Planer observation for newbies. . .

[glenn bradley]

I started getting ridges on the surface of planed boards and couldn't figure out how I had nicked my planer knives; I'd been sooo careful. When starting a new piece out of oak, I decided it was time to solve the problem.

I pulled the cover to inspect the knives but for the life of me couldn't find any nicks in the knives. What I did find was some minor pitch build up in the area that produced the ridges. Some mineral spirits and some careful cleaning (I wasn't worried about hurting the machine, I was trying not to cut myself) had the knives looking good to the naked eye.

Some test cuts on red oak following the cleaning came out just like new. I would have thought I would get grooves from build-up, not ridges but there they were. I emphasize 'were' as all cuts are now beautiful again. Lesson learned; even with fairly little use our tools still need the TLC they deserve.

[John D Watson]

Hey Glen, I learned the same lesson the same way as you did and have now become a festidious blade cleaner. It started with the planer and migrated to all the other tools (I cut alot of cedar). Clean blades make clean cuts, and clean blades last a heck of alot longer. Thanks for sharing.

[Mike Cutler]

Same observation(s) apply to tablesaw, and bandsaw blades. It's amazing how much "sharper" blades are after a good cleaning.