# Anyone made a jig to sharpen Felder disposable planer knifes



## Beau (29 Sep 2017)

I dont do much woodwork these days and loathed to lash out on a new set for one little job but still have all my old planer knives. Wondering if there are any good ideas out there to at least give them a good hone. They are trickier than regular blades as they are very thin.


----------



## Beau (29 Sep 2017)

Anyone :?


----------



## Peter Sefton (29 Sep 2017)

With a diamond in the block, just like slipping the cutters in the old fashioned way.

Cheers Peter


----------



## Beau (29 Sep 2017)

Thanks Peter. 

Yes I have already done that as best I can but tricky to remove much steel with blades still in the block. Very easy to end up with the diamond stone marking the block.


----------



## Peter Sefton (29 Sep 2017)

Have you tried putting some tape on the diamond to protect the block?

http://www.peterseftonfurnitureschool.c ... rticle.pdf

Cheers Peter


----------



## Beau (29 Sep 2017)

Ah thats different to what I have been doing. 

What I did is put tape over 3/4 of a long diamond stone and guiding it off the infeed table while holding the block and rotating until the blade presses against the diamond stone. Then sliding stone along the length of blade.

Will give your way a go. 
Thanks


----------



## skelph (30 Sep 2017)

Have you considered one of these -
http://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster-di ... one-510258

We used to use one to "tickle up" the 12" blades on our Cooksley planer/thicknesser and it definitely extended the time between regrinds (barring encounters with hidden bits of metal!)


----------



## Beau (30 Sep 2017)

skelph":3jveboc1 said:


> Have you considered one of these -
> http://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster-di ... one-510258
> 
> We used to use one to "tickle up" the 12" blades on our Cooksley planer/thicknesser and it definitely extended the time between regrinds (barring encounters with hidden bits of metal!)



Thanks. Yes I have seen them but if I remember rightly they protrude too far down the face of the cutter for the Felder. Due to the blades being so thin the blade support comes very close to the edge of blade. Not tried one though and it might work.

I have been a dimwit as I have found a jig in one of my draws. No idea when I made it or last used it but clearly long enough ago to have forgotten all about it  
Anyway it worked well enough and will post a picture of it in due course.


----------



## Peter Sefton (30 Sep 2017)

I have demonstrated using a standard diamond block and this double block in one of the machine videos filmed over the summer, this little beauty worked well on my Hammer with disposable blades.

Cheers Peter


----------



## Orraloon (6 Oct 2017)

I made a jig like this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_NumfYsepM
You can then use stones, diamond plates or sandpaper on a block. I can get them sharper than new out of the packet blades. Not sure what fielder blades look like but I have used my jig on 3 kinds of blades now. My current thicknesser is a Dewalt so blades are disposable. I know that after a few sharpens they will be too worn down to use but every time saves the cost of new blades. The other good thing about doing it at home is you only need take off enough metal to get a good edge where sharpening services tend to take off a lot of metal.
Regards
John


----------



## custard (9 Oct 2017)

Beau":1f7drw1p said:


> skelph":1f7drw1p said:
> 
> 
> > Have you considered one of these -
> ...





I use one of those Axi jigs on a Felder planer, I've got a 405mm Felder planer with a four knife block that takes the standard Felder disposable knives. It fits and works okay on mine, there isn't a huge amount of clearance as you can see in the photos below, but there's enough that the block itself isn't touched.






















It only really works _once_ per set of knives, it's efficient because on that first hone it changes the angle geometry, it's not as good on subsequent hones. In terms of cut quality I don't think it's quite as good as fresh, replacement knives, although it's a big improvement on the cut quality you get immediately before you use it!

It's not expensive (you'll pay a lot more for one set of disposable knives) so I'd recommend it.


----------



## Peter Sefton (9 Oct 2017)

This little Axminster block works well, you can also use it to produce a front bevel for interlocked timber but I would only use the front bevel on a thickness planer.

The article I posted shows a front bevel and the recently filmed video shows this being produced with a block like Axi's.

Cheers Peter


----------



## Beau (9 Oct 2017)

Thanks for all the advise guys. 

So this is what I found in a cupboard in the workshop. It seems to work well and no idea why I have not been using it for years.


----------

