Hello,
I have a 6” jointer and I have had a lot of trouble finding a local shop that will sharpen things. My main problem is that I have been trying to get an edge on my jointer blades myself and I just cant seem to get them as sharp as I want them.
I have been using good quality water stones and taking my time and going through all the grits, But it just wont take an edge, My stones are also very flat and tuned.
If anyone knows an easier way (short of buying new ones) I would really appreciate the help.`
Thanks
Replies
I jam and lock with wedges the blades into an angled slot in a piece of maple and sharpen on the drill press with a cup stone. The angled slot matches your desired knife bevel angle.
Thank you Don for the great idea, I think thats the best idea I heard all day.
Bob
If your sharp shop cannot sharpen 6" jointer blades, it's time to find another one.
You might wanna consider getting a spare set if you don't have one already.
When I lived in the boonies, It was time and cost effective to make a jig to sharpen my own. Particularly with the planer knives.
Not that the local sharp shop couldn't sharpen them, it was the mess they made of retoothing a carbide TS blade that made me wonder if they actually knew what they were doing.....
I know it ain't what most folks do, so maybe it's time to search the yellow pages agin
Eric
Bob,
If your blades are HSS (high speed steel) as they most likely are, they will be hard to sharpen on the less-tough sharpening media. I don't use waterstones myself but I do hear that they are relatively soft and not quick to remove metal - especially HSS which is notorious for being difficult to sharpen well.
I sharpen my 10" HSS blades using a Veritas jig and a large diamond plate. This still takes quite a while, although I try to sharpen the blades before any heavy blunting -the less steel you have to rub-off the less time it takes.
http://www.leevalley.com/shopping/AddViews.aspx?p=49560
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=3&p=33002&cat=1,43072,43078&ap=1
It also helps to keep the blades working in-situ if you use one of those diamond hones held in a wooden block, to rub up and down the blades whilst they are installed in the machine. (Don't forget to unplug it).
http://www.axminster.co.uk/product.asp?pricing=INC&pf_id=22400&name=diamond&user_search=1&sfile=1&jump=44&cid=RTQNTOUMNJULNM4V8BH8KT9UKZR0S0FM
I do have a Tormek and a jig for sharpening those 10" blades. I once allowed the blades to become quite blunt (processing a lot of teak and iroko for a large project) and it took ages to get the knives back to sharp, as all that teak had worn the middle sections of the knives to a rounded peak. Also, although the Tormek wheel is quite hard AlO it's still a lot less tough than diamond.
***
These blades don't need to be as sharp as, say, a handplane blade. Any super-sharp edge will degrade in the first couple of passes or so of a rough plank. Sharpening up to 1200grit or even 600grit with diamond is sharp enough for a machine planer/jointer, I find.
Lataxe
Edited 6/8/2009 6:01 am ET by Lataxe
Bob,
Before I bought my tormek, I used to use a jig that I bought from lee valley, which was designed to hold 6 or 8 inch jointer blades. I could set it at the correct angle for consistency.
I used that jig in combination with sandpaper on glass. I know some people will dispute how archaic it is, but the method does work, and is cheap. I would start with 400g wet dry paper, then progress to 800, and then 1200. For jointer blades, I never bothered going higher than that.
I don't worry about getting a perfect finish off of my jointer, I'm only looking for "flat" - As a matter of fact, most of my pieces come off the jointer with a bit of ripple, then a pass or two of the handplane prior to finishing makes everything glass smooth
Hope this helps
Gregory Paolini
http://www.GregoryPaolini.com
I do the Lataxe thing. I touch them up with a diamond hone while on the machine. I try to take even #s of strokes and they don't seem to get uneven. 325, 600, 1200 grits about 5 minutes you making shavings again.
Thanks for the good advise everyone, I appreciate it.
Bob
I use a 1/4" white stone on my tablesaw with a fence across the table. Setting the wheel height takes care of the angle. I use a Kool-mist sprayer to allow faster grinding. I usually follow up with a brief honing on a giant water-stone with the blades held in a block of wood which keeps the blades at the proper angle.
Keith,
I'd like to hear more about your sharpening method. I've been doing something similar (or it sounds that way) for a number of years.
