Thread: sharpening blades

I presume that they are HSS blades. Ignore this if they are tungsten.
It cost me $20 to get 2 - 12.5" DeWalt blades sharpened through my local tool shop. They were sent to Perth and were back in a week. The blades had been chipped and rounded over from planing a heap of salvaged Jarrah.
Most good tool shops will have access to a service. Stop by and get quotes.

Alan,
Check out the tormek slow speed water cooled grinder at:
http://www.sharptoolsusa.com/

I thickness plane a lot of hard rock maple and have sharpened my dewalt 12" planer blades several times to a scalpel edge. However if planer blades are the only thing you are sharpening, the tormek may be a little expensive. you could have them sharpened many many times for the price of the tormek machine. if you need to sharpen hand tools and kitchen knives as well though, it can't be beat. buying that grinder was the best $450 investment I've made.
-ryan

Gday Alan, as mentioned there are a number of wet grinders available, some of which have jigs specifically for planer blades.

If your budget doesn't stretch that far people have come up with a variety of homebrewed ideas for grinding and/or honing blades, one that looked easiest to make involved cutting opposed angled (matching the bevel angle) grooves in a block that hold the blades, and using a diamond stone or whatever across the top to sharpen the edges. WARNING: potentially crap ASCII art follows:

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Cheers........Sean

thanks for the info guy,s.the wet grinder looked good but at $780 that,s quite a few sharpenings,doing myself-i don,t think so!
i hve got a price from carbatec $9 blade which is fairly reasonable,i also enquired about new blades(hss 18% tung) $120 a set of three,is that about standard price?
also is there any tricks to reset the blades,looks pretty straightforward but no doubt,threr are things to look for and check,like how much of the blade should stick out of the head?
again thankyou for the feedback........Al

Alan, What make/model is the thicknesser ??

DO NOT try & sharpen planer blades more than 12" in length yourself. Take them to a dedicated sharpening shop. Look in the yellow pages under "sharpening services".

You will NEVER get the blades DEAD straight or well balanced. I have seen what happens when a cutter block is out of balance & a blade lets go due to home sharpening. For $30-$40 (if they are tungsten, 3 blades @ 15") it's good peace of mind value.

If you doubt me ring up a pro sharpening service & have a chat about what horror stories they have heard.

The beat tip I can give you is get a second set of blades! It'll be Saturday arvo when you want to plane a prized board & the installed blades will be chipped & dull

squizzy,it's a ti-import motor over the top of the blades.
and thanks for the advise major-i won't be attempting the sharpening,let the pro's have ago,any suggestions regarding the blade set-up?

Alan,
most of the machines come with a jig/gauge to set the correct amount of blade protrusion from the cutter block. If yours didn't you can probably get an aftermarket one from Carbatec, Mik, Timbecon etc.

Mick

G'day Alan.
have a look around your area. See if there is a sawmill that produce dried and dressed material. If there is, they will have a machinist who sharpens their own knives. Call in and ask if you can speak to the machinist. he will ussually do it for you as a "cashie".
My machinists do this as a "cashie" for the local wood workers after hours. It gives them a bit of drinking silver for the weekends.

Hooroo.
Regards, Trevor
Grafton

Alan, its probably very similar to the Carbatec, might be worth a call or a visit if they are nearby.

What Major is talking about, it has a term, its called a wwWHHUuunnggg!!. A cabinetmaker once pointed out a bogged up hole in his factory roof, said this where the blade exited from his jointer after the "boys" tried to fix it. Said all he heard was a really loud wwWHHUuunnggg! and then after a few seconds saw all the boys heads slowly popping up from under the benches.

Cheers