The Framers Forum

I recently put some newly sharpened blades on my Morso and, although they cut cleanly, some mouldings when joined left a large gap on the inner edge of the frame when joining, so large that I couldn't adjust the fences far enough.

I altered the left hand fence on the Morso until I got a clean join but it was a good couple of degrees out.

I've now put another set of blades on, re-aligned the fence on the Morso and have cut a perfect frame.

I'm wondering if the other set were sharpened badly or are now shot? What do you think?

Hi, yes quite simply the blades weren't sharpened correctly. Whilst they're been sharped and the edge is probably good that's not all that's involved with Morso Blades

The bane of my life actually

How old are the blades and how many times have they been sharpened? What height are they, so how much metal is left before the braise line? Were they hollow-ground on a Morso approved machine, or have they been flat sharpened?

If the other set are cutting fine, it does sound like a bad sharpening where the blades are "sucking" the wood in towards them on the cut. On hard woods or wider mouldings, then it would be far more noticeable.

I get them done at Wessex in Oldham and have been fine in the past, although I haven't been too sure about some of the sharpening before Xmas.

Not sure how old they are as I bought them used, but there's still 2cm on them.

Will they re-sharpen if I send them off again?

TGS recommend once your blades get less than 70mm they need replacing. Sounds like yours are less than this?

https://www.tgsrepairs.co.uk/product/m ... by-hansen/

The 70mm figure is going to be the overall depth of the blade - so 20mm from the braise line could well be very borderline depending on the angle you take the measurement from - vertically straight down to blade edge or at 45 degrees from braise line to blade edge.

They might be OK for another sharpen - but it may well be worth cutting your losses and investing in a new set of blades.

Having said that - the problem may be from a combination of a poor sharpening, lots of hard wood that has dulled the blades quickly or moulding that just wants to misbehave with a worn set of blades.

Personally, I'd buy a new set!

Is it possible there was a bit of wood shaving stuck behind the blades, or the bolts misaligned?

I've done that before and when I took them off and cleaned everything properly and refitted the blades everything was well again.

I have three sets of blades and I only have confidence in one of them. I think the other two have been badly sharpened and I find it a very time consuming game trying to align them on the Morso. There is a slight gap with the badly sharpened blades that can be compensated for by tweaking the left fence. I don’t like to do this though as my good set almost attach themselves to the machine and the fences need to be at the marked points on the Morso. They cut perfectly with no issues at all. My underpinner loves theses blades too. I’m not sure whether these not so good blades can be made better by proper sharpening. I now get MainLine to do the sharpening and am fairly happy with them.

Whitbyframer mentioned Wessex and blade sharpening in the same sentence. That's enough to trigger me with a rising feeling of panic, after my experience last year.
Not wanting to relive the trauma, I'll just say that their sub contracted technicians were sub par. Wesssex customer service was, as always, excellent and the compensation was adequate.

For new blades, I've always got the best price from Peter at Framers Equipment 01604 790333.

We’ve tried various places over the years with varying results, but switched to Mainline quite some time ago. Always superb service and on a Morso sharpening machine. Picked up and delivered back without problem and easy to book online or by phone.

https://www.mainlinemouldings.com/index ... tmentID=13

For new blades we’ve always got our best price from the machinery department at D&J Simons, particularly if we buy 2 sets at a time.

Trigger wrote: ↑Thu 26 Jan, 2023 5:28 pm The 70mm figure is going to be the overall depth of the blade - so 20mm from the braise line could well be very borderline depending on the angle you take the measurement from - vertically straight down to blade edge or at 45 degrees from braise line to blade edge.

They might be OK for another sharpen - but it may well be worth cutting your losses and investing in a new set of blades.

Having said that - the problem may be from a combination of a poor sharpening, lots of hard wood that has dulled the blades quickly or moulding that just wants to misbehave with a worn set of blades.

Personally, I'd buy a new set!

20mm to the line would make these about 60mm total, beyond borderline and way past their limits. A further sharpening would be pointless. These have had it. Out of interest what’s the width on your good set?

Theres 28mm on the ones cutting well. By the sounds of things I need to invest in another couple of pairs.