Nicked Planer and Jointer Knives

[Jay Stellers]

Are nicks in the planer and jointer knives just a fact of life? I can understand if you hit a nail, screw, or staple, but what about when there's no metal in the wood. It seems like I can go from fresh blades to nicked blades in the course of 5-10 boards. Am I doing something wrong? Is there anything I can do to prevent or minimize the nicking. It seems like I spend all my time setting up the knives so I get a nice smooth surface, only to notice ridges after a few minutes of use.

Do they make straight carbide knives to replace the HSS knives? Are these knives less prone to nicking?

[Gary Herrmann]

Jay, what kind of wood are you running through your machines? The only wood that ever noticably nicked one of my knives was a bloodwood board with a very hard knot in it. How much material are you removing? Is this rough urban lumber? If so, it could have dirt and grit in it, which would definitely nick knives.

I have Shelix heads on my jointer and planer now, so I don't have any issues with nicks. I have seen straight carbide knives, but I'll bet they're pricey.

[Tom Adger]

Even surfaced boards from a retail store are going to have some grit, dirt, etc on them. Before it goes to my jointer and planer, I wire brush every board, all 4 sides, then put the shop vac to it. Sure its a little extra time spent, but my knives very seldom get nicks.

Also, I check every board with my Little Wizard metal detector. It is very sensitive, and costs less than $20. Woodcraft, among others, sells them.

[Jay Stellers]

Gary,

I've run some Australian Cypress, Brazilian cherry, pine, cherry, oak, maple, black walnut, and black locust. I doubt if I've run anything more than 50 BF through the jointer and 20 BF through the planer. I've already had my jointer knives sharpened once and it wasn't 10 minutes after getting them back into the jointer than I was seeing ridges on the surface again. Aye! Most of my wood are cutoffs from hardwood flooring jobs. I'm jointing and planing away the grooves/tongues etc to get flat stock. I have some locally harvested wood too, but I got the nicks from the flooring boards. I brushed off some dust just with my hand but perhaps I need to use the wire brush and shop vac Tom mentioned. I'll shift my knives to remove the ridges and see if the brushing and vac help with the issue.

[Jim Becker]

Yup, fact of life. This is one of the reasons that I love the Tersa knives in my J/P...it's so easy to adjust one or two laterally to deal with a nick and continue working as well as change them quickly when necessary.

Yes, there are carbide knives available, but they can nick, too.

[Myk Rian]

Are nicks in the planer and jointer knives just a fact of life? I can understand if you hit a nail, screw, or staple, but what about when there's no metal in the wood. It seems like I can go from fresh blades to nicked blades in the course of 5-10 boards. Am I doing something wrong? Is there anything I can do to prevent or minimize the nicking. It seems like I spend all my time setting up the knives so I get a nice smooth surface, only to notice ridges after a few minutes of use.

Do they make straight carbide knives to replace the HSS knives? Are these knives less prone to nicking?
When I have nicked blades that aren't too bad, I use a card scraper to clean the lines in the stock.

[Jay Stellers]

Even surfaced boards from a retail store are going to have some grit, dirt, etc on them. Before it goes to my jointer and planer, I wire brush every board, all 4 sides, then put the shop vac to it. Sure its a little extra time spent, but my knives very seldom get nicks.

Also, I check every board with my Little Wizard metal detector. It is very sensitive, and costs less than $20. Woodcraft, among others, sells them.

I was at harbour freight the other day to get a dial indicator for setting my bed rollers, et al. I picked up a "generic" metal detector from their home security section for $14.99. That little thing works like a champ. Very sensitive. I was even having fun waving the detector over some screws I have in my bones. and it was setting it off. I also picked up some wire brushes and I'll start spending some more time to prep my stock before I run it through the jointer and planer. Thanks for the tips.

[Peter Quinn]

Dirty wood. Soft wood is worse than harder species for trapping small rocks, but it seems rocks and wood attract each other. I have a big wire brush that comes out before poplar touches my machines anymore. Poplar LOVES rocks. I have also found some maple that seems to have little bits of sand trapped in small pockets in the wood. Like an oyster with no pearl!:eek: I think hitting something ferrous generally puts some hurt into HSS knives that would go beyond what I might call a nick, more like a divot and much harder to get fixed.

[Joe Scharle]

I make a cleaning pass with my Rotex and 80 grit. Rocks, staples and unidentified hard things come flying out. Vac sucks up the rest.

[Stephen Edwards]

Hey Joe,

What's a Rotex?




I make a cleaning pass with my Rotex and 80 grit. Rocks, staples and unidentified hard things come flying out. Vac sucks up the rest.