I took the time today to sharpen the knives on my DJ-20 jointer... They've
needed it for quite a while but I never seemed to have time to do that and
use it so using it took priority! I put a drop of Liquid Wrench on each of
the lock screws and let it soak a few minutes... whether it needed it or not
I figured it was a good tactical move. It all came apart easily and I
cleaned everything with lacquer thinner and then Breakfree.
I've got a Makita blade sharpener (horizontal water grinder with jigs) so I
sharpened the knives myself. Perhaps I went too far, but after using the
course and fine wheels on the grinder I used my large black Arkansas stone
to take the wire edge off... Reinstallation went fine until I dropped the
Allen wrench for the jack screw and it went inside the jointer... and didn't
fall out the dust shoot. I finally knocked it out with a long piece of drill
rod. It appears that there was just enough wood dust built up inside that
the Allen wrench stuck. Oh well... once I had the wrench back in my hands
the rest of the installation and adjustment went fine.
One last check of everything and it was time to test the jointer. I ran the
jointer without the dust collector and everything seemed fine so I set the
depth of cut to about 1/8" and turned on the dust collector. Then I grabbed
a piece of hard maple with a rough cut edge. I ran the edge over the jointer
and it didn't sound like it was cutting. What the Hell?! I couldn't imagine
how I could have fouled up the reinstallation... I looked at the machine and
it all looked OK. Lastly I looked at the edge of the board and it was
smooth, straight and had no snip! It seems that the knives were so dull
before that the sound it made had become "normal" and not hearing the
cutting over the dust collector threw me! LOL
I made a face joint on the maple board too (about 6" wide with wild grain)
and again the cut was quiet. The face was also smooth and flat with no
snip...
Next is the thickness planer!
Happy New Year to me!
John
On Friday, January 3, 2014 9:00:08 PM UTC-5, John Grossbohlin wrote:
> So you are NOT part of the crowd here that fears death less than your wife
>
> selling all your stuff for what you told her you paid for it? ;~)
>
>
>
> John
>
>
>
> BTW, all the pressure bars were good and tight when I rechecked them!j
Good job, keep double and triple checking, it's much easier to post articles to the NG with all your fingers and both eyes :)
Yes, absolutely nothing to fear from wife, hell, she likes the idea of me building stuff for her.
Jeff
On Wednesday, January 1, 2014 7:09:42 PM UTC-6, John Grossbohlin wrote:
> I took the time today to sharpen the knives on my DJ-20 jointer...=20
Yep, the tell-tale sign of dull blades. When my knives sound too loud, th=
en I know they are dulling. Table saw blades make noise, also, when they g=
et dull.
Also, when I get a nick in the jointer and planer blades, and the rest of t=
he blade is still sharp, I loosen each blade and move it one way or the oth=
er, just a tad, so that the nick on each blade is not aligned with the othe=
r nicks. This way, the typical raised bead, of the nick-cutting, is elimin=
ated from the surface of the board. I can joint or plane a little more, be=
fore sharpening.
Sonny
"Jeff Mazur" wrote:
I've a jointer story of a slightly different type. I was seeing snipe
at the tail end of my jointer cuts and so I set myself to the task of
rechecking my blade height relative to outfeed table on my old
Craftsman 6" jointer. I checked and tightened all three blades, even
turned the spindle around a couple more times to double-check that I
had tightened all. Satisfied, I pulled the wedge that was holding
open the pork-chop, plugged it in, and fired it up. In about a second
I heard a loud bang and the sound of the motor frozen (humming not
turning) and cut the power. Somehow a blade had thrown loose, sliced
into the edge of the infeed table and breaking off a piece, and
cracking the outfeed table from the underside.
I was shaken, to say the least, and truly grateful for that pork-chop.
My jointer is toast, but I'm OK.
---------------------------------------------------------
I'm reminded of former boss of mine who kept a piston with a broken
skirt from
his Porsche on his desk.
When I asked why he kept that broken piston, he told me it was to
remind him
to double check his assembly work as he had some how forgotten to
install a
wrist pin keeper during the rebuild which allowed the wrist pin to
slide over and
score the piston cylinder wall as well as crack the piston skirt.
It was an expensive lesson.
Lew
"Gramps' shop" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>Hey, John ... My jointer and planer are jealous. I've got both tasks
>ahead of me and you've inspired me to get it done in the next month or so.
