Sharpening portable electric planer blades

[Joe Hollis]

Hi,

I have an old Makita electric planer that I still use from time to time. I also have an older Tormek sharpener that I thought I would use to sharpen the blades. Is is ok to sharpen these planer blades on a device that puts a concave face on the knife edges? They obviously don't come that way from Makita, and I've no idea if this would weaken the knife in any significant way.

Thanks,

Joe H.

[Andrew Hughes]

I think you should try it. What do you have to lose. This is called a hollow grind it makes sharpening a thick plane blade by the hand and eye easy.

[Peter Christensen]

It won’t be an issue. I sharpen my Hitachi planer/jointer knives on a 8” grinder. If you want to decrease the hollow grind make a jig the allows the blade to travel across the grinding wheel at an angle.

[Jeff Ramsey]

If you'd prefer no hollow-grind, you can use a Makita water wheel sharpener (or a WorkSharp with a home-built jig). There's a Makita water wheel for sale over in the Classified (sorry that's a shameless plug for my ad). I have both a Makita and WorkSharp and don't need both.