How sharp and how straight should you expect the edge of jointer knives to be after having them sharpened?
Last week I took my 4 eight inch jointer knives to a guy who said he could sharpen them for 2 dollar a blade. When I got them back the first thing I tried to do was see if I could shave the hair off my arms with them, I couldn’t. The knives seemed to me to be pretty dull. I layed the cutting edge of the blade on my jointer bed and was able to slide an .008 feeler gage between the bed and the edge of the blade.
I took this same set to another guy here in town who charges a dollar an inch. I’m supposed to pick them up tomorrow. After explaining to him what happened, he said if I wasn’t satisfied with his results I wouldn’t have to pay him.
Being new to having jointer knives sharped, I’m not sure what I should expect. Should I be able to shave with them? Shouldn’t the cutting edge be straight within .002? (Unfortunately I didn’t think to measure the only set of replacement blades I’ve bought)
What do you think?
Mike
Replies
Some thoughts
I wouldn't expect them to be razor sharp, necessarily, because they won't be like that after the first board you run. But they should be sharp enough to catch on the back of your thumbnail, and be free from knicks and such. .008 sounds pretty excessive to me. I think your expected tolerance of .002 is more in line. Hopefully this next guy will do a better job since a precision sharpening job on this tool is pretty important.
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