>I have >beer in the fridge if your in my neighborhood and want to
>supervise.
Larry
It's one of those tasks that is easy to avoid... not sure if beer is a good
motivational lube or not as I see it being a hindrance to accuracy and
keeping things blood free. ;~)
I'd probably do the major machine sharpening more often if I had extra
knives and sent them out to be sharpened... R&R is pretty straight forward
but setting up the blade sharpener and doing it to my satisfaction is time
consuming. That said, I've not had good luck with the locally available
sharpening services--I use Forrest for my circular saw blades.
A few examples of what I experienced before I bought all my own sharpening
equipment: In one case it was clear that the item had been ground but it was
also clear that the actual edge wasn't touched as it was still dull and
shiny from use. In another case there were huge burrs on the edge and deep
grinder marks... it was clear that a very coarse grinder was used with no
finishing work. When I bought my latest lawn mower they made a big deal out
of their free annual blade sharpening service. I figured that I would try it
out as I had no fixtures that were suitable. It turns out that neither did
they. When I got the blade back it was clear is was done free hand on a
grinder as it had a nice radius, instead of clearance, ground into the
blade.
The bottom line is the jobs looked like the local services didn't care about
the quality of their work and in the case of the mower blade they didn't
even understand the concept of a properly sharpened blade. I'll note again
that Forrest has been the exception though that is a mail order
experience...
John
Hey, John ... My jointer and planer are jealous. I've got both tasks ahead of me and you've inspired me to get it done in the next month or so. I have beer in the fridge if your in my neighborhood and want to supervise.
Larry
On Wednesday, January 1, 2014 7:09:42 PM UTC-6, John Grossbohlin wrote:
> I took the time today to sharpen the knives on my DJ-20 jointer... They've
>
> needed it for quite a while but I never seemed to have time to do that and
>
> use it so using it took priority! I put a drop of Liquid Wrench on each of
>
> the lock screws and let it soak a few minutes... whether it needed it or not
>
> I figured it was a good tactical move. It all came apart easily and I
>
> cleaned everything with lacquer thinner and then Breakfree.
>
>
>
> I've got a Makita blade sharpener (horizontal water grinder with jigs) so I
>
> sharpened the knives myself. Perhaps I went too far, but after using the
>
> course and fine wheels on the grinder I used my large black Arkansas stone
>
> to take the wire edge off... Reinstallation went fine until I dropped the
>
> Allen wrench for the jack screw and it went inside the jointer... and didn't
>
> fall out the dust shoot. I finally knocked it out with a long piece of drill
>
> rod. It appears that there was just enough wood dust built up inside that
>
> the Allen wrench stuck. Oh well... once I had the wrench back in my hands
>
> the rest of the installation and adjustment went fine.
>
>
>
> One last check of everything and it was time to test the jointer. I ran the
>
> jointer without the dust collector and everything seemed fine so I set the
>
> depth of cut to about 1/8" and turned on the dust collector. Then I grabbed
>
> a piece of hard maple with a rough cut edge. I ran the edge over the jointer
>
> and it didn't sound like it was cutting. What the Hell?! I couldn't imagine
>
> how I could have fouled up the reinstallation... I looked at the machine and
>
> it all looked OK. Lastly I looked at the edge of the board and it was
>
> smooth, straight and had no snip! It seems that the knives were so dull
>
> before that the sound it made had become "normal" and not hearing the
>
> cutting over the dust collector threw me! LOL
>
>
>
> I made a face joint on the maple board too (about 6" wide with wild grain)
>
> and again the cut was quiet. The face was also smooth and flat with no
>
> snip...
>
>
>
> Next is the thickness planer!
>
>
>
> Happy New Year to me!
>
>
>
> John
I've a jointer story of a slightly different type. I was seeing snipe at t=
he tail end of my jointer cuts and so I set myself to the task of recheckin=
g my blade height relative to outfeed table on my old Craftsman 6" jointer.=
I checked and tightened all three blades, even turned the spindle around =
a couple more times to double-check that I had tightened all. Satisfied, I=
pulled the wedge that was holding open the pork-chop, plugged it in, and f=
ired it up. In about a second I heard a loud bang and the sound of the mot=
or frozen (humming not turning) and cut the power. Somehow a blade had thr=
own loose, sliced into the edge of the infeed table and breaking off a piec=
e, and cracking the outfeed table from the underside.
