Spiral cutterhead for hand planer

[Svar]

Just came across this on Amazon. Makita 1900B mod. Looks interesting, but for an outdated model. Is it time to move to spiral cutterheads on hand planers?
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[usernumber1]

feel like this is looking to solve the problems nobody had. festool ones are at an angle , that's pretty nice and smooth already.

 

[Svar]

feel like this is looking to solve the problems nobody had. festool ones are at an angle , that's pretty nice and smooth already.

It offers the same advantages as in stationary joiners or thickness planers, where the current trend is towards segmented (whether true helical or not). Segmented knives like these are standardized, vs proprietary type that Festool offers.
It could be an overkill for a rough carpentry tool. But then circular saws were also not for fine woodworking before Festool came along.

 

[DeformedTree]

Well, if it's good for thicknessers....why not planers.  [blink]    Curious if this was a pet project by the maker, or someone wanted one and was willing to pay up front for one and thus the older model.  Manufacture gets to test the market.

I will say I like this from the stand point that I go thru knifes in mine.  Truing up old walls, you don't know what you will hit in a stud.  Not sure this would be cost effective as just swapping all the blades.

Looks like it takes 14 cutters.  Shelix sells box of 10 for $36  so over $50 bucks for full replacement vs 11 bucks for a new set of normal blades.  Of course the hope would be you only need to replace maybe 2 when you hit something.  Of course if you can rotate each cutter for 4 sides, then that is more like $1 a blade. So there might be cost savings, but you still have to pay off the head in the first place.