Are planer blades sharp?

[Chris Fite]

I imagine that this may be subjective, but I am curious how to tell that planer/jointer blades need sharpening.

[Dennis Peacock]

Chris,

For me? It's two things. The cut gets "louder" because the knives are starting to pound on the wood AND the planer works harder because of a set of dull knives.

BEWARE: Even dull knives will cut you and cut you BAD!!!!! DAMHIKT!!!!!:o :rolleyes: :D

[Barry O'Mahony]

Increased tearout, too.

[Ian Abraham]

It's hard to tell, because it's a gradual thing.

As the guys have said, it gets louder, you get more tearout, feeding may be more problematic. Eventually you start to think.. this thing isn't working like it should. Then you swap in some new / re-sharp blades and WOW, things work like new again. You then think 'why didn't I put those new blades in yesterday' :rolleyes:

Cheers

Ian

[Ian Barley]

Good quality machines have an ammeter fitted. You can then see the difference in the amount of work that the motor is having to do. When the needle consistently runs past a certain load your blades need sharpening.

Also - useful rule of thumb is that if you wonder whether they need sharpening - they probably do.