I was shaken, to say the least, and truly grateful for that pork-chop. My =
jointer is toast, but I'm OK. I've disassembled everything now, and still =
have no definitive idea as to what happened, but in hindsight I suspect tha=
t perhaps I inadvertently reversed the wedge that holds the blade in place =
(I recall that it will fit in both ways even though it's not symmetrical in=
its design, it has a "right way" and 'wrong way" to go in), which I think =
would allow tightening down the wedge without it adequately securing the bl=
ade. I can't think of anything else that could have gone wrong as I was me=
ticulous about checking and rechecking the adjustment and all tightener scr=
ews.
The silver lining is that I got a really good price on a Powermatic 54A, th=
at compared to my old machine is whisper quiet and smooth as silk, with a M=
UCH longer table length (66").
Happy New Year all!
On Wednesday, January 1, 2014 8:09:42 PM UTC-5, John Grossbohlin wrote:
> I took the time today to sharpen the knives on my DJ-20 jointer... They'v=
e=20
>=20
> needed it for quite a while but I never seemed to have time to do that an=
d=20
>=20
> use it so using it took priority! I put a drop of Liquid Wrench on each =
of=20
>=20
> the lock screws and let it soak a few minutes... whether it needed it or =
not=20
>=20
> I figured it was a good tactical move. It all came apart easily and I=20
>=20
> cleaned everything with lacquer thinner and then Breakfree.
>=20
>=20
>=20
> I've got a Makita blade sharpener (horizontal water grinder with jigs) so=
I=20
>=20
> sharpened the knives myself. Perhaps I went too far, but after using the=
=20
>=20
> course and fine wheels on the grinder I used my large black Arkansas ston=
e=20
>=20
> to take the wire edge off... Reinstallation went fine until I dropped the=
=20
>=20
> Allen wrench for the jack screw and it went inside the jointer... and did=
n't=20
>=20
> fall out the dust shoot. I finally knocked it out with a long piece of dr=
ill=20
>=20
> rod. It appears that there was just enough wood dust built up inside that=
=20
>=20
> the Allen wrench stuck. Oh well... once I had the wrench back in my hands=
=20
>=20
> the rest of the installation and adjustment went fine.
>=20
>=20
>=20
> One last check of everything and it was time to test the jointer. I ran t=
he=20
>=20
> jointer without the dust collector and everything seemed fine so I set th=
e=20
>=20
> depth of cut to about 1/8" and turned on the dust collector. Then I grabb=
ed=20
>=20
> a piece of hard maple with a rough cut edge. I ran the edge over the join=
ter=20
>=20
> and it didn't sound like it was cutting. What the Hell?! I couldn't imag=
ine=20
>=20
> how I could have fouled up the reinstallation... I looked at the machine =
and=20
>=20
> it all looked OK. Lastly I looked at the edge of the board and it was=20
>=20
> smooth, straight and had no snip! It seems that the knives were so dull=
=20
>=20
> before that the sound it made had become "normal" and not hearing the=20
>=20
> cutting over the dust collector threw me! LOL
>=20
>=20
>=20
> I made a face joint on the maple board too (about 6" wide with wild grain=
)=20
>=20
> and again the cut was quiet. The face was also smooth and flat with no=20
>=20
> snip...
>=20
>=20
>=20
> Next is the thickness planer!
>=20
>=20
>=20
> Happy New Year to me!
>=20
>=20
>=20
> John
On Thursday, January 2, 2014 6:57:02 PM UTC-5, John Grossbohlin wrote:
> I've heard of people torching their car or dropping their laptop so they
>
> could get new ones, but hurly sharpened hardened steel around at high
>
> velocity is something then again! ;~)
>
>
>
> John
>
>
>
> ...heading to the shop to take conduct one more snug test! ;~)
LOL!!! I KNEW I would see at least one post ribbing me about that - have to admit that as I was writing my reply it reminded me of that laptop commercial where the guy tosses coffee on his computer to get a new one.
I'm pretty fortunate in that my wife doesn't try to dictate what I can and can't buy for the shop - she trusts me to exercise good judgment, so I'll never have to resort to such a stunt. It was just plain stupidity (not stupidity and deviousness :)
"Mike Marlow" wrote in message news:[email protected]...
>John Grossbohlin wrote:
>> I took the time today to sharpen the knives on my DJ-20 jointer...
