Self setting planer knives

[Steve Jenkins]

I see a lot of posts about setting planer and jointer knives. I’ve been using the Dispozablade system for years and love it. They are straight double edged knives that snap onto their own carrier which indexes off the cutterhead. They stay sharp longer than regular steel and they also make ones that are similar to carbide. I have no affiliation just a long time satisfied customer

[Warren Lake]

several came with one of my machines, never tried them stayed with what i know. Know I saw some negative posts about them and some that were happy with them Posts either here or Woodweb. Tersa better but for one machine id want to do, 6- 7k for a head before knives is a commitment. Ill dig them out at one point., did in the past then stayed old school.

[David Stone (CT)]

100% agree. I've had the ESTA/Dispozablade Self-set system on my Powermatic 100 planer for a few years and yeah, they're excellent. It's great to switch out knives in ten minutes or so, and forever leave behind the un-fun hassle of fussing with gauges, jack screws etc.--and the accuracy of the setting is as good, or better, than I ever achieved with the traditional knives and methods. Plus, the system is comparatively cheap, as in a couple or few hundred dollars to get the knife holders and an initial set of knives, and replacement knives are not expensive, especially if you value your time in changing them. For those of us who have machines that came with traditional straight knives it's a great upgrade that deserves more awareness than it gets.

[eugene thomas]

hzve them in my 16" jointer. not dread changing the blades. i ordered a set of 12 last week and the lady sade they will have to raise price soon.....

[Warren Lake]

whats the tolerance on what width heads?

Last time I checked Esta do not come in carbide and there were a number of posts saying guys dulled their tersa pretty quickly if they were not carbide.

[Charlie Jones]

I use the Esta’s in my jointer. They seem to last a long time. It takes 10 minutes to change them. They are double sided.

[Rod Sheridan]

My J/P uses them, they’re great…..Rod.

[Warren Lake]

Tersa said their knives in the holder are straight to .01 MM that is approx .0004. I set to .0005 with high speed. I didnt ask them if that is plus or minus that number which is just curiosity. I had asked a dealer if I could come in and measure a martin jointer with Tersa and the owner did not respond.

Esta stuff I have and have not tried is older stuff set up with a set screw. Adjusted once then its just replace of spin to the fresh side. It changed at some point to a hook that rests on the head. Thats fine if the head is accurate, ive noticed dips on some heads when I rotate the dial as you come up to the knife opening area. It doesnt matter for a dial is im registering off the head as it rotates and not just the last bit if there is a change.

[Jason Evans]

How’s the tear out on interestingly grained wood with these blades? Any better than standard straight blades? I switched to the Byrd head on my jointer years ago and I miss the cleaner edge jointing that I got from straight blades. I definitely don’t miss setting blades though.