Grades of High-Speed Steel For Manufacturing Moulding Knives

Mirror Reflections manufactures all our high-speed steel and carbide profile knives on a Weinig R960 Profile Knife Grinder We believe this machine model is superior to all other manual profile grinders available in the industry today. This time-tested profile grinder delivers superior accuracy and is a favorite among some of the most prestigious milling shops worldwide. Several custom options on our R960 knife grinder let us manufacture cutters with superior results; these options, along with our disciplined approach, make our machine the “Technician's Choice” among professionals. Our most widely used high-speed knife steel is sixty-degree corrugated, with one-sixteenth-inch between each corrugation and a five-sixteenths thickness dimension. Our two-piece, three-eighths-inch-thick European-style carbide has a one-quarter-inch-thick backer plate and a one-eighth-inch-thick solid carbide piece that interlocks with the backer plate using micro-corrugations. Our V2+rw Williams and Hussey or Shop Fox high-speed steel retains a one-quarter-inch thickness measurement; it is non-corrugated steel with one-inch-on-center holes for securing the knives to the cutter head on the machinery.

Which quality of knife steel should you use?

Mirror Reflections uses some of the highest quality high-speed knife steels and carbide available in the industry. We offer three different grades of steel to choose from: V2+RW, Black Nitride, Endurance, and a European-style carbide for profile knives, with some inlay carbide for straight planer knives. The choice of options and grades is summarized below.

• V2+RW Coated V2 High Speed Steel with a diamond-dust chrome coating on the face, Rockwell hardness (72 HRC), and about (58-62 HRC) beneath the coating. Increases wear life by 100% without increasing grinding time. The RW coating is a proprietary 0.001” thick electroplated layer that resists chipping and wear. Great for most hardwoods and triples tool life in wet, tannic woods like oak, cedar, and redwood. Outlasts any standard uncoated M-2 steel; it is relatively straight forward to grind with a rough vitrified and a Borazon finish grinding wheel; it is also easy to joint the knives on high-speed moulders.
• Black Nitride - (BN-HSS) – Our premium HSS with a carbon nitride case hardening and black oxide finish to resist pitch buildup. Offers up to 100% longer tool life than standard HSS without being harder to shape. Features a 0.010” deep cutting edge with over 72 HRC hardness. Comparable to Opti™ Knife. Ideal for long runs and stubborn hardwoods. Excellent for stubborn hardwoods and softwoods but not recommended for knotty alder. The abrasive planing techniques of rough lumber mills leave abrasive particles on the lumber face and chip the steel's cutting edge during milling. If you have profile jointers on your moulder, this steel will work perfectly for your application.
• Endurance - Coated with a PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) 6-layer film of Titanium, Ceramic crystals, and other elements applied via ion sputtering. The latest technology developed in Europe for metalworking tools. Coating hardness exceeds 3500 HV—twice as hard as C2 carbide. The film is so thin it can be sharpened with standard vitrified or CBN finish wheels. ER+ increases tool life by up to 800% over standard HSS, without the inconvenience of using expensive carbide knives. Ideal for short runs (500 lineal feet) of MDF, Teak, Ipe, Anigre, and other problem hardwoods. Note: Use a wood block to deburr instead of an abrasive slip stone to preserve the coating.
• Tungsten Carbide - Expensive (see price list); this application requires diamond grinding wheels to sharpen the knives. Excellent milling life: 1,000 to 20,000 lineal feet between sharpening. Used on products such as medium-density fiberboard (MDF) and plastic composites, exotic wood species such as Anigre, Teak, Ironwood, and Monkey Pod, to name a few. We offer these in pre-cut lengths: European-style backer plate & solid carbide for profile knives, and inlay carbide for straight plane blades.

Every woodworking company has its own quality standards for the lumber they process; some shops will mill a wider range of lineal footage than others in the estimates given above. Many factors affect how much actual lumber footage you can mill between sharpening the knives. Factors include knife design, wood quality, whether the lumber was pre-surfaced or rough sawn before milling, and whether the wood was abrasive-planed rather than surface-planed. If you hit a staple in the ends of the boards, it will chip the steel or carbide regardless of the grade. As a woodworker, we hope you understand the scenario and the points we are addressing. If we can be of further assistance, please feel free to contact us; we would be happy to help.