>> They've needed it for quite a while but I never seemed to have time
>> to do that and use it so using it took priority! I put a drop of
>> Liquid Wrench on each of the lock screws and let it soak a few
>> minutes... whether it needed it or not I figured it was a good
>> tactical move. It all came apart easily and I cleaned everything with
>> lacquer thinner and then Breakfree.
>Probably should have reversed the order of those two applications John.
>Lacquer thinner is a great solvent that will leave you a clean surface.
>Breakfree is going to leave you an oily residue...
I did them in the order I wanted... The lacquer thinner was to clean and the
Breakfree is to serve as a lube and preservative for the screws, jamb bar,
jacks, etc. Once I got the pitch off the parts they all looked like new even
though the jointer is about 10 1/2 years old. As such, my standard procedure
for this kind of stuff seems to work well.
BTW, the knives were cleaned prior to sharpening, and then afterwards with
WD-40 to displace the water, and then wiped with the Breakfree... a very
thin film is all it takes and it doesn't gum up like WD-40.
John
"Jeff Mazur" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>On Thursday, January 2, 2014 6:57:02 PM UTC-5, John Grossbohlin wrote:
>> I've heard of people torching their car or dropping their laptop so they
>> could get new ones, but hurly sharpened hardened steel around at high
>> velocity is something then again! ;~
>LOL!!! I KNEW I would see at least one post ribbing me about that - have
>to admit that as I was writing my reply it reminded me of that laptop
>commercial >where the guy tosses coffee on his computer to get a new one.
>
>I'm pretty fortunate in that my wife doesn't try to dictate what I can and
>can't buy for the shop - she trusts me to exercise good judgment, so I'll
>never have >to resort to such a stunt. It was just plain stupidity (not
>stupidity and deviousness :)
So you are NOT part of the crowd here that fears death less than your wife
selling all your stuff for what you told her you paid for it? ;~)
John
BTW, all the pressure bars were good and tight when I rechecked them!
On 1/2/2014 10:21 AM, John Grossbohlin wrote:
> "woodchucker" wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>
>> I brought my planer blades to Forrest while I had my wwii in for
>> service too.
>
>> I had machine marks on the planer knives and doubted they were sharp
>> because of it. Well they were absolutely sharp.. Unbelievably sharp...
>> Well worth the price. And I did have a spare, but it did not take long
>> for service about 5 days + 2 for shipping back.
>
> If the machine marks were in the clearance area it's not a problem. When
> they are all the way out to the cutting edge there is no way to have a
> great edge... it's like not polishing the back of your chisels or plane
> irons!
I would normally agree, but they are way sharp.. I'll see if I can get a
pic of what they look like, since I haven't mounted them... I have my
swing set in there now.
>
>> As for jointer knives, I did them by hand recently as I have a 6"..
>> that is no big deal because of the size. Just did them on wet dry
>> sandpaper on a granite block if I remember... What a diff after, much
>> less force needed to push the wood through.
>
> The thought of trying to do that with my 8" knives, while grinding
> clearance into them and getting rid of the nicks, amounts to torture...
> it would takes days! ;~) I can see doing a touch up of non-nicked
> knives that way but I'd not want to do a full sharpening!
>
> John
Totally agree, that's why the planer knives went out as they were
nicked, and just too much metal to take down.
--
Jeff
"Jeff Mazur" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>I've a jointer story of a slightly different type. I was seeing snipe at
>the tail end of my jointer cuts and so I set myself to the task of
>rechecking my >blade height relative to outfeed table on my old Craftsman
>6" jointer. I checked and tightened all three blades, even turned the
>spindle around a >couple more times to double-check that I had tightened
>all. Satisfied, I pulled the wedge that was holding open the pork-chop,
>plugged it in, and fired >it up. In about a second I heard a loud bang and
>the sound of the motor frozen (humming not turning) and cut the power.
>Somehow a blade had >thrown loose, sliced into the edge of the infeed table
>and breaking off a piece, and cracking the outfeed table from the
>underside.
Geez... makes me feel justified in triple checking everything!
The lock bars on my jointer have threaded holes into which the lock screws
go rather than a separate lock bar and screws with nuts. As such they can
only be reasonably inserted in one direction. The jacks sit in their own
little cavities and are held captive by the knives. It seems to be a well
thought out design whereas I've worked on other jointers where the lock bars
and screws were separate and the lock bar could be inserted in any of four
ways... three of them wrong. Loose springs with pawls instead of jack
screws made it interesting to get everything in there correctly.
snip
>The silver lining is that I got a really good price on a Powermatic 54A,
>that compared to my old machine is whisper quiet and smooth as silk, with a
> >MUCH longer table length (66").
