their wet-stone. But it does leave the knives hollow ground. The knives on my Sedgwick are flat ground. I had a spare set of knives when I bought the machine, and change them as necessary , shipping the dull blades out for professional grinding. The main reason being that I know each knife is sharpened to the same degree, and the knives are then balanced.

HTH

 

[Jacob]

If you have the means to make them this sort of thing supposedly works well:

If you're a fan of Matthias, he's posted this method which I think is only for the very brave or confident.

Steve Maskery has posted up the same thing many times.
That pattern of jig used to come standard with Black & Decker planers.
Works OK if you are desperate but you wouldn't apply a stone to the blades you'd do the opposite - apply the jig to the stone - or better - wet n dry on a flat surface in a pool of fluid

 

[Kalimna]

Many thanks folks for the advice and info - I would prefer to be able to sharpen myself, so will concentrate on that initially. But if that fails then sending off will be the next option. Out of interest, what should I expect to pay?

Cheers,
Adam

 

[custard]

Many thanks folks for the advice and info - I would prefer to be able to sharpen myself, so will concentrate on that initially. But if that fails then sending off will be the next option. Out of interest, what should I expect to pay?

Cheers,
Adam

Used to cost me about £4 per 10" knife for a regular refresh sharpen, but that was a few years ago (I use disposable knives now). Couple of things to bear in mind,

-learning to sharpen for the first time with a nicked knife isn't the easiest challenge
-most sharpeners charge more for grinding out nicks
-they also charge more when someone's had a go themselves and messed it up!
-it's always worth having a spare set of knives
-if you work with figured timbers it's worth considering having two spare sets, one with a back bevel to help tame tear out

Good luck!

 

[Steve Maskery]

This is my latest one:
post1055708.html#p1055708

It works great and I think I have worked out an even easier way to make it. I need to make another at a different angle, so I'll give it a whirl.

 

[rafezetter]

Hi Steve, a while back I asked if you might be able to make me one of your jigs, but you weren't set up with the workshop at the time, however you did mention I needed to know the working angle of my planer blades.

At the prompting of this thread I've had a look throught the original instructions and I can't see any info on that at all - is there a "general standard" for cutting angles?

In case it helps most of my work is in various softwoods for now.

Obviously more than happy to pay for it.

 

[Peter Sefton]

I believe the standard grinding angle for planer blades is 40 degrees.

Cheers Peter

 

[Steve Maskery]

The angle is not really that important, it's only a clearance angle. As Peter says, 40 is common (my Kity is 40 degrees), but some are 45. The Lurem in our Community Workshop has 45 degree blades. But it doesn't matter that much, the cutting angle is determined by the cutter block itself, not the angle of the grind. So mine is set at 42 degrees for the honing process. It's only a micro-bevel and it saves having to hone the entire edge.

I've just damaged a new pair helping out a mate (against my better judgement, but he's a mate) so I need to make one at 40 degrees for the principal grind. So if you want one, Rafe, just let me know what angle you want. Do you have a spare set you can measure with a sliding bevel?

 

[rafezetter]

The angle is not really that important, it's only a clearance angle. As Peter says, 40 is common (my Kity is 40 degrees), but some are 45. The Lurem in our Community Workshop has 45 degree blades. But it doesn't matter that much, the cutting angle is determined by the cutter block itself, not the angle of the grind. So mine is set at 42 degrees for the honing process. It's only a micro-bevel and it saves having to hone the entire edge.

I've just damaged a new pair helping out a mate (against my better judgement, but he's a mate) so I need to make one at 40 degrees for the principal grind. So if you want one, Rafe, just let me know what angle you want. Do you have a spare set you can measure with a sliding bevel?

I've taken this as the excuse to buy a second set - a good idea anyway, they've just arrived and I can confirm 40deg. However they only have one bevel, so your solution of 42 deg for a microbevel sounds like the solution for me as well.

 

[Kalimna]

Hi,
Sorry to resurrect this thread, but i have a quick supplementary question. The machine i have is the older Axi aw106pt with 3 blades - the wooden jigs mentioned earlier are for 2 blades. Some of the advice given suggests that unequally sharpened blades can give an unbalanced block, detrimental to the working of the p/t. I see two options :
1 - buy another set of blades and sharpen all 6 at the same time, in pairs. Being careful to take the same number of sharpening 'swipes' on each pair.
2 - cut a third slot in the jig and not use the Maskery Clamp.
3 - suck it up and get the veritas jig

Thoughts?

Cheers,
Adam S

 

[Steve Maskery]

For a 3-knife setup, label the knives 1, 2 and 3.
Do 1 & 2 together, for, say, 10 strokes.
Repeat with 2 and 3
Repeat with 1 and 3.

Each knife ends up with 20 strokes.

I think it would be virtually impossible to have all three knives being sharpened equally in 3 slots at the same time.

 

[Kalimna]

Thanks Steve - i had thought of doing what you suggested but thought it might have added in some imbalance.
Anyway - time to make a jig

Cheers,
Adam