Spiral head cutters or Tersa knives?

[Joe Mioux]

If you had a choice between these two types of cutter heads for a Jointer or Planer which way would you go and why?

thanks Joe

[Mike Weaver]

Hi,
I'd most likely pick spiral; however, it's not an easy decision.

If you work mostly with figured lumber, spiral arguably makes a smoother finish.

Tersa knife changes are much easier; however a nick in the blades likely means changing the blades (inserts can be changed/rotated for the spiral).

I've heard the spiral is much more quiet & that may be a factor too.


So, either one is a great improvement.

Let us know what you do, ok?

-Mike

[Mark Singer]

I have the Tersa in the MM Elite S TechnoMax...They are hard to beat for finish ease of changing knives. I have heard that many spirals do not produce a truly fine finish and some people prefer straight back beveled knives for certain woods. The Tersa knives atomatically level to a precise registration for darn near perfect results

[Jim Becker]

If Tersa is standard equipment (which it was on my MiniMax J/P and many other Euro machines) I'd go with them...they are wonderful for quick changes, especially if you like to use different formula metals for certain types of jobs. For jointers and planers that come with standard straight knives, I'd consider a spiral or helical cutter head if I felt that I would be running a lot of difficult, figured lumber.

[Aaron Beaver]

Another Tersa user here. Have to say it makes it real nice when changing blades. Plus if you have two sets of blades and buy truely rough lumber you can use one set to knock it down a little, get the dirt and grime off, then switch when you get the wood down a little and use the nicer set to finish it off. You don't have to do that but another Tersa user suggested it to me and since changing blades is easy it's not a problem.

[JayStPeter]

Never used Tersa, but if noise is an issue I can tell you that the Byrd cutterhead on my jointer is significantly more quiet than the knives. With my shop in the basement, I have no question that this is the way I want to go with my planer also.

[david eisaman]

hi
byrd cutter head only way to fly
mine are great 8 in jointer
15 in plainer

[Todd Solomon]

I've got a Byrd head now, had a Tersa before. I recently ordered a jointer/planer with Tersa. See the recent thread "Dealing with Tearout..." for my reasons why:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=48501

The Tersa is really a wonderful head. It's so easy to change or shift knives over, because they automatically seat. The issue is that unless you buy a machine that comes with it (such as Felder, Mini Max, Rojek), it's very pricey to add to any machine.

The Esta Dispos-a-blade system is nearly as nice as Tersa. It takes a few more minutes to change or shift the knives than Tersa, but works well.

Todd

[Joe Jensen]

If you had a choice between these two types of cutter heads for a Jointer or Planer which way would you go and why?

thanks Joe

I have a Byrd head in my planer and a Terminus head in my jointer. The Terminus head is a clone of the Tersa. I love how the Terminus knives set, but unfortunately they seem to dull much faster than my old bi-metal Powermatic knives. I haven't tried the Terminus carbide knives as I am considering switching to a Byrd head for the jointer. I just built 8 jewelry boxes out of grade 5A curly maple. Even with fresh knives in the Terminus head on the jointer and super slow shallow cuts I had unacceptable levels of tearout. With the Byrd head I had no tearout. The Terminus knives when new leave a glassy smooth surface, but I would still sand after jointing. With the Byrd head, the surface in not glassy smooth, but I would still start with 120 grit orbital to finish it. With my old planer I had the typical knive marks, these are different, but not worse...joe