These are the standard replacement for blades in the DW735. No surprise then that they work exactly as well as the originals. Which means that when they are sharp they work quite well. And when they are not you can reverse them. When that side is exhausted you can replace them.
I find that about 200 board feet of 5/4 by 8" hard maple is where the blades start to show wear - a dining room table's worth in realtime terms. Nicks can be suppressed by adjusting the blades laterally so that one blade removes the fault one of the others creates. To be honest, given the price of these strips of metal, I would like them to either last longer or be sharpenable. Although the prospect of sharpening 13" cutting edges does not thrill me.
What I would like to see is someone to start making aftermarket blades, carbide if possible. These are just pricey enough that I would be willing to pay just a bit more to get a few hundred more board feet out of a set. Lacking that, this is our only choice, and it is the single biggest flaw in the DW735 planer design. DEWALT DW7352 Replaceable Knives for DW735 13 Inch Planer
Yes, like toner cartridges, these blades don't last long and forever need replacing. For that reason I sold my DW735 and switched back to a DW733...I could not afford the blade habit! If you use exotics, or simply use your planer a lot, I would not recommend the DW735, as they obviously switched to non-sharpenable blades in order to hook you on their VERY overpriced replacements. If you get 3-400 BF out of a set, consider yourself lucky!
I purchased my DW735 as a quicky (read: impulsive) replacement for a Jet JWP12 that died in the middle of a job. (The poly belt broke.) Uncharacteristically, I didn't research the tool before buying. I should have. Although the planer is satisfactory, the knives are not. I planed about 80 lineal feet (yes, JUST 80 feet!) of antique white oak 1x6s before suddenly finding the blades too dull for the feed rollers to overcome the resistance. This occurred suddenly...within the span of three boards! Going along just fine in the "dimensioning" mode when the feed became slower and slower until finally, the boards quit feeding. The dull knives offered too much resistance. I cleaned the feed rollers with acetone, thinking there was contamination causing them to lose friction. This helped for one board, then the feeding stopped again. These boards were salvaged church kneelers from 1900. I had rough planed them of old varnish and grit to clean wood with a DW675 power hand planer and then ran them through the DW735 to true and thickness to 3/4". Surprised and annoyed, I flipped the knives and continued with the project. I surfaced another 50 linear feet without incident. A few days later, I start another job that required surface planing some 2x10 Select structural Doug fir. These were new clean planks. I managed to surface two sides of one plank before the feed stopped again. Cleaning the rollers had no effect. The blades were SHOT! I tried just a very shallow pass (the material removal gauge didn't even register that material would be removed, but failed halfway through when the planer kicked out a 20 amp dedicated breaker. Cranked up the planer head and removed the plank. The resultant stopped cut was barely perceptible, perhaps less than 1/64th of an inch. Hardly a heavy cut! I've seen some snipe that was greater. So, now I've got two planers and both down! I've ordered replacement knives, but what a PITA. The knives on the Jet were three years since replacement with a huge amount of varied lumber under their belt and although not sharp, still managed to bull through some 2x10s without complaint. I've found some aftermarket knives for the DW735 online at Infinity Cutting [...]. Apparently not laminated or reversible, but anything is better than the stock knives!
We have been pleased with the DW735 Planer, it works well for our needs. The knives are the weak point in the system. They seem to wear quickly. This could be due to the abrasive nature of the particular wood (Makore) we are milling at this time. I think DeWalt does a good job overall but could do better with the knives.
The DW735 is a very expensive planer. For LESS MONEY, one can purchase a planer that has good blades that can be resharpened, and for which blades are available on a secondary market - including carbide. Not with this machine!
Other reviewers have pointed to the problem - these blades are disposable, expensive, and can't be sharpened, and they are the heart of the system. Go look elswhere before you consider buying one of these. If you are even considering planing hardwood, look for a machine that has secondary market knives, preferably carbide, and don't waste your time on stuff like the blades supplied with the DW 735 that probably won't last more than a few hours (or minutes)into the job. When planing hard maple, I had tear-out almost with the first pass, and never recovered from it.
Just to make my point, when I went to "reverse" the blades on my machine, the "new" edge wouldn't even put a crease in my fingernail let alone cut paper. If even a new edge won't cut, no wonder tear-out is a problem.
Don't bother with this one. Look for replaceable knives, preferably on a secondary market by a manufacturer who cares.
When it was time to get a planer, I knew I had to get a portable. I do some remodel work and wanted something that could come with me when my shop was too far away. For a portable, the planer can't be beat. It is heavy (which is great when you're feeding stock) and it ejects chips like nothing else. The issue of course is the pesky blades, and therein lies the trade-off.
I don't do enough milling to mind having to shift, reverse, and replace blades every 6-12 months. I tend to work mostly with hard maple, rough-sawn white oak, and fir. I've found that the 200 bf number is probably about right if you're looking for what some consider a "finished" surface. I've had more problems with the blades getting nicks before they get dull. My stock looks clean, but I've resorted to milling up a lot of stock with the first pass through an old set of knives and a finish pass with a new set. For this reason, I think it would be really frustrating to someone who does a lot of volume. For me, it just isn't an issue.
Now that Infinity Tools has released replacement blades (HSSK-041) here on Amazon for <$10 more (price as of 1/2008) that CAN BE RE-SHARPENED, I'll be trying those next.
If I had to do it all over again, I'd still go with this planer. - Knife - Dewalt - Planer Knives - Dw735'
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