Knife sharpener for Logosol PH260 knives

[WoodenHead]

Do most of you send out your knives for sharpening for your Logosol (or other planer)?  Or do you own your own sharpener?  If so, what sharpener do you use?  I've been running a lot of kiln dried oak lately and the knives (top, bottom and sides) go dull fairly quickly.  My sharpening bill is starting to add up to the point that it may be worthwhile to look at a sharpener.  I do a lot of v-joint and T&G flooring so the sharpener would have to be able to handle those as well as the standard planing knives.

[beenthere]

I believe there is a difference in sharpening angle between softwood and hardwood. Do you get them sharpened to account for that difference? Don't know if that might cause your blades to dull any faster. Might ask the sharpening service if they know. Although they prolly don't mind one bit that you have to come back often. ;)  But am sure they would not want to lose your business.

[sawmillhand]

well i use this to sharpener my planer blades does a good job just have to be careful not to crank to much or it will get the blade hot quick. The only down side is it doesn't have a fine adjustment on it.



They also have another kind of sharpener but i have never used it.

[Kcwoodbutcher]

I also use the grizzly ( first one ) and it works fine once you get the hang of it. The second one does not have the range of the first one ( 20"), I think it's about 10 or 12 inches. For the T and G you would need a profile grinder which is high dollar. You may be able to dress them up with a stone.

[red oaks lumber]

 straight planer knives i sharpen my own, profile knives i let the experts sharpen them.
beenthere is on to something its called ''hook angle" if that isnt right you'll plane the edge right off the knife.
there could be alot of small things that added up are dulling your blades.
1) feed speed.. if your feeding to slow your knives are basically beating the wood without removing material, causing rapid heat build up causing dulling.
2)if you have feeding troubles, wood stops often,again rapid dulling will accur
3)are all of your knives set to the same hieght in your planer heads? if they are within .002 then are they set with enough knife projection? not enough projection, you'll have more heat build up because your knife dosent have enough room to remove the chips.
something i started doing several yrs. ago was presize all the lumber, that way when i set up for final moulding there is no thick and thin lumber.uniform size, clean lumber feeds so much eaiser than trying to finish plane a r.sawn board.

[wdncno]

I use a similar shapener to the grizzly shown above. Mine is from Busy Bee Tools. Have to be careful not to overheat the blades.  I also have the tormak grinder- very expensive and slow, but all my hand tools are very sharp.

[WoodenHead]

I've sharpened my top knives (set of 4) three times now after running tens of thousands of linear feet of ash flooring, oak flooring, oak wainscotting, pine flooring, V-joint, bead, and 4 sided finishing of varying widths and thicknesses and species.  I'm not sure how much I should be getting out of each sharpening, but at $8 per blade it adds up.  Some of the profile knives have now been sharpened once or twice (like the flooring knives).  The V-joint knives simply break so they never get a chance to become dull.   :

In terms of feed speed, I have to admit that I typically move slowly for the most part (i.e. at the lowest setting of the machine).  For the wider oak (8-10") if I were to go faster I would stall the machine even with new blades.  With the 1 x 6 pine I up the speed because the machine can take it (and so can I  :D).  I have the magnetic setting tools from Logosol to set the blades for depth.  When I first got the machine with the knives pre-installed, I kept with the same knife depth and used that ever since.

The company that sharpens for me explained to me how they handle the profile knives.  They simply shave down the entire side of the knife that gets clamped into place by the block with the set screw.  So they don't actually have to worry about the profile itself.  I just sent them the flooring knives for the first time, so I'll have to see how things worked out.

I'll check out the Grizzly machines as well as the ones from Busy Bee.   Does Logosol sell a grinder as well?

[rs1626]

If  there grinding the face of your tongue & groove knives won't that change the width of the tongue & groove ?

[WoodenHead]

I'll find out when I get back to making flooring.  I purchased an identical set, so that I would have one out for sharpening while the other is in use.  I can compare one against the other.

I think it will be okay if the same amount is taken off across the entire face (and they take ever so little off).

[wdncno]

It's the same because of the angle on the back of the knives.

[jdtuttle]

I use the tormek sharpener with an attachment for knives. Works pretty good. It's a wet wheel system so it doesn't get hot.