esta jointer knives

[joe zarnitz]

looking to use them on an 8" bridgewood jointer---pros/cons----tks,joe

[Dev Emch]

I would not. If you have an 8 inch jointer and wish to improve service, you should consider changing to either a terminus head or a tersa head. Both have worked pretty good. I am using a terminus moulder head on my shaper and have been very pleased with it. Found both to be more accurate than esta knives. Also with 8 inches, you can get both HSS and carbide and swap your knives out in seconds. So you can have a set of junker knives and a set of good knives.

On the other hand, if you see yourself 1). Using figured wood (aka pagen grain) and 2). Not using the rabbit ledger of your jointer, then you may wish to consider going to a byrd shelix head. Please do not confuse any generic insert head with a byrd shelix head. They are not the same! And considering that most woodworkers do not use the jointers to rabbit, this is not a bad assumption. Lastly, most asian machines of this type and size use a sudo-standard head. So an 8 inch byrd shelix generic will fit a major number of the asian import 8 inch jointers.

[Jim Becker]

Although I don't necessarily disagree with Dev that there are "better" systems...I'm a Tersa user on my MM J/P and wouldn't give them up for traditional knives...the Esta system is relatively practical from a cost standpoint for the typical home shop and you can change knives (and knife type) quickly. Not as fast as Tersa (it took me five minutes to change my three knives last weekend...without risking cutting myself), but certainly quick relative to traditional knives. And registration/adjustment is a one time deal.

[John Renzetti]

Hi, I agree with Jim, putting the esta system on the Bridgewood is an economical and proven way to make a decent 8" jointer even better. Once you have it setup the knife changes are easy and they are all aligned to one another. I use a similiar type system on my Felder Format jointer/planer. I find that these knives give a very smooth tearout free cut on all types of wood.
take care,
John

[Dev Emch]

John...

So your using esta knives on a felder? I was not aware that option was available. Are you sure these are not tersa knives?

[Jim Becker]

Dev, the knives that John has on his Felder are "similar"...they are not Esta.

[Dev Emch]

Exactly what do you guys mean by "similar"? I have experience with both tersa and terminus and actually like both of them. Reviews I have read and experience from shop guys trying esta have not been favorable.

In looking at the felder catalog, I see three options. 1). Standard Cutter Block. 2). The System Cutterblock. 3). Tersa Cutter Block.

[Richard McComas]

Dev, the knives that John has on his Felder are "similar"...they are not Esta. The ESTA knifes can be used on the Felder jointer/planer. The ESTA blade height is a slightly different requiring a small adjustment of the out-feed table. Other than that they are the same.
There are Felder owners using the ESTA knife on their Felders.

[Jim Becker]

I was only going by what John said in his post...his words were "similar type system". It's nice to know that you can use the ESTA system on the big-iron, although I'm still keeping my Tersas!

[Dev Emch]

Hmmm, that makes sense then. My exposure to them has been through the replacement market and the comparisions are based against oliver standard knives (stone jointed knives) as well as martin and hofmann implementations of the tersa heads. We were not happy with esta. We also do not own any felder machines.

[John Renzetti]

Hi Dev, The Estas you get from the USA distributor are real close to the Felder knives. As Rich mentioned you can use the estas in the Felder cutterhead. There is a slight difference in the grinding angle and the estas protrude a few thousands more above the cutterhead. The difference is probably because the Felder knives are designed to work directly in the Felder cutterhead.
I think the Felder knives are made by Barkee of Germany while the Estas are made by Esta in Germany. I think Felder came out with the system for use on Woodworking machines. Interestingly enough, the blades origins with their very steep sharpening angle came from the papercutting industry.
I have the 6 knife version on my machine. Really gives a super cut. I like that Terminus head with the sort of snap in holding bar. You can get the Terminus option on the Northfield. Northfield actually recommends the Terminus head as replacement for older machines. I think Northfield gives you 4 options for cutterhead style. You can get I think 4 also on the Felder including the Tersa. Maybe 5 later if they get on the Helical cutterhead bandwagon. I've seen one European version that has 4 to 6 blades that wrap around the cutterhead. Hate to think what that would cost.
In going to the shows like the IWF its amazing to see the wide variety of various insert cutterheads made by the European and North American manufacturers.
BTW, some friends were in Ligna this year. They visited the Hoffman booth where your shaper came from. Hoffman is still doing ok in spite of the German ecomony.
Altendorf has been hurt and they said that it seems like the machines are getting discounted pretty good. Having only one product in a depressed economy is not good. Martin (as well as Felder) has found a nitch by expanding into Eastern Europe. Martin has done well in Russia.
Got to stop now or my post length will start catching up with yours. :)
take care,
John