Is the expense of quality carbide planer and jointer blades worth the convenience of not having to shrpen HSS bladed as often?
What is the relative difference in sharpening intervals between carbide & HSS?
I primarily work with oak, walnut and cherry.
Thanks,
Mike
Replies
HSS will take a keener edge than carbide initially. If you were doing woods like teak that have minerals in them or epoxy glu-lams it would be helpful but overall you are better off with what you have. I've worked in lot of shops and even the pro's stick with HSS. Carbide are available in solid or just a strip brazed to a steel backer. If you ever hit a nail you'd pretty much destroy them...especially the solid ones. Sounds like you need to get a better way to set your knives more efficiently. Most people tend to dread this procedure hence they are using the knives far too long. You might want to consider the Esta knife system depending on your cutter-head. Also the stock knives that come on machines are usually low grade. You'll see a noticable improvement by switching to Schmidtt or some other higher grade knife maker
Rick
> ....Schmidtt or some other higher grade knife maker ...
What do you think of Freud? They're the most easily available locally near where I'm located.
Dennis in Bellevue WA
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There's too many choices out there to give an opinion on them all. No experience with Freud per se on their knives. I've had good luck with Schmidtt (Spelling?) Wisconsin and a few others. With mail order they all are within a short distance so to speak. Don't know of any reviews of them offhand.
Rick
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