I built a plywood sled for my jointer and planer blades that has a groove running along one edge. The blades (one at a time) rest in the groove and are held in place with screws and washers. The blade hangs out over the edge about a quarter inch or so.
I mount a grinding wheel (mine is gray, not white) on the tablesaw's arbor and then briefly touch it with a star wheel dresser to true it up and make it reasonably round. I crank the tilt mechanism over to 40 degrees.
Then I clamp a plywood fence to the table so that the jointer blade's edge is just kissing the edge of the wheel. I run the sled back and forth (with the saw running), taking just a whisker of steel off the blade edge. If I need to, I very slightly crank up the wheel to take off a bit more.
After grinding I do a little honing with an India stone.
It actually takes quite a bit less time to sharpen my jointer and planer blades like this than to drive them to the sharpening service. And, of course, it doesn't cost anything once the grinding wheel has been acquired.
Is this pretty much the way you do it?
Zolton If you see a possum running around in here, kill it. It's not a pet. - Jackie Moon
No Zolton, My fence runs across the TS like you would make cove. However I do have a sub-base of plex under the U-channel fence. This helps the blades bridge the TS blade gap for a smooth path. The plex does have a gap for the stone to come up in, so the blades don't have to overhang. The grinding angle is set by blade/ grinding wheel height above the table, then set the fence back for the width of the blade. You really need to get rid of the gray stone, and get a white alundum wheel. They cut much faster and cooler than the gray which is for mild steel. Here is a link to the little spray mist tool that I mentioned. You hook a air hose connector to the little metal block, then it siphons the water with rust inhibitor out of the tank. It then sprays it right on the metal where it touches the wheel. The water evaporation takes the heat out so it doesn't change the temper, and the wheel is turning a lot faster than the slow wet grinders. http://www.littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=2725&category=I have a little balance scale that I use to keep each pair of blades the same weight, which helps the bearings and eliminates vibration.
Keith,
So, your "grinding fence" runs perpendicular to the blade?
ZoltonIf you see a possum running around in here, kill it. It's not a pet. - Jackie Moon
Yes, only I expect you meant to write perpendicular to the grinding wheel, instead of blade. I slide the blades back and forth across the table left to right, instead of front to back.As I stated earlier, the grind angle is determined by the height of the wheel relative to the table top.
In the Taunton book "Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking" he describes a method for sharpening jointer knives without removing them from the machine. He uses a cup wheel on a router. I used this method for many years on an old model Rockwell jointer that was a royal pain to set knives on. Not having to remove them meant I didn't have to set them. Very slick.
Having already posted on this thread about grinding, I failed to mention, that I normally hone the knives in the machine 6 ~ 8 times between taking them out to grind. I have several heavy plate 2 x 6" diamond hones, which I have glued onto wooden handles which are off-set enough to give knuckle clearance, that are easy to keep the edge in top shape, in a lot less time than changing knives. Of course my jointer has an outfeed bed which is easy to slide back out to the way. Then all it takes is a little wedge with a V cut in the thick end, which fits over the back edge of the infeed table, then against the knife where it comes out of the head, with a length which positions the blade at its apex of travel. When I hone, I have a clamp light on the fence, which would bounce any shine from a dull edge, and I always wear a opti-visor while doing any sharpening, So I sharpen only enough to eliminate the shine. This usually takes care of getting the knives the same height even without putting a dial indicator on the machine. I have gotten to where I almost never use it except when setting the blades after the grind-reset.
Turn them clockwise :0)
Send them to a known sharpening company. I use a local outfit for saw blades and jointer knives.There are plenty of them on the web.
mike
We sharpen high speed steel planer/jointer blades for 80 cents an inch. You pay shipping (nominal) each way. Suggest you always have at least one back up set that is sharp in the event you nick a blade. We will also flatten/polish the back for this same price as long they are not in really bad shape. Properly handled flattening/polishing back is usually only needed once in a great while.
I do not necessarily intend this site as an advertisement for our sharpening services, but I guess this reply is just that. For more info email me direct at [email protected]
Harry6144
I don't think that jointer or planer blades should need to be as sharp as our handplane or chisel edges. Just free of chips (this is what can take the real time), relatively sharp and strait, and with an adequate clearance angle.
Are your blades carbide? If so, you'll want to use a diamond stone.
Brian
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