Yep, that is what happens with the BearCat
chipper, too. I can get about 6 hours out of a set of knives before they have to be turned over.
I have 4 full sets of knives. That is too many, of course, but it allows me to chip for several days while flipping/changing the knives at the end of the day. As you found, chipping with new knives is a joy and a whole different world.
Then they can be sharpened in a down time. Some people take them to be professionally sharpened but you can do it yourself if you are careful not to overheat them. Overheated blades will last about an hour - trust me on that.
My advise would be to forget about fooling around with the knives. Burn anything over 4" in the fireplace or sell it as firewood.
>Using half of the knives would cause them to be double worked and they would dull that much faster.
>Only half of the chute would used if the knives were the close to the center set. That would require that you turn thick logs.
>One close and one long knife would make one cut per revolution and it would take twice as long to process a log.
>And as you said, the flywheel would be out of balance.