How often to change/sharpen jointer knives?

[Rob3100]

I recently picked up a HF 6" jointer to add to my play pen. On several recommendation I went out and bought a set of Freud 6 1/8" HSS knives and went through the process of changing them and aligning them. I didn't notice a huge difference in the performance of the new knives over the factory knives, which are not well thought of.

I can tell on my TS easily when it's time to change/sharpen a blade, it bogs, burns or just generally feels dull. I guess I don't have a clue how to tell when my jointer knives are dull, what will be the indicator? I've searched high and low and can't find any recommendations on how often (time or bf. or anything) to change them or even tell when they need to be changed.

[LCHIEN]

I recently picked up a HF 6" jointer to add to my play pen. On several recommendation I went out and bought a set of Freud 6 1/8" HSS knives and went through the process of changing them and aligning them. I didn't notice a huge difference in the performance of the new knives over the factory knives, which are not well thought of.

I can tell on my TS easily when it's time to change/sharpen a blade, it bogs, burns or just generally feels dull. I guess I don't have a clue how to tell when my jointer knives are dull, what will be the indicator? I've searched high and low and can't find any recommendations on how often (time or bf. or anything) to change them or even tell when they need to be changed.

Ha, usually when i put a nick in the blade that I can't shift the blade over and get away with it anymore. Do people actually wear out jointer blades?

[RayintheUK]

I can tell on my TS easily when it's time to change/sharpen a blade, it bogs, burns or just generally feels dull. I guess I don't have a clue how to tell when my jointer knives are dull, what will be the indicator?

It's exactly the same with a jointer, Rob - it will "generally feel dull."

Ray.

[kwgeorge]

I think Ray said it very well. It is like the blade on your table saw when wood becomes harder to feed, the cut starts to burn and you have more tear out in the wood then you can be pretty sure that the blade needs to be sharpened or replaced. Now HSS blades will not hold the edge as long as Carbide tipped saw blades but there are things that you can do to make the blades stay sharper longer. 1) Do not edge joint the board in the same spot on the jointer every time. After several boards move the fence and joint with a fresh area of the blades. 2) Learn to feed the board with the grain. Cutting against the grain is much harder on the knifes then cutting with the grain so learning to read the grain in the wood helps for all cuts not only Jointing. 3) Buy a cheapie metal detector and check your wood for nails. I know most people are thinking that is only for when you are working with recycled wood but that is not true. Awhile back I took a new piece of rough cut walnut and found several nails in it. Of course they were only partial nails and could not be easily seen since they had been in the wood when it was alive. I figure they could have been where a fence or something may have been nailed to the tree. Now granted this is not a real common thing but sweeping the board with a metal detector takes a lot less time and money than replacing blades.

My .02 cents.

Ken