The Framers Forum

Framers corner are selling some comparable blades to fit a morso, the claim on the website is they are the hardest and best knives to fit the morso in the world, and about £30 cheaper.

I had to buy some, just to put them to the test, I will report back, although not on the machine yet , first impressions are very good, the bevel of the blade is curved visibly, I'msure this will help with the cut.

I'd be interested in knowing how you get on, I'm looking at getting a new set soon.

About £30 cheaper than what?
There's a whole range of prices out there, varying from £220 down to £168
I too would be interested in you review of them, as I need a spare set for my Morso.
I do have reservations about anything not Morso manufactured though.

I've just looked - £30 less than top price, but with VAT incl. So equivalent to £158.50. Not bad

Jack

Morso blades are tipped with tungstun carbide which can be and probably has been tempered to reduce the hardness and by doing so make the blades less brittle. One would assume that Morso have their chosen the hardness for their blades, based on the experience gained over the very long time that they have been making Morso guillotines.

Are harder blades better? If the blades chip too easily, more material will need to be ground away when sharpening the blades to remove the chips, thereby significantly reducing the usable life of the blades. Is being the cheapest, or harder than Morso's own blades a reason for recommendation?

I wonder?

It would be interesting to hear from those who know more about this, such as framing engineers and high volume framers who would have a significant interest in which blades last longest, or give the best value.

this is not yet a recommendation, just test a test report , the claim is to be the hardest and best blades in the world. I thought the claims worth testing, and will report once they are fitted and will continue to report as they are sharpend, we have6 or 7other sets of blades at various ware points, 1being a set of morso blades that have only had 1 sharpen. I will test directly with those.

Have not told the chap who makes the frames anything about the new blades, I just put them in general rotation and have been looking every day to see if they were put on yet.
For the first time ever Jamie (frame chopper) came round to the shop and exclaimed ' Oh my god you have to come and try these new blades you got '.
so first impressions, hot knife through butter, springs to mind, and perfect mitres.
They seem to some how hold the molding in place when cutting and do seem sharper than the new set of morso blades we had on a few weeks back,
The new blades so far have cut bout 30 frames, the new morso ones did 2 normal weeks worth, around 200 frames of mixed wood and molding type before needing changing.

We have some wide ornate molding to cut, some oak and some ash this week.

Lets see how long they last, again I'm not saying anything to Jamie, he will change them when they need changing.

So far I am surprised to say it's framers corner 2 Morso 0

If you are noticing such a big difference then you may want to check your 'old' blades have been hollow ground. All new blades are supplied with the correct hollow grind but most framers then send them to the local saw place which will usually flat grind them.

TIP: To check your own blades after they have been sharpened to see if they are hollow-ground, simply place any straight edge (ie. a credit card) across the sharpened edge. If you are able to see light under the card, this means that the surface is concave, indicating that the knife has been hollow-ground. If it is parallel to the card, this is a definite indication that the blades have not been properly sharpened.

we get perfect corners anyway, these just felt better. we are comparing to brand new morso blades that were fitted a couple of months back, yes all our 7 sets are hollow ground ground by radius or wessex.

Bear , bare ? in mind we are doing more than normal at the minute due to that there Christmas, the blades have now cut in excess of70 frames, no chips or signs of the cutting edge dulling, the real test will be tomorrow I have 6 ash frames and several 30 mm wide and 20 mm high solid oak frames to make.

ok 90 odd frames made and decided to try cutting this frame, we usually wait until fresh blades are on before cutting this stuff as the back edge is usually a right bugger.

Now over 200 frames in and still feel very sharp, no chips on the blades and still perfect corners.

This was the point we swapped the brand new morso blades, but if memory serves me, we cut more hard woods and tough ornate mouldings with that set of blades, the majority of what we have cut with theses has been softwood, still they are doing better than expected.

Please keep up dating, I'm going to treat myself to a new pair in the new year. I must have put over 200 frames through my last set as we were so busy on the run up, I couldn't stop to change them. I would normally have changed them sooner.

Dave

That all looks good. Be interesting to see how they sharpen and perform afterwards.

I will make it a continuous review through the life of the blades, matched against the set of morso blades, that have only had one sharpen, this was my intention, I thought it a pretty big claim so I'm testing them.

300 frames in and they are still cutting well, surely they can't last much longer.

Do please keep us up to date.
It sounds very encouraging

I have at long last changed the blades, I inspected them on removal and can report 0 chips.

They cut in excess of 400 frames perfectly ( including some ash and oak and a wide variety of profiles) I can't ever remember a set of blades lasting so long and staying shape, it will be interesting to see how they fair once sharpened.

So far they have far exceeded my expectations.

If they perform well once sharpened, I will defiantly be buying more.

Ok, the morso blades I just put on just don't feel very good compaired to the framers corner blades, it actually feels like the blades are smashing the moulding rather than cutting, although they are cutting and the corners are good, I am having to put more effort in. I felt so shocked at the difference that I took them back off and have done a side by side comparison to see why the framers corner blades cut so much better.

The picture with the crude red lines on are the framers corner blades,

1. The back of the blade is concave v's a flat profile on the Morso

2. There is quite a difference on the cutting angle the framers corner blade being more acute.

I don't yet know what this will mean for sharpening or how they will perform when sharpened.