Replies

1. 
   SCFrankland | Jul 07, 2002 03:38am | #1

   Well I take mine up the street to a guy and can usually have them back to me that day or the next mourning. But I have sharpened my own with sand paper glued to a glass plate and the jig from Lee Valley. But true be told I just find it easier to send them out to get sharpened then do it myself but if I had to wait on them, then it would be a different story.

   Scott C. Frankland

   Newfoundland Wood Worker

2. 
   turningtom | Jul 07, 2002 04:47am | #2

   I've been using a Makita 9820 sharpener to sharpen my planer and jointer blades for 15 years. It does a beautiful job. I have more than one set of blades for each machine. When they get dull I just change them out for sharp blades and resharpen the dull ones when I get a chance. Highland Hardware in Altanta sells the sharpener. Tom

3. 
   gerry001 | Jul 07, 2002 07:19am | #3

   Dave,

   The difficulty depends on how bad they are. If they have bad nicks and need to be reground, something like the Makita horizontal wet wheel may be needed. With proper jigging, you can do this carefully on a standard grinder, but it's difficult. Your bench grinder would first need the right type of wheel, it should be slow speed (1750rpm), and the wheel should be both dressed and balanced.

   The easiest way to sharpen that I've found is with sandpaper on a flat surface. Veritas has a guide for jointer knives to do this. Alternatively, I made one that looks similar with a few pieces of wood. It's clamped between two pieces with one cut to the correct angle.

   I'll also comment that the knives that came with my jointer quickly dulled. I bought another set from Freud and they laster many times longer.

   Gerry

1. 
   dhpascoe | Jul 07, 2002 06:55pm | #4

   Thanks for all your help. My options seem to be (1) spend more money, (2) spend more money, and (3) spend more money. Yike, this hobby is getting expensive!

   Dave

1. 
   gerry001 | Jul 08, 2002 03:45am | #5

   Dave,

   You have to look at it the other way around. I just made a wine cabinet for my daughter, which she had priced at a store for 480. It cost me about 80 of wood. I then spent 350 on a new compressor, and ended up saving $50. So I told the wife we now have 50 more than what we had.

   Course, I didn't actually charge my daughter, but the numbers still work out. Pull that one for enough years and you'll have a full shop for nothing:-)

   Gerry

1. 
   DelDollens | Jul 08, 2002 05:21am | #6

   My significant other spends $100 per month on her hair...this is no joke.  It is all fine with me because that's at least $100 per month that goes into the "Del's Woodworking machine/Tool kitty".  That does not include wood and materials since we BOTH "save" money in that regards.

2. 
   dhpascoe | Jul 09, 2002 04:51pm | #7

   Gerry is right, of course. For years I've gotten by with the bare essentials, but my work has suffered and everything took me 3X as long. While sending knives out is cheap enough, this causes me to leave dull blades in far longer than I should, and so this only leads to more work.

   I'm going to go ahead and get the VEritas jigs and the right wheels. Thanks everyone for setting my thinking straight.

   Dave