Operation Holtzapffel #4: Time for a trip to the sharpener

Damian,

I can’t shed any light on back beveling, but thought I’d share an endorsement given to me. I haven’t had to sharpen my jointer or planer blades yet, but Jeff Lohr (a professional of over 30 years from whom I just took a 6 day course) swore that American Carbide was far and away the best place he had used for “ship your blades in a box, get ‘em back sharp”, for anything not made by Forrest.

http://www.american-carbide.com/

However, for this to work, you have to buy another set of knives. Sounds like a good excuse to me… ;-)

-b

Back beveling is mainly for use on “unruly” woods. The idea is likened to using a high pitch angled hand plane to avoid tearout. Not a bad idea but I wouldn’t do it to my only set of blades. Talk to your sharpener, he might have insights and experiences to relate. Schmooze him. Mine demands tribute in donuts first.

always,
J.C.

-- "Imagination is more important than knowledge" -- Albert Einstein

What are the cons to back beveling JC?

-- I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso

I’m not JC, but I would think that the increased bevel angle would not as work well for softer woods. But, the jointer is not a finishing tool, so you’d probably be okay depending on the angle. Don’t know for sure.

I’d definitely buy another set of sharp blades, so you’ll always have sharp blades at hand.

Daren Nelson is a sharpener and an LJ…he may be able to shed more light…

What type of wood are you making the base out of again? Hard Maple too?

-- Dorje (pronounced "door-jay"), Seattle, WA

Not so much cons as it is unnecessary, Damian. Cons might be that it wouldn’t work as well on softwoods, the planer has to work harder due to the steeper sheer angle, your sharpener will charge you double for that “extra” bevel.

So don’t misconstrue, standard angles for sharpening are just that, a standard. Which translates into, non-specific one size almost fits all nearly all of the time sort of approach to sharpening. So on any given Sunday any sheer angle is perfect for something and just plain wrong for something else. Kind of like wasabi and peanut butter. Hmmm…

So back to the point, a back beveled set of blades would be most warranted for processing that load of $15 dollar per bd ft. bird’s eye maple and just a waste on pine.

always,
J.C.

BTW, you should have two sets of blades anyway, so have at it, get one set back beveled and save them for the squirrely stuff.

-- "Imagination is more important than knowledge" -- Albert Einstein

Ahh – JC gives good advice – and I love the wasabi and peanut butter analogy…that’s funny!

-- Dorje (pronounced "door-jay"), Seattle, WA

I see I am chiming in a little late J.C. pretty much spelled it out. The pro is a back bevel can (again there are other factors, like feed rate/cut depth etc.) help with tearout on curly lumber for example. But one con is it takes more cutting power on everything else. I use alot of curly/quilted/birdeye/just downright funky wood, I am also a professional sharpener…my own knives are not back beveled. Right or wrong, that’s my $.02

-- Urban logger, http://nelsonwoodworks.biz/

Hi Daren;

That’s some pretty good advice for only $ .02 The idea of a second set of blades doesn’t work.

That just leads to two sets that need to be sharpened, and the need to buy a third set.

I just went through my Forrest blades. About seven of them need to go out to be sharpened. Guess how I ended up with so many… I still have a couple fresh blades, so I think I’ll wait.

Lee

-- by Lee A. Jesberger http://www.prowoodworkingtips.com http://www.ezee-feed.com

Ha! That’s exactly what I’d end up doing Lee :)

-- I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso