Stoning jointer knives into a perfect cutting circle

[jack forsberg]

Have you ever tried to set the knives dead nuts to the back table and in the same cutting circle? Have you ever really experienced a true 3 knife cut on a straight knife head that is within 0.00025"? All it takes is 15 minutes to maintain your jointer knives while still in the head. This prolongs their service and cutting quality up to 300%. Here is my modern take on a lost skill.


Part One

[Andrew Hughes]

Nice ,tutorial Jack what bevel angle do you start with?

[jack forsberg]

Nice ,tutorial Jack what bevel angle do you start with?

Andrew I have my saw Dr. grind my knives to 25° For softwood and 35° for hard

[Andrew Hughes]

Thanks Jack, your starting with a longer bevel 25 for hard wood,Does that help keep the heel out of the cutting circle when you hone the blades in the head.
I start with 40 and only hone twice.

[jack forsberg]

Thanks Jack, your starting with a longer bevel 25 for hard wood,Does that help keep the heel out of the cutting circle when you hone the blades in the head.
I start with 40 and only hone twice.

Old school is to keep the heal under 1/16 and it is not necessary to do anything other than stone . i reduce the heal with a re leaf angle so that not as much down pressure is needed and to kill the glazing problems that stoning can bring with slow feed rates.

Part Two

[Andrew Hughes]

That is a nice cut on the Maple ESP without a face bevel,thanks for sharing Jack.I was lucky enough to read up on knives from a Woodworking manuel.Its been my bible the jointer is one one of my machines.If anyone is interested you can read a copy I think on the woodweb..
Thanks again.Aj

[jack forsberg]

that there is the bible. have you tried a face bevel? my Wadkin manual has the face bevels in it.

face.JPG

[Andrew Hughes]

I Haven't needed to yet with the big oliver head.But been staying away from figured wood.This weekend I will be facing some hickory so we'll see .

[jack forsberg]

I Haven't needed to yet with the big oliver head.But been staying away from figured wood.This weekend I will be facing some hickory so we'll see .

Ya the 5" heads are nice and my big wadkin has skewed knifes too. whats great is its a hard and soft wood head in one because of the skew so if you place the wood in the right place on the 26" wide table you can deal with figure.

[Tom Welch]

Great info. Thank you for sharing.

[Mel Fulks]

Jack,that is quite retro. Clearly you are the boss and not an employee. I bet an employee would be told "put that stuff away and CHANGE THE KNIVES". Was that directed by the same guy who did KNITTING SHOP RAGS WITH OLD DRYER LINT ?

[jack forsberg]

Jack,that is quite retro. Clearly you are the boss and not an employee. I bet an employee would be told "put that stuff away and CHANGE THE KNIVES". Was that directed by the same guy who did KNITTING SHOP RAGS WITH OLD DRYER LINT ?

Mel I am the boss and would not have it any other way. Lol. I use mostly HSS and stone the knifes on other tooling as well like the tenoner and the shaper/spindle moulder so I keep the cutters up in the shop regularly. Missed the one on dryer lint?