25" Blades

[MakerUnknown]

For the past 18 years I have had a 12" combo jointer/planer.  And for all those years I've put a back bevel on the blades to control chipping out.  Although the knowledge was around before him, I first read about it from a booklet Brian Burns put out.  I don't ever look at grain direction while jointing or planing, it's that effective at curbing it.
http://www.lessonsinlutherie.com/doublebevelsharpening.html

Just last week I bought a new 25" planer, ran about 10' of wood through it and decided the blades needed a back bevel on them.  When I pull out the first blade I was surprised at how short they were as far as depth goes.  When I put the blade on the Tormek, I couldn't get the angle I wanted without having the jig hit the grinding wheel.  It was close though.
So what I did was insert a piece of metal in the jig to move the blade further out.  In this photo that piece of metal is indicated by the arrow.  If you're questioning that middle screw knob on the jig.  It's f'ed up.  Can't get it to move one way or the other.
I really wanted to push the blade out a bit more but didn't really have enough ledge to accomplish that.


I put on a small bevel across the full width of the 25" blade by moving it through the jig in three passes.  Used my eye to judge when to stop the grinding process.


The whole process from three blades out to three blades back into the machine was maybe a couple hours.


Pleased with the whole process.

[Ken S]

Nice work, Paul, I had wondered if the Tormek could  be used for double beveling planer (and jointer) blades.

For anyone who works with or sharpens for highly figured wood, Brian's book is a must. Double beveling provides higher bevel pitch angles for tools without high angle frogs. Higher cutting angles are essential for wood with difficult grain. I second Paul's recommendation to check out Brian's website.

Brian's self publishing is quite clever. He prints each  copy with his computer printer. That way, changes are easy to incorporate. My copy of several years ago is the third edition. It's an ingenious low tech method similar to Tormek placing all editions of the handbook online.

Again, nice work, Paul.

Ken