I've heard of people torching their car or dropping their laptop so they
could get new ones, but hurly sharpened hardened steel around at high
velocity is something then again! ;~)
John
...heading to the shop to take conduct one more snug test! ;~)
On Fri, 3 Jan 2014 14:45:00 -0800 (PST), Jeff Mazur
<[email protected]> wrote:
>On Thursday, January 2, 2014 6:57:02 PM UTC-5, John Grossbohlin wrote:
>> I've heard of people torching their car or dropping their laptop so they
>>
>> could get new ones, but hurly sharpened hardened steel around at high
>>
>> velocity is something then again! ;~)
>>
>>
>>
>> John
>>
>>
>>
>> ...heading to the shop to take conduct one more snug test! ;~)
>
>LOL!!! I KNEW I would see at least one post ribbing me about that - have to admit that as I was writing my reply it reminded me of that laptop commercial where the guy tosses coffee on his computer to get a new one.
>
>I'm pretty fortunate in that my wife doesn't try to dictate what I can and can't buy for the shop - she trusts me to exercise good judgment, so I'll never have to resort to such a stunt. It was just plain stupidity (not stupidity and deviousness :)
My wife doesn't really care (much) what I spend on such things. She's
kinda dragging feet a little on my next pistol and the Laguna but we
jumped the gun on two cars last year and it'll be April until our
house in AL closes (being rented to the buyers for a year). I don't
want to push things while we have two car payments and two mortgages.
;-)
Yes, if one is responsible they don't worry too much about such
things. However, (wrt laptops) bosses often don't see things the same
way. ;-)
John Grossbohlin wrote:
> I took the time today to sharpen the knives on my DJ-20 jointer...
> They've needed it for quite a while but I never seemed to have time
> to do that and use it so using it took priority! I put a drop of
> Liquid Wrench on each of the lock screws and let it soak a few
> minutes... whether it needed it or not I figured it was a good
> tactical move. It all came apart easily and I cleaned everything with
> lacquer thinner and then Breakfree.
Probably should have reversed the order of those two applications John.
Lacquer thinner is a great solvent that will leave you a clean surface.
Breakfree is going to leave you an oily residue...
> I've got a Makita blade sharpener (horizontal water grinder with
> jigs) so I sharpened the knives myself. Perhaps I went too far, but
> after using the course and fine wheels on the grinder I used my large
> black Arkansas stone to take the wire edge off... Reinstallation went
> fine until I dropped the Allen wrench for the jack screw and it went
> inside the jointer... and didn't fall out the dust shoot. I finally
> knocked it out with a long piece of drill rod. It appears that there
> was just enough wood dust built up inside that the Allen wrench
> stuck. Oh well... once I had the wrench back in my hands the rest of
> the installation and adjustment went fine.
Dontchya just love it when that kinda thing happens...
>
> One last check of everything and it was time to test the jointer. I
> ran the jointer without the dust collector and everything seemed fine
> so I set the depth of cut to about 1/8" and turned on the dust
> collector. Then I grabbed a piece of hard maple with a rough cut
> edge. I ran the edge over the jointer and it didn't sound like it was
> cutting. What the Hell?! I couldn't imagine how I could have fouled
> up the reinstallation... I looked at the machine and it all looked
> OK. Lastly I looked at the edge of the board and it was smooth,
> straight and had no snip! It seems that the knives were so dull
> before that the sound it made had become "normal" and not hearing the
> cutting over the dust collector threw me! LOL
D'OH! Don't I know how that goes! You're right - we get so used to what
the bad stuff sounds like over time that we really do lose track of what it
should sound like. I experienced the same thing when I worked on my table
saw redcently. In fact - I'm still not used to the new sound.
>
> I made a face joint on the maple board too (about 6" wide with wild
> grain) and again the cut was quiet. The face was also smooth and flat
> with no snip...
>
> Next is the thickness planer!
Them damned things...
--
-Mike-
[email protected]
John Grossbohlin wrote:
> "Mike Marlow" wrote in message news:[email protected]...
>
>> John Grossbohlin wrote:
>>> I took the time today to sharpen the knives on my DJ-20 jointer...
