Sharpening Morso blades

mike@neuadd

Grumbler
Joined
Sep 4, 2006
Posts
17
Loc
Llanwrtyd Wells
I bought a new Morso chopper earlier this year and have been wondering when I'll need to get the blades sharpened.

Should I carry on till the cuts become pooor quality or is there some other way of detecting when to send them for sharpening?

Mike
 
Thats the method I use. The longer you use it, the more sensitive you will become to knowing when the blades are dull. One sign is bad cuts on the back side of the mouling. When it starts chipping and/or the mitres quit being square, it needs to be resharpend also.

Carry on.
 
You can also look at the face of the cut - when the knives are freshly sharp it will be a dull/flat sheen. As they get duller, it will go to satin and semi-gloss as the rounded edge works more and more like a hammer and mashes down through the wood. As Jay said, you will end up with non-square miters, because there is so much resistance that the head is forced away from the fence as you go down (even if the lock stays in place there is enough flex in the metal - believe it or not - that it will move).
 
Usually when you start having to jump on the pedal to shave cut... of course, at 270lbs I don't know nuthin' 'bout jumpin'. :D

The reason to watch for the slightest chip out on the back is the phenomenon that David describes begins at the point of least resistance.. the back edge.
When you take the blades off, and grab a magnifying glass, you will see a slight rounded divot on the last 1/8" of the blade... this is because no matter how you cut or do your chops, the 1/8" is ALWAYS making a "confined" cut; meaning there is no where to splay the pressures of the cut because of the 90 degrees of the two blades so all the pressures are directed into the blade edge.

The rest of the blade has the advantage of making a "slicing" cut. Think of it as pocket knife and carving a stick. 98% of the chopper blade is just 'whittling' and making big lazy shavings... and 2% is edge on to the block of wood being hit with a hammer like you would a chisel.

Compo frames will be even more abusive to those tips than just wood. That is why a saw [with 120 tips] will outlast a chopper blade set if lots of compo is being cut.
 
Hey Mike,

Welcome to The Grumble.

For me, in addition to the outer edge of the moulding getting a little raggedy, I notice a subtle difference in the sound the cuts make. They seems to have a bit more, “crunch” to them.

If there is ever any question in your mind, have them sharpened! The cost of sprucing up the blades is more than offset by one frame going bad on you.

But take care who you have sharpen them. Here in New England, most of the work that blade sharpeners do are honing chain saws and kitchen knives; they don’t have a clue how to hollow grind Morso blades.

Ask around (maybe your competitors) to see who is up to doing the job. Like me, you may have to ship them out of state (or, in your case, out of the country).
 
Many thanks to you all for all that advice.

As Bill says, I may have to ship them out of the country to get them sharpened. There is a local framing supplier who offers a sharpening service but I may send them over to Lion in England who have a good reputation.
 
cant you just test them with your finger? if your finger is atill attached to your hand after testing then you probably should get the blades sharpened.
 
Mike,

Croeseo y Grumble!!

(Welcome to The Grumble)

You're from my (original)part of the world, just North of Llanwrtyd Wells (ever seen so many consonants next to each other in one word?) which is, for the benefit of 99.999% of Grumblers pronounced thus - first the double 'L' - press your tongue up against the roof of your mouth and breath in and out with the air flowing OVER your tongue, the noise you make on the breath out is 'LL' a Donald Duck sort of noise, so Llan-ooorr-teed. ('Wells' is pronounced normally)

Re blades, D&J Simons do them for free with orders over £100 - I think, you pay carriage out, they pay it back with your carriage-paid order - I hope you are dealing with Simons, they are great.

Glass & Mirror are the cheapest I have found otherwise and good, but I don't know if they do your part of the world - doubt it, they come to me in their own van and pick up/drop off with glass orders - who delivers glass in your area and do THEY offer the service?


The UK Framers' forum may have more advice for you,

Pob Lwc - (Pawb luke) Good luck

Oh, and advice I was once given was to cut a piece of tissue paper (Shiny stuff - not bathroom stuff) and if the blades do not cut it cleanly, but push it down, change them - I just change mine every 3-4 weeks regardless, 2-3 weeks at Christmas! Also if re-sharpening becomes a pain and you don't cut mouldings over 2 - 2 1/2 inches wide all that often, a couple of sets of double-sided blades may be a good investment.

I go to Llandrindod Wells every April religiously, stay a Grumbler and you will be added to my 'Grumblers you have met' list next April.

Hope this does not put you off The Grumble!!

[ 09-08-2006, 06:24 PM: Message edited by: RoboFramer ]
 
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