Home planer sharpening .

[PeterSibley]

Firstly I should mention the blades I'm sharpening here are massive old things, 1/2" thick ! The same method works however with any planer blade although thinner blades will heat up faster and will that would need watching. A bucket of water beside the grinder is a good idea especially with thinner blades.

I use a cheap grinder with the grinding stone bevelled to about 30 degrees. The photo will show the slide along which I move the blade and the bolt tapped through the timber that is the blade height adjustment.The screw is in an oversized hole and allows the steel slide to rise as needed while holding it to the frame. I move the blade back and forward at about 2 inches a second being very aware of heat buildup .











This shows the resulting grind, it's extremely even with a 3" radius. I always put a small micro bevel on the edge with an oil stone, it strengthens the edge and lets it last longer. It's very easy with the hollow grind as you only have to remove a tiny amount of steel and the edge guides the oil stone.








Another minor advantage of sharpening your own planer blades is the you can decide whether to completely remove nicks and edge damage. Sometimes you can just offset the blade a small amount so the nick no longer effects the finish. Your sharpening shop will remove all nicks ....which is good as long as you don't mind loosing an 1/8th of an inch of blade each time.

[SMARTINSEN]

I thought that planer blades should be a flat grind. I just did mine, but they are only 1/8" thick and the resultant hollow grind would be miniscule, and I think that they would burn in any event.

I use this;



My brother gave it to me when he picked up some equipment from a sharpening business that went belly-up.

massive old things

Show us a photo of your planer, Peter.

[Cogeniac]

I would think a grinder might be the first step in the process. To get a good planed finish will require a blade that is much finer than what a dry grinder can produce. You probably also need a couple of big wet-stones, and maybe a jig to hold the blade at the right angle.

I need to sharpen my jointer blades and was figuring I'd just make a jig and use my hand plane stones.

I also found this web page

http://woodgears.ca/jointer/sharpening.html

Which shows that the little vertical grinder is basically a high speed rotating wet-stone. Not exactly your standard bench grinder...

[earling2]

I sharpened the blades in my Ryobi electric block plane on one of those Makita water stones, and it took forever. Probably the better part of an hour! and they weren't really that bad. I tried all different grits, the things are obviously laminated japanese steel and incredibly hard, and there didn't seem to be any way around it. They just took for-freaking-ever.

so, I wouldn't mind a stationary dry grind stone set up like that. How does one grind a grind stone to 30 degree bevel, if you don't mind my asking?

[Jim Ledger]

I sharpened the blades in my Ryobi electric block plane on one of those Makita water stones, and it took forever. Probably the better part of an hour! and they weren't really that bad. I tried all different grits, the things are obviously laminated japanese steel and incredibly hard, and there didn't seem to be any way around it. They just took for-freaking-ever.

Carbide, perhaps?

[Pete E]

Peter the first thing I noticed was the amount of sparks coming off the grinding wheel. The more the better. Grinding wheels come in vaious hardness. The softer the better. A hard grinding wheel doesn't produce many sparks which means the blade is being heated. A softer wheel produces more sparks and less heat on the blade. The setup you have is simlar to a power set up we had in a filing shop. Yours produces the same result for thousands of dollars less. We could also put a oil stone on the grinder for a super fine polish. I like you method.

[Cogeniac]

We could also put a oil stone on the grinder for a super fine polish. I like you method.

That seems like a good idea....

[SMARTINSEN]

There is a very recent article in FWW about sharpening planer (and jointer) knives in situ. Here is the link for the jointer, the planer is similar.

http://www.finewoodworking.com/Works....aspx?id=34540 I do not think that this is behind the pay wall.

[Gib Etheridge]

Good thinking Peter.

That's very similar to how a professional planer knife grinder works. You could eliminate some of the hollow grind by increasing the diameter of the wheel to 8". You could further decrease it by reducing the attack angle by 1/2 or so (swing the end of the carriage closest to you to the left some), in which case you would need to change the bevel on the wheel. It's just as easy to hone a slightly steeper micro bevel on a flat surface as on a hollow ground surface and the edge will be less prone to chipping with a more substantial "shoulder". Striking tools are best not hollow ground.

You could eliminate some heat production by using a more friable white aluminum oxide wheel.

[PeterSibley]

Show us a photo of your planer, Peter.

An Australian made Jeffwood, circa 1960.12" x 4" 2 speed with a cone clutch and 2.25 hp single phase 240v

[PeterSibley]

Good thinking Peter.

