TJ,? the limiter heads? heads are similar to brazed tooling in regards to antikick back as the clearance is still about 1mm. Being that the body of brazed tooling is the limiter. These would be considered safer than a standard american corrugated head where the knife may stick out a whole 1.5" greater than the diameter of the head. They do not feel or look safe for hand feeding at all.
?Having a couple common profiles, like a round over that you can drop in easy on the shaper is key to fast consistent work. About the same amount of time as mounting a router bit. I also like the frued for a cheap profiles that you may only need to use once in a while.? The 3/4 dual? round over/cove cutter I thought was a good value.?
There are a few different grades of carbide. Frued claims to use a C3 which is considered good. Most any profile head with corrugated knives even with limiters can have carbide knives. It's much more expensive than HSS so you probably wont see them in kits. It's generally 150~200% more for carbide knives over HSS. HSS is when you only need a few hundred feet with exceptional finish in hardwood, Or 1200 to 1500 feet in soft wood (without knots). Carbide will do about 2500~3000 linear feet in medium hardwoods. HSS might only do 20 feet in some tropical hardwoods. So in teak Carbide is way more economical than HSS. But in softer woods HSS might out perform as the finish quality in say alaskan cedar is quite exception compared to carbide finishes in the same species.
?Carbide insert are expensive but you get alot of work out of them. But in the long term I suppose an investment in to a "system" that uses the higher grades of carbide might be the most economical in the long run, but with much more investment up front. i.e. rangate tooling
