The Framers Forum

Greetings everyone, I am a newbie framer, recently setting myself up after many years working as an art handler and moonlighting at a framing studio.

I bought a guillotine second hand, and was given an additional set of newly sharpened blades. I found the original blades were chipping the moulding at the back, and thought I would switch out for the sharper ones. Now that I have come to install these,I notice that there is quite a difference in height, to the extent that it is extremely difficult to get the blades perfectly aligned - there is only so much play you can get from the bolts. Does this sound alarm bells for any of you more experienced guys? Is this common for the blades to be so different in height? And, if it is a problem, can this be corrected by re-sharpening?

All the best,

Dave

They need sorting out sometimes. If you can get by with them for the moment, it's probably a good time to get the blunt ones sharpened first and it's best to get these sharpened by someone who knows what they are doing like a framing suppliers!

Go for one that, that other framers on the forum are happy to recommend, as knowing what they are doing.

Normally both blades should be sharpened down to the same depth. It's difficult to say why the are not both the same depth. I like my pairs of bladeds to be matched for height, but that's just me! Personally, if they were my blades I would get them sharped and ground to the same heigh, but I don't know if it makes any particular difference, so don't take this as any definitive advice.

Great thanks Mark! Yep Going to get the blunt ones sharpened by mainline then reinstall when they're back. Thanks for your input

That looks like, e the blades have been mixed up with someone's else's, bet there is another framer has the mirror image

Could be that one of the blades has been chipped in the past and the chip ground out, resulting in too big a difference.
The only way is to have the 'big' blade ground down to match.

Morso blade pairs that I have are stamped with a corresponding number, if they are different then it looks like sets have got mixed up somewhere.

Adding to CrisG:
You are supposed to be using a "matched pair" of blades on a guillotine cutter. If they are not the same height (size) they are not a "matched pair" any longer.