The Framers Forum

Up until recently my blades were sharpened by a local engineering firm who only deal in blade sharpening. They flat ground and sharpened the blades for £10.

For some unknown reason I decided to treat myself to a full on hollow ground experience from one of the well know companies who use a Morso sharpening machine and Morso trained staff.

The cost was 4 times that of the local company and I've just discovered that one of the blades is ruined due to some savage chips. This is after about 12 frames only a couple of which were through hard wood.

I've heard that while hollow ground blades are the way forward they do make them more brittle and prone to chips. Is this what might have happened here? It's very expensive if so, for only a few frames....

Over the years I've had problems with blades & their shapening. The flat ground ones never gave me anything but bother (& a lot of wasted time/moulding). The company I now use sharpen them 'properly' and, like you, I've had instances when after only a few frames there's a noticeable sprinkling of nicks on the blade (knife?) edge. I've spoke to the company who just do another sharpen at no cost, they say it's down to putting too fine an edge on the blades or something.

Anyway, I'm rambling - what I'm trying to say, in my experience, it happens but not purely because you've chosen to 'go hollow' but because someone who wasn't taking enough care of the process on that day. It's happened to me after one frame actually, a big'ish polcore thing. It used to bug me but now I've a load of other things that annoy me more. I just shrug & put on another set.

I doubt if this is the whole truth. I used to get my blades hollow ground using a particular company and the results were mostly adequate, but sometimes the blades got overheated which made the sharp edges brittle. The problem was that the grinding process did not use a coolant while grinding. If they did not need to grind much off, there was less temperature involved, but if there was more grind off, there was more temperature.

My last set of blades were re-sharpened quite a long time ago, by a well known company who claim to know more than most, when it comes to sharpening Morso blades and they use a coolant when grinding the blades. This last set of blades has been on my Morso for an extremely long time and are still in use. I probably should have re-sharpened these blades some time ago, but they are still cutting just fine.

Best to ask some questions about how your blade sharpening company keeps the blades cool while grinding them.

Thank you both for your replies.

I'm definitely going to have to think of something else.

A comprehensive service offered by Lion... they use a coolant

We recently had blades sharpened by LION for the first time. Yes it's expensive, but the results have been superb so far. I compared them to another set of blades we have had sharpened elsewhere and LION seem to make the hollow "hollower"! This means the edge of the blade is more pointed. This gives excellent results, but I guess will be more prone to chipping. I've therefore been taking extra cuts with hard wood like oak and so far they have been fine. I think overall the results justify the extra spend. I can't remember the last time I got such clean cuts from the MORSO.

Blade info for all.
http://www.framersequipment.co.uk/blade ... _facts.pdf
Always only get Morso blades hollow ground and always check and remove any bur if needed before refitting