Lifespan of the morso blades

[TIMETOFRAME]

Hiya guys, just wondered how long people’s morso blades last? I thought they went on forever with sharpening, but it seems obviously not. Looks like mine have started to corrode and warp and my second set look to be going exactly the same way. They’re 16 years old

[StevenG]

16 years old?

[Tudor Rose]

Your Morso blade body is made of mild steel. The section that is braised on, which forms the actual cutting edge is case hardened. You can see the braising line in your photo. When you turn the blade over, the case hardened section is a different colour, usually brighter and it forms effectively a "skin" on that section.

Morso, from memory, believe that you will go through the case hardened section in about 25 sharpenings if they are sharpened on a proper Morso hollow grinding machine. Every time they are sharpened they are shortened as a result, so they are always going to have a point where they are too short to be getting a good cut on them.

From the look of your very well used blades, you've been cutting using the mild steel for a while with barely any case hardened steel left. We would have retired those blades long before they got down to that size. If they really are 16 years old then they have more than earnt their money for you and it would be time to get some new ones.

From your image - the corroding is likely to just be that braising line becoming more obvious as the blades get shorter. And the warping is likely to be as it get closer to that line, the metal is separately slightly, giving a warped appearance.

[TIMETOFRAME]

Thanks for the reply. Iv definitely had my monies worth from them. They been cutting great up to this point when they warped, just went all of sudden.
Didn’t realise that, i know people who have had them 20years plus. I just kept sending them off through Wessex to be sharpened, no idea how they do it, I just know they come back sharp Everydays a learning day
Thanks
Tam

[Not your average framer]

How long will your Morso blades last? There is no exact amount of time! Everytime you are using them, you are using up a little bit of their life, you don't notice it happening it's a very slow process, but it is still happening. If your blades get chipped then more has to be ground back to get rid of the chips and more gets removed than during a normal sharpening, which shortens the life more than just during a routine sharpening. It's just the way things are, but at least using up the life of your Morso blades is a very slow process.

[prospero]

I've got two sets that came with the machine in 1984. They have been sharpened a few times but still show no signs
of giving up. Nowadays I mostly use a pair of power saws so the Morso is reserved for small mouldings.

It depends on the usage. Some folks are going to chop a handful of frames a week and some chopping away all day.