Jointer Knives

[Alex Carrera]

I need new knives for my 6" jointer with a basic head. It takes one sided blades. What's the best brand, and is there anything I should look for? I've never touched them before.

[Tom Walz]

Tigra is probably best. Typically costs more though.

[john bateman]

I need new knives for my 6" jointer with a basic head. It takes one sided blades. What's the best brand, and is there anything I should look for? I've never touched them before.

Be sure to measure their dimensions first. Not all 6" knives have the same thickness or width.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Alex, there are normally 3 choices in knife material, HSS, 18% Tungsten, and Carbide.

Any local industrial supplier will be able to supply you with the knives you want, in the dimensions you want.

After my jointer knives become too small from sharpening, I purchase them through the local supplier, and I normally purchase Dimar knives.

Regards, Rod.

[Michael Faurot]

I need new knives for my 6" jointer with a basic head. It takes one sided blades. What's the best brand, and is there anything I should look for? I've never touched them before.

I don't know about best, but I've used the HSS knives from Global (http://globaltooling.bizhosting.com/planer_knives.html) in my 6" Delta. The HSS versions are fairly inexpensive, enough so that I've bought several sets to keep around.

Global also offers other materials (e.g., carbide tipped) for their knives, but I've not tried those.

[Peter Quinn]

I have three sets, 1 OEM, 1 from Freud, and one made for me by the machine shop I send my knives to cut from M-1 HSS bar stock. I can't see any difference. The local machine shop was the cheapest price as I recall.

Infinity tool sells many sets for standard machines, seemed like the prices were fair, they have HSS, carbide tipped and solid carbide if you use lots of hard exotics or hard maple. I'm going to try them for my next set of planer knives as I have had good luck with their shaper cutters.

Also those blades are meant to be sharpened 15-20 times so it probably makes sense to find a dependable local sharpening service at some point.