Need some quick advice about Planer knives

[Dennis Nagle]

Hi All, I sent my Boice-Crane 1006 12" planer knives out to get sharpened. Come to find out, they are carbide not HSS. The guy wants $86.00 to sharpen them. I can buy a set of new HSS for $60.00 and when they need sharpening it would only be $25 for all three.

Are Carbide knives worth the extra money? I'm not a rich guy so $20 means something.

Dennis.

[Jeff Duncan]

Short answer is it depends?

For most hard and soft woods HSS will do you just fine. However there does exist a short list of exotics that will pretty much destroy a HSS edge quite fast. For the majority of wood HSS is the way to go, just keep the carbide on the shelf in case the need should arise;)

My question is where did the carbide come from? It's not usual to have them and someone paid a princely sum for them new! I was also under the assumption that they usually came backed by HSS or laminated, not as a solid knife....but I may be mistaken on that? I know shaper steel comes that way as you can't run the carbide alone....too brittle!

good luck,
JeffD

[Dennis Nagle]

A friend of mine built a 5000 sq ft log cabin 20 years ago. He used this planer for all the trim work. It has been sitting in his barn every since then. He can't remember a thing about it so I don't know where the carbide knives came from. They are pure carbide though, not carbine tipped.

[John TenEyck]

I agree with Jeff. HSS will work fine on everything except really abrasive woods. If you are using typical woods, you should be able to plane hundreds and hundreds of BF between sharpenings. For many hobbiests that equals years. And for the price of a couple of pieces of sandpaper you can learn to sharpen them yourself when the time comes.

John

[Andrew Hughes]

If you do get the solid carbide sharpend be sure to wipe the knives clean from any oils after the sharpening service.I had a set come out of a jointer.I did not clean them it was a expensive mistake and freaky scary.

[Dennis Nagle]

Good tip Andrew.... I'll do that. I will be running exotics through this so maybe the carbides are the way to go. This is a garage hobby/business so it will get useds weekly. It seems the cost of good HSS blades cost near as much as getting the carbides sharpened.

[Mel Fulks]

For many years I have changed jointer and planer knives with spray oil on gibs and knives to "float " the knives for easy control of magnet jigs . I suspect the oil was not what made the knives come out. Dennis, you are right about "good " HS
steel . Demand M2 or T1 ,the low end price point stuff is rubbish .