Well, last Thursday the new Byrd cutterhead arrived, and was installed. It is the Shelix, which is a helical, carbide insert cutterhead. The absence if tearout is quite impressive. The noise is low. The pressure it takes to feed the stock seems about half of that required for a regular cutterhead. My jointer, also shown, is a big old 12" from American Wood Working Machinery Company of Rochester, NY, probably from the 1920's or so. Had to be before the merger with Yates in 1925. And no, the paint color was not my doing. The pix of the jointer is old; I have since installed dust collection.
This cutterhead had to be specially made, and I had them put new bearings on the journal at the same time. This is a pleasant company to deal with.
Alan