The Framers Forum

Just had my blades sharpened - first time since I bought my v secondhand Morso - ooh lovely. I would recommend anyone on the inexperienced end of the spectrum like I am with a non new machine and a degree of frustration in the mitring department do the same, best value few quid laid out so far.

Anyhow, this begs the questions - how often do the pros get their blades sharpened (or how many cuts is that?), what's the best way to tell when they need it, and how many times can you get them sharpened before they're ebay fodder?

Thanks

P

It all depends on the composition of the moulding. Softwood - Hardwood - Old fashioned compo - New synthetic compo. The more abrasive the moulding the sooner the blades have to be sharpened.

As for the blades life - it depends on how much the sharpening company takes off each time they do a set. The more chips they have to take off, the more they have to take off.

Well I have had the same two sets of blades for 25+ years and they are nowhere near EBay fodder yet. I suppose you just get a feel for when they are needing to be sharpened.

The quick answer is probably ..... Depends on how many frames you make.

I'm not doing large volumes by any means but I guess if you're spending more time repairing nicks and gaps than actually joining the frame then you might need to look at the blades. G & M just resharpened my blades for about £15 I think so cost shouldn't be an issue. Having said that, you probably don't want them sharpened too often.

Blade Sharpening Revisited. I'm sure that was a series? I'm a relative newbie to framing. Not my day job so still getting a feel for when blades need a sharpen up in terms of how they are cutting through a moulding. Yesterday I cut a 1.5" square moulding, softwood with a black matt veneer. I noticed that I was getting chips on the outside of some of the mitres (not something you could skim down either as would make it worse). I had to re-cut 2 lengths as the chips were quite bad and I would not have been happy fixing this up to give to a customer. Would this be a sign that blades are due a service?

Good morning.

As a reminder to one & all, Ashworth & Thompson have always offered a resharpening service, from our depots in Belfast, Edinburgh & Nottingham. The price for the hollow grinding service is # 15 in Belfast & # 10.50 from both Edinburgh & Nottingham.

Thank you.
Phil.

You should use a reputable blade sharpener one who knows how to hollow grind morso blades. Most of the wholesalers do a good job and I believe Lion and Mainline are good. Any sign of the moulding not cutting well or vertical lines in the cut and they should be sharpened.

I had a set of blades which eventually got within 6mm of the braze line then one day whilst I was cutting the braze gave way and jamming the morso.

Rubbish mouldings will not only need really sharp blades to get a decent cut, but some rubbish mouldings will also blunt your blades very quickly.

BTW, re: An earlier comment, synthetic gesso is not neccessarily a bad thing, it depends on whose synthetic gesso it is. For example, Larson Juhl synthetic gesso is always gonna be fine, but that thick hard grey stuff on those cheap far eastern imports, generally is not good news!

Personally, I don't think there is any point in buying any of those far eastern gessoed mouldings at all, when there are so many profiles of embossed and plain polymer mouldings available to those who need something down to a budget.