Single vs dual blade hand planers?

[bobfog]

Are the claims that 82mm handheld power planes with a single blade are just as good as those with two blades true in the FOG members experience?

 

[bobfog]

Little bump..

 

[semenza]

    I've had two hand held power planes. An older DeWalt (forget the  model) and currently the HL850. The DW had two straight knives and did a fine job. The Festool has single knife mounted in the drum at an angle to give a slicing cut. The Festool definitely produces a smoother surface.  It is hard to say if one is working harder than the other. And the user has some feed rate control since you can vary how fast you push it along. Pretty sure the DW I had was 7 amps. Not sure about rpm.

Seth

 

[Tinker]

I only have the HL 850 hand planer, so I have nothing to compare as far as hand planers go.  do have a 2 blade DW 734 thickness planer.  It broke down a little over a year ago.  I did not have time to make the repair and I could notget it fixed right away.  I decided to get the newer model 734 with three blades (same machine both 3 blades instead of 2)  With the 2 blades, I could always see very slight chatter marks from the cutters.  Maybe from pushing,  don't know. 

The job I was working on had a self imposed deadline, that was why I was in such a rush.  I was planing oak, walnut, cherry and maple.  Once i setup the 3 blade planer, those boards came out shiny smooth like glass.  No chatter marks and even better, NO snipe. For that situation, there is no comparison.
Tinker

 

[mkasdin]

I've had a dewalt 680 for sometim, it's a good little tool for all-around planning when (furniture) precision doesn't count - and it's under $200. I just did a quick look on US Amazon and skimmed the reviews. You might want to have a read first...

 

[rst]

My oldest planer is an ancient Porter Cable 126 door planer.  I was expressly developed for prepping doors.  I has a narrow, spiral 2 cutter blade that gave great results but is noisier than a jet aircraft and the blades were expensive, dust collection...nowhere.  I also have a Hitachi 3 5/8" planer that I bought just before Hitachi got hit with product dumping suit by the Federal Trade Commission and were no longer sold in the US.  I could never figure out why planer makers made them narrower than the standard width of a 2x4.  This planer had a dust chute that I adapted to take a 2" vac hose which meant I could actually use indoors.  I bought the 850 some years ago on Ebay and it give fantastic results.  Last fall I used it to bevel 40 feet of 2x12  for a project and it left minimal cleanup using the bag (except when I would neglect to empty the bag soon enough  [crying])

 

[RKA]

I have very little experience with planers, but my observations mirror those of rst.  The spiral single blade on Festools 850 is fantastic.  The resulting surface is as good as the 2 blade spiral cutter on my porter cable, which is the gold standard in my eyes.  Obviously the Festool brings more flexibility and civility to the task compared to the PC.