Chipper Knife Grinding marking

Altissimus

TreeHouser
Joined
Jul 1, 2008
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southern Vermont
Bought a few new knives w new machine way back when. Always shipped out the Dulls and ran the New Edges. Was changing out yesterday and noticed both new grinds in the box had one edge paint labeled "High" and the other "Low" .. hmmmmmm wonder if Low means too low .... Would call Morbark but it's the weekend and I'm drinking. Have any other Treehousers had the paint thing. P.S. I installed the fresh edge marked low and have plugged the outfeed a few times. Mebbee they are trying to tell me something?
 
I have no idea what the guy was trying to indicate by marking your knives, but if there were two sets then maybe he was telling you which set was ground down further than the other? Did you measure your bed knife setting after installing the sharpened knives? As the knives are shortened from grinding you need to adjust the bed knife to keep the chipping gap within spec. If the knives are too short and you do not set the bed knife then they will cut too big of a chunk and you might end up with stringy pieces that clog your chute.
 
When you grind blades you do so in sets. So 4 get done at once on one side. You grind down all till you get all the knicks out of the worst blade. Then you flip the blades and repeat. The 2 sides WILL NOT be ground to the same length. If you are doing it right you set your shear bar up as close to the blades as possible, so you need all the same depth edges facing the same direction,

clear as mud
 
Not sure what type of chipper you have but you can run the knives as long as you can still adjust the bedknife to give you the proper cut thickness. And yes, your bedknife is adjustable. They all are.
 
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  • #8
Yes of course though I personally try not to re-set the anvil. Two edge knives in a one knife machine , clean it and flip it around when first side is dull. Send back to Wisconsin for grind after second edge dulls. Have had some wear , probably run out of room to grind.
 
Atleast on bandits there's a minimum measurement from the knife bolt hole to the edge of the knife to ensure entegrity of the knife. It's not just use them until they can't be adjusted anymore. It's in the manual.
 
Atleast on bandits there's a minimum measurement from the knife bolt hole to the edge of the knife to ensure entegrity of the knife. It's not just use them until they can't be adjusted anymore. It's in the manual.

Same with Vermeer.

I tell my shop to grind the same length both sides this last round was four sets of knives.
 
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  • #12
Thus the beauty and simplicity of my small Morbark , no edge incompatibility. I thought that I read somewhere Morbark wouldn't grind them after a certain point.
 
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  • #13
Got the dope from the dude that grinds them , marks low and high edges for compatibility on multi knife models. Makes sense so both knives are making about the size chip. Moot point for me but also learned that they will measure and then call when the knife is at discard. Unable to grind please order a new one.
 
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  • #14
Was interesting to chat w the actual guy grinding ... I asked about the grind process when knife has noticable stone damage. Always noticed that they didn't take it all the way down , though sharp I could pick out the stoned edge just a little. Regular worn dull get a probably 100 percent new edge , stone damaged they go to 90 percent as to not remove too much steel. Makes sense , saves some dough , I take the same approach to damaged Chisel teeth when filing.
 
I'm lucky to live in the land of sawmills. I have a neighbour who is a professional filer for like 25+ years. he has trees, I had knives. We made the appropriate neighbourly trade.
 
In the big mills here, there are full time filers, and a filing room full of the best gear. Guys that just file blades, saws, all the cutting tools of a mill. Eight hours a day five days a week for eternity. I've heard while it's a precision job it's fairly cushy. Set the jigs, push the buttons and then play cards. Lol.
 
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