Jointer Cutterheads?

[ed cessna]

I’m going to be upgrading to an 8-inch jointer in the near future and am having trouble deciding which knife system to get. At $200+, is a spiral knife cutterhead really that much better than regular knives? At a cost of $400+, is a helical (4 sided cutters) cutterhead really worth the money?

Thanks for your opinions.
Ed

[Dan Larson]

Hi Ed,

Welcome to SMC!

Earlier this year I upgraded my jointer/planer to from a 4 knife cutterhead to a helical.

Things I like about the helical head:

Cutting edges on carbide inserts are amazingly durable. I've been using it for several months now and haven't rotated any inserts yet... no signs of reduced cut quality.
Shearing cut is everything it's cracked up to be... very little tearout on figured boards. I've actually had good luck jointing the edges of baltic birch ply and even end grain maple!
Quiet. Very quiet. My cyclone makes more noise than the jointer does during a pass with a board. If your shop is in your basement, this can be a real advantage.The only minus that I've noticed with the helical head (other than the cost) is that the cut quality isn't quite as good as I've had with the old head with freshly sharpened knives. Don't get me wrong though, cut quality is still very good!

Worth the money? I'm satisfied.

Dan

[Jay Goddard]

Dan,

In reading another thread on Byrd cutterheads one person mentioned an increase in the force necessary to run the board through vs. a standard straight knife head.

Have you seen this effect as well? I know it's very subjective, but about how much more force (10-20% ??) would you say is required to push it through?
I'd very much like to upgrade to a Byrd and just want to know what I'm in for.

Jay



Hi Ed,

Welcome to SMC!

Earlier this year I upgraded my jointer/planer to from a 4 knife cutterhead to a helical.

Things I like about the helical head:

Cutting edges on carbide inserts are amazingly durable. I've been using it for several months now and haven't rotated any inserts yet... no signs of reduced cut quality.
Shearing cut is everything it's cracked up to be... very little tearout on figured boards. I've actually had good luck jointing the edges of baltic birch ply and even end grain maple!
Quiet. Very quiet. My cyclone makes more noise than the jointer does during a pass with a board. If your shop is in your basement, this can be a real advantage.The only minus that I've noticed with the helical head (other than the cost) is that the cut quality isn't quite as good as I've had with the old head with freshly sharpened knives. Don't get me wrong though, cut quality is still very good!

Worth the money? I'm satisfied.

Dan

[Eddie Darby]

One of the problems with the spiral knife cutterhead is; that if you get a knick in your blades you can't off-set the blades to shift the knick out of the way. You must replace the blades or live with/cope with the knick.

[Walt Caza]

Hi Ed,
You may want to search for a similar thread titled 'spiral cutterhead-worth the $$' started by Jake Helmboldt on Oct 24 here at the creek.
Many of the pros and cons were mentioned...
Good luck with your jointer shopping,
Walt

[Dan Larson]

Dan,

In reading another thread on Byrd cutterheads one person mentioned an increase in the force necessary to run the board through vs. a standard straight knife head.

Have you seen this effect as well? I know it's very subjective, but about how much more force (10-20% ??) would you say is required to push it through?
I'd very much like to upgrade to a Byrd and just want to know what I'm in for.

Jay

Jay,

Hard to say. If there is a difference in required effort, I think it's minor. One thing for sure... the effort is much less with the Byrd than with the straight knives in the semi-dull condition that they usually were it on my machine!

Dan

[John Fry]

The "is it really worth the money" part of your question depends on what you will use it for.

I have Byrd heads on my jointer and my planer. They are so valuable to me that I would put Byrd shelix heads on my band saw and drill press if they made them! :D:D

I do a lot of work with highly figured and exotic woods and reducing tearout is where they really shine. The added benefit of a quieter machine, less hassle changing knives, and "sharper longer", are all just gravy.

If you do a lot of resawing, having a helical head on the jointer only, can probably be of value to you as you can carry the jointed stock directly to the band saw. But for just regular milling duties, if you are going to joint and then take your stock to a planer with no such head, and continue milling with regular cutters, I would think you loose any benefit of jointing with a helical head.

HTH

[Shiraz Balolia]

I’m going to be upgrading to an 8-inch jointer in the near future and am having trouble deciding which knife system to get. At $200+, is a spiral knife cutterhead really that much better than regular knives? At a cost of $400+, is a helical (4 sided cutters) cutterhead really worth the money?

Thanks for your opinions.
Ed

From commercial experience (selling thousands of cutterheads of all flavors and getting customer feedback) to personal hands-on experience, I can give you the following information:

1) Straight blade cutterheads - 4 blade cutterheads better than 3 blade.
2) The spiral, where the blade is actually shaped spiral, but still a High Speed Steel variant - I don't care for them because they sometimes don't do too well in certain soft woods.
3) Spiral cutterhead with indexable 4-sided carbide inserts - absolutely worth the money and a pleasure to use. They are quiet, leave an amazing finish on hardwoods, and specially on figured woods. Quite often will plane right over a knot and leave it smooth as well (assuming that the knot is not loose). Further, if there is a nick, then you are usually only dealing with rotating a couple of inserts, which takes maybe 3 minutes to do. Remember, they are 4 sided inserts so you get 4 changes and then you toss the small insert. Also, a point to note is that you do not have to replace all the inserts at one time as you only rotate the ones that actually have issues. So when buying extra inserts, just get a pack of 10 and they will last you for quite some time.
Both my 12" jointer and my 20' planer have spiral insert type cutterheads and I work with a lot of figured woods like curly maple and curly Koa, both woods known to frustrate woodworkers with tearout during planing/jointing.
I love my spiral cutterheads.