>>> They've needed it for quite a while but I never seemed to have time
>>> to do that and use it so using it took priority! I put a drop of
>>> Liquid Wrench on each of the lock screws and let it soak a few
>>> minutes... whether it needed it or not I figured it was a good
>>> tactical move. It all came apart easily and I cleaned everything
>>> with lacquer thinner and then Breakfree.
>
>> Probably should have reversed the order of those two applications
>> John. Lacquer thinner is a great solvent that will leave you a clean
>> surface. Breakfree is going to leave you an oily residue...
>
> I did them in the order I wanted... The lacquer thinner was to clean
> and the Breakfree is to serve as a lube and preservative for the
> screws, jamb bar, jacks, etc. Once I got the pitch off the parts they
> all looked like new even though the jointer is about 10 1/2 years
> old. As such, my standard procedure for this kind of stuff seems to
> work well.
> BTW, the knives were cleaned prior to sharpening, and then afterwards
> with WD-40 to displace the water, and then wiped with the
> Breakfree... a very thin film is all it takes and it doesn't gum up
> like WD-40.
Ahhhh - got it. Brain fart on my part maybe - I wasn't thinking about the
breakfree being used to prevent rust etc.
--
-Mike-
[email protected]
"woodchucker" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>I brought my planer blades to Forrest while I had my wwii in for service
>too.
>I had machine marks on the planer knives and doubted they were sharp
>because of it. Well they were absolutely sharp.. Unbelievably sharp...
>Well worth the price. And I did have a spare, but it did not take long for
>service about 5 days + 2 for shipping back.
If the machine marks were in the clearance area it's not a problem. When
they are all the way out to the cutting edge there is no way to have a great
edge... it's like not polishing the back of your chisels or plane irons!
>As for jointer knives, I did them by hand recently as I have a 6".. that is
>no big deal because of the size. Just did them on wet dry sandpaper on a
>granite block if I remember... What a diff after, much less force needed to
>push the wood through.
The thought of trying to do that with my 8" knives, while grinding clearance
into them and getting rid of the nicks, amounts to torture... it would takes
days! ;~) I can see doing a touch up of non-nicked knives that way but I'd
not want to do a full sharpening!
John
On 1/2/2014 9:42 AM, John Grossbohlin wrote:
> "Gramps' shop" wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>
>> Hey, John ... My jointer and planer are jealous. I've got both tasks
>> ahead of me and you've inspired me to get it done in the next month or
>> so. I have >beer in the fridge if your in my neighborhood and want to
>> supervise.
>
> Larry
>
> It's one of those tasks that is easy to avoid... not sure if beer is a
> good motivational lube or not as I see it being a hindrance to accuracy
> and keeping things blood free. ;~)
>
> I'd probably do the major machine sharpening more often if I had extra
> knives and sent them out to be sharpened... R&R is pretty straight
> forward but setting up the blade sharpener and doing it to my
> satisfaction is time consuming. That said, I've not had good luck with
> the locally available sharpening services--I use Forrest for my circular
> saw blades.
>
> A few examples of what I experienced before I bought all my own
> sharpening equipment: In one case it was clear that the item had been
> ground but it was also clear that the actual edge wasn't touched as it
> was still dull and shiny from use. In another case there were huge burrs
> on the edge and deep grinder marks... it was clear that a very coarse
> grinder was used with no finishing work. When I bought my latest lawn
> mower they made a big deal out of their free annual blade sharpening
> service. I figured that I would try it out as I had no fixtures that
> were suitable. It turns out that neither did they. When I got the blade
> back it was clear is was done free hand on a grinder as it had a nice
> radius, instead of clearance, ground into the blade.
>
> The bottom line is the jobs looked like the local services didn't care
> about the quality of their work and in the case of the mower blade they
> didn't even understand the concept of a properly sharpened blade. I'll
> note again that Forrest has been the exception though that is a mail
> order experience...
>
> John
>
>
I brought my planer blades to Forrest while I had my wwii in for service
too.
I had machine marks on the planer knives and doubted they were sharp
because of it. Well they were absolutely sharp.. Unbelievably sharp...
Well worth the price. And I did have a spare, but it did not take long
for service about 5 days + 2 for shipping back.
As for jointer knives, I did them by hand recently as I have a 6".. that
is no big deal because of the size. Just did them on wet dry sandpaper
on a granite block if I remember... What a diff after, much less force
needed to push the wood through.
--
Jeff