Helical vs Spiral vs Straight Knife Planers

[Michael Schuch]

My straight blade planer was starting to have excessive tear out and leaving grooves after ~10 years. A new set of knives and it cuts as good as new now. I was intimidated with the knife changing procedure so I put it off much longer than I should have. It was much easier to change the knives than I had expected. For a bench top planer I would look at ones that has the quick change double sided blades that mount on registration tits.

I have always had the impression that the helical insert heads are better than straight knives for finish especially on figured wood... but my straight knives have always done an excellent job for me.

[George Yetka]

My straight blade planer was starting to have excessive tear out and leaving grooves after ~10 years. A new set of knives and it cuts as good as new now. I was intimidated with the knife changing procedure so I put it off much longer than I should have. It was much easier to change the knives than I had expected. For a bench top planer I would look at ones that has the quick change double sided blades that mount on registration tits.

I have always had the impression that the helical insert heads are better than straight knives for finish especially on figured wood... but my straight knives have always done an excellent job for me.

Michael was this a floor model with sharpenable blades? 10 years is a very good run for a blade set. Benchtops have very thin blades most of which are not capable of being sharpened

[Warren Lake]

I barely look at grain, maybe edges maybe not. directions changes in many boards, put the board through and it will tell you. Feed rate is most important I can run birdesye one pass one shot slow feed rate and its clean. Thats why I kick my SCM in and out of great to slow the feed rate down till I get a gear motor. I dont care about the formulas and do this or that, You build a piece of furniture and you want clean you are not running 1000 feet for a piece of furniture.

My general could cut almost as clean as the SCM because the feed rate was 25 percent slower than the SCM.

[Michael Schuch]

Michael was this a floor model with sharpenable blades? 10 years is a very good run for a blade set. Benchtops have very thin blades most of which are not capable of being sharpened

Yes, floor model with sharpenable blades. They needed to be replaced many years before I did. I finally ran out of area that had usable blade. If I had know it was so easy to replace I would have replaced them a very long time ago! I do have a blade setting fixture which made the height easy to set.

It would be nice to have a helix insert type head... but I doubt I will ever get one since my straight knife planer does such a nice job.