That's very similar to how a professional planer knife grinder works. You could eliminate some of the hollow grind by increasing the diameter of the wheel to 8". You could further decrease it by reducing the attack angle by 1/2 or so (swing the end of the carriage closest to you to the left some), in which case you would need to change the bevel on the wheel. It's just as easy to hone a slightly steeper micro bevel on a flat surface as on a hollow ground surface and the edge will be less prone to chipping with a more substantial "shoulder". Striking tools are best not hollow ground.

You could eliminate some heat production by using a more friable white aluminum oxide wheel.

Thanks Gib, yes I'm going to chase up a new white oxide wheel although I've been surprised how well the grey one works.

[PeterSibley]

I sharpened the blades in my Ryobi electric block plane on one of those Makita water stones, and it took forever. Probably the better part of an hour! and they weren't really that bad. I tried all different grits, the things are obviously laminated japanese steel and incredibly hard, and there didn't seem to be any way around it. They just took for-freaking-ever.

so, I wouldn't mind a stationary dry grind stone set up like that. How does one grind a grind stone to 30 degree bevel, if you don't mind my asking?

I use a star wheel stone dresser .http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grinding_dresser
It's a very effective tool and great for any wheel shaping such as flattening a face of a stone used for sharpening drill bits.

[Soundman67]

for smaller blades from the cheaper planers you can take a block of wood slightly longer than the blades and about an inch and a half wide and cut a saw kerf on a 30 degree angle from each direction on the bottom. slide your blades into the kerfs. now use some poster mount spray glue to glue sand paper of varying grits onto the tablesaw. wet dry works best as you can lube the paper as you sharpen the blades.


this wll produce a very good sharp blade without removing too much material.

[oldsub86]

Be careful with those sparks.
My father, almost burned down the garage by sharpening planer knives on his table saw.
If a passer-by had not knocked on his door and told him the shop was afire, he would have lost it all.
As it was, it burned a bit of a hole in the wooden floor under the table saw but the building was saved.

Randy

[PeterSibley]

Be careful with those sparks.
My father, almost burned down the garage by sharpening planer knives on his table saw.
If a passer-by had not knocked on his door and told him the shop was afire, he would have lost it all.
As it was, it burned a bit of a hole in the wooden floor under the table saw but the building was saved.

Randy

Thanks Randy , always a good warning !

[Phil Y]

Thanks for this peter-unfortunately I left my grinder at my real home And my planer is only a little one-I like the big fat blades you have to work with. The video link Steve martinsen posted is a good one though.

[Jay Greer]

I will admit that I have been guilty of trying to eek an extra few passes out of my joiner and surface planer blades in the past, just because I either was in the middle of a job or did not want to take the time to change blades or sharpen the dull ones. All of that is a thing of the past. I finally bit the bullet and converted my machines over to the Tersa Head System. The blades are two sided and also disposible once used up. It takes me less than three minutes to change a three blade head. There is no set up, no dial indicator required. All that is needed is to remove the old blades, turn them around or put new ones in the head. A flick of the on switch is all that is needed to lock the blades in place. I am, finally, no longer a slave to the drudgery of sharpening cumbersome planer blades!
Jay
http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a1...D720/ry%3D480/

[Jay Greer]

I will admit that I have been guilty of trying to eek an extra few passes out of my joiner and surface planer blades in the past, just because I either was in the middle of a job or did not want to take the time to change blades or sharpen the dull ones. All of that is a thing of the past. I finally bit the bullet and converted my machines over to the Tersa Head System. The blades are two sided and also disposible once used up. It takes me less than three minutes to change a three blade head. There is no set up, no dial indicator required. All that is needed is to remove the old blades, turn them around or put new ones in the head. A flick of the on switch is all that is needed to lock the blades in place. I am, finally, no longer a slave to the drudgery of sharpening cumbersome planer blades!
Jay
http://www.woodtechtooling.com/TERSA...terSystem.html

[PeterSibley]

Phil, that idea will work just as well on 1/8" x 1" blades but the trick is too use a white aluminium oxide wheel on your grinder and keep an eye on heat build up .

[upchurchmr]

I suggest you not buy into the advertising that Toromek puts out about their Planer blade jig. These are expensive and have nothing to keep the edge straight. Had a friend use mine and ruined a blade edge. He had to take it to a commercial source to recover them. Lost lots of width with the redo.

[Stiletto]

That is a good idea Peter, thanks.

I watched the fine woodworking video, that method may work for my jointer.

it looks like the operator had his hands on the wood as it passed over the cutterhead. I'm not too keen on that!

[kc8pql]

I use this;

Me too, since 1979.