Jointer Blade Sharpening

[Chris Kehl]

I just recently bought a used jointer, and have heard that the knives can be sharpened. Any suggestions on where to take them? I thought maybe a machine shop?? :confused:

[Brad Wood]

I'm in the same boat actually... but the blades that came in mine need to be replaced.

Since I am still honing my skills with sharpening (hee hee, get it), I think I will leave the really important tool sharpening to the pro's. I'm pretty sure Woodcraft will do it for you. If you don't have one local, you might even be able to send it.
Otherwise I would use the phone directory and look for a local biz that does sharpening. I think every shopping mall I have ever been in has a knife store that sharpens knives, I have to figure they do other stuff too.

Anyway, I'm not there yet, but thats what I plan to do in the future... at least until I can sharpen a stinkin' chisel without screwing it up (I'll probably hang on to my old blades to use as sharpening practice material)

[Bill White]

I just get out my trusty Makita horizontal sharpener. Now if its carbide, ya gotta use a different wheel.
Bill:D

[Chris Kehl]

Brad,

I will check that out, I have a Woodcraft in the area. Farther than I would like to drive, but, I'm sure I will like looking around while I'm there anyway!

Chris

[Rod Sheridan]

I just recently bought a used jointer, and have heard that the knives can be sharpened. Any suggestions on where to take them? I thought maybe a machine shop?? :confused:

Chris, search for sharpening services or saw blades in the phone book for your area.

If you have a saw/tooling shop in your area it's a good way to develop a customer relationship with them.

Those sort of shops sell high quality tooling at reasonable prices, much better than the BORG's, and of course they can grind, repair or fabricate special purpose cutters for you.

Regards, Rod.

[Paul Atkins]

Rod's right about the saw shops. Call a local cabinet shop and ask where they get theirs done. Usually they have to have them done fast and correct. Sometimes lumber yards (not borg) have services like this too.

[Brian Peters]

I get it done at a local saw/tool place that sells and sharpens any thing with a blade/knife. I don't like going through woodcraft or other woodworking stores because most of the time they use the same local place and add much more onto the price that you can get yourself direct.

[george wilson]

Be very careful who you get to grind your blades. Seems like they usually take 1/8" off every time,quickly leaving your blades too narrow. I switched to the Disposa-blade system for both jointer and planer.It costs a few hundred to buy the blade holder for an 8" jounter. Blades are 2 sided,and about $33.00 a set,or $15.00 per sharpening. That's less than a usual sharpening,and you don't soon have to buy a new $100.00 set of blades. THE BEST part is that changing blades takes only about 15 minutes,even for a thickness planer,instead of hours. Just lay the blades in their holders in the bottom of the grooves in the cutterhead. No adjusting for height. You don't end up pitting off blade changes forever. Grizzly sells the disposablades. I strongly urge you to check them out. They are made in Germany,and come either in HSS,or cobalt.

[Chris Kehl]

Thanks for all the info guys. I'm going to call a sharpening place in Indy and see what they charge, and weigh it against disposable knives. Thanks for all your help!:)

[Brian Peters]

If they are taking an 1/8" off you are using a shady place, I would ask for a new knife set and not pay for it and not use them again.

[travis howe]

Chris - What jointer do you have? I have a local contact here in CO that sells 6in jet knive sets for $30.:D

[george wilson]

I wasn't personally using them. You see,Colonial Williamsburg has this list of authorized vendors......

[Chip Lindley]

Take the plunge! Look into sharpening your own jointer/planer blades! Save the bucks to spend on something you can't do or make yourself. Many fixtures in past magazines have been conjured up by woodworkers to sharpen their own blades very adequately, using drill press, table saw, or bench grinder with a friable white grinding wheel.

Of course those Grizzly and Makita sharpening machines cost some bucks but count the times you sharpen blades until you break even!

As for Dispoz-a-blades, seems a waste to me, both throwing away resharpenable steel, and BUCKS too!

[Myk Rian]

Jet knives are costly. I use Freud.
Get your size from this table and look on Amazon for them.
http://www.freudtools.com/p-295-high-speed-steel-industrial-planer-jointer-knives.aspx
Buy 2 sets for free shipping.

I was going to have mine sharpened locally @ $1/inch. Doesn't make sense at the price you can get new ones for.
I am considering getting the Veritas sharpening jig, and use the scary sharp method on them.

[Kevin Groenke]

If you're knives are nicked and/or really dull, they probably do need to be ground, but if they're just dull, you might be able make your own honing jig to restore the edges with a sharpening stone or scary sharp.

I just cut 3 beveled saw kerfs in a piece of scrapas long as your knifes and ~1" apart. Drop the knifes into the slots so that the bevels are roughly co-planer. Now slide a sharpening stone over the 2-4 knifes simultaneously until the edge is restored.

There is obviously potential to get a knife that isn't flat using technique, so take care to hone the knifes evenly.

Worked for me (till I got a 209HH and 12 Jointer w/helical head)


http://www.northwoodtools.com.au/img/workshop%20tip%20images/Tip05.pdf
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/oak/doug_abbott.htm

Here's a similar idea:

G'luck

http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/oak/pics/dsc00251.jpg

[CPeter James]

See post #7 in this thread.

http://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=102885&highlight=Green

CPeter

[Myk Rian]

I like that idea of the planer knife jig. Problem is, what to do with 3 knives. I suppose a wide jig with 3 slots could be fashioned. Anyone done that yet?

[james bell]

i have an old makita plus a tormek sharpening system which works fairly well on them. HOWEVER, recently i gave the blades to a contractor friend who uses a sharpening service - about $10/blade, and they came back great.

my problem in sharpening was trying to get the nicks out, takes a lot of grinding.

[Chris Kehl]

I just bought a used older Sears 6 1/8 jointer. Manual says it takes 6.125 x .625 x .125 blades. My luck they'll be some oddball size that only Sears/Craftsman models use. Seems like Craftsman is really good at that, making something that doesn't work with anything else. Oh well, got the jointer for $100, and it's better than no jointer at all.;)