We grind all our knives on a Weinig R-960 Grinder. There are several options on our particular grinder which makes it the technician's choice. We grind 60 Degree Corrugated (1/16" between corrugations) 5/16" thick high speed steed, and 3/8" thick European style carbide two-piece (backer & solid carbide plate).
Which quality of knife steel should you use?
Mirror Reflections uses two brand names of quality knife steel, Titan & Leitz. We have four different grades available, M2, M3, Black Nitride and Endurance. Choices of quality to use and grades are summarized as follows.
M-2 Rockwell Hardness about 58-62, Good Quality. Made for short runs, (1’ – 700’ of high quality millwork. Can be used for longer runs but must be sharpened more frequently. Great for those profiles you use only once and a while. Grinding is easier than most other knife steels. This steel is very easy to joint on high speed machines. If you utilize a grinding service to sharpen your tooling; it is costing you more because of frequent sharpening and shipping cost. M-3 Rockwell Hardness about 62-65, Better Quality. Made for both short and long runs. (1’ - 1200’) of high quality millwork. One of the most widely used steels in the industry, it is easy to grind, holds up well to both hardwoods and softwoods. This steel is easy to joint for jointed machine applications requiring larger production runs. BLACK NITRIDE Rockwell
Hardness about 70-72 (Surface Only), Premium Quality. Black Nitride steel offers longer run times than standard M2 or M3 high speed steel (1’ - 2000’). Adding pure carbon to the top surface of the knife steel hardens the cutting edge about .010” to obtain about a 72 Rockwell. The next process is they treat the surface of the steel with black oxide to reduce pitch build up and rust; this also gives the steel a uniform color due to the case hardening. Excellent for hardwoods and softwoods, joints easy for jointed applications. ENDURANCE Rockwell Hardness about 70-72 (Surface
Only), Superior Quality.
Endurance super run is the premium of all high speed knife steels. They start with case hardened steel similar to Black Nitride, and then they apply P.V.D. (Physical Vapor Deposits) in an Ion sputtering magnetron chamber. These deposits consist of a five layer film of Aluminum, Chromium, Molybdenum, Nitride, and Titanium. This forms an extremely hard and heat resistant cutting edge twice as hard as C2 grade carbide. Because the coating is so thin, normal vitrified rough wheels and CBN finish wheels can be used on this product. Special care must be taken not to hone the face of the tool with anything but a block of wood. Tool life is increased up to 600 percent over normal high speed steel. Small amounts of MDF (500’ or Less) can be run with this product.
CARBIDE Rockwell Hardness about 90-94,
Requires diamond grinding wheels to sharpen. Excellent run life for products such as MDF, composites, exotic species such as Anigre, Teak, Ironwood, and Monkey Pod to name a few. We offer this in Euro Style (Backer Plate & Solid Carbide). Cost is expensive (see pricelist) product comes in pre cut lengths.
Each company has its own quality standards for their mouldings; some will get more lineal footage and some less lineal footage than the estimates given. Many factors come into play such as quality of lumber, whether it's pre-surfaced or rough, abrasive planed rather than surface planed, etc. If you hit a staple it will chip the steel or carbide, regardless of steel grade.
Mirror Reflections cuts both 12 & 20 degree cutter head knives, but recommends 20's for most circumstances. It's great to have 12's for when you do need them, but because 12's use more of a scraping method against the wood they dull your knives twice as fast, while requiring as much as 15% more horsepower on your machine. We have used 20 degree cutter heads on hardwoods and softwoods for many years with good success. Please specify your preference when ordering.
