I’ve never compared three-blade planers head-to-head with a helical model, but I have used both styles of planers in the past. In terms of cutting smoothness, both styles are comparable to a conventional-knife planer when the blades are nice and sharp. The advantage to either of these over the typical knives is how easy they are to replace and adjust. Three-knife, replaceable (and indexed) blades are probably a little cheaper to buy than the carbide inserts, but I’ve got about two years of mileage on my inserts and still haven’t needed to flip them to a fresh edge. They last a LONG time. Regardless of which type of cutterhead machine you buy, I think you’ll appreciate the knife-changing/setting convenience of the newer styles. I know I sure do.

Best,

Chris Marshall

From what we’ve learned regarding blade-stopping safety technology, other manufacturers will not be following suit anytime soon. SawStop’s original technology was available to manufacturers before SawStop began making their own saws, but other companies decided, for one reason or another, not to pursue it. If you have your plans set on a SawStop, because of the revolutionary technology it offers, the upside is that SawStop is putting it into all of their table saws across the price range. So, there’s probably a model to suit your budget. I wouldn’t look for other competitor saws to have the same safety feature for a long while, if ever, unless regulations change across the industry.

Hope this helps you in your table saw decision-making process.

Best,

Chris Marshall