How far can I safely offset my jointer's knives from each other?

[KingwoodFan1989]

Long story short I accidentally hit the end of a staple while face jointing some material the other night, and I had to offset my knives further to compensate for that since the line it left on the board was so thick. Am I offsetting them too much, though? I've heard that it's necessary to keep things pretty balanced, especially if something is rotating at high speeds, so am I offsetting them too much? I've got pics of both the nick and the position of the three knives below. Note how one is sticking out towards the rabbeting table about 1/8" and one is pushed probably 1/16" out the other side. Is this too much offsetting to be safe?

EDIT: I'm just gonna order a new set of knives and get these re-sharpened after the holidays. Still, I think it's a good thing to wonder about for future reference...how much offsetting is too much? Just want to get as much life out of each set of knives as possible between sharpenings.

[jteneyck]

Shifting the knives left/right won't change the balance.  As long as the knives don't hit anything it's fine.  
John

[KingwoodFan1989]

Shifting the knives left/right won't change the balance.  As long as the knives don't hit anything it's fine.  
John

Good to know! Funny enough, I did tighten a gib when it was too far over and it got caught on something...didn't realize it until I started it and the cutterhead didn't even complete a full turn. I had to take the whole fence assembly and mount off and turn it back by the pully. I already got new knives on the way (along with 6 new gib screws), which makes the third set I have. As I think I said earlier, I'll get the other two sets sharpened after the holidays are over.

[jteneyck]

Good to know! Funny enough, I did tighten a gib when it was too far over and it got caught on something...didn't realize it until I started it and the cutterhead didn't even complete a full turn. I had to take the whole fence assembly and mount off and turn it back by the pully. I already got new knives on the way (along with 6 new gib screws), which makes the third set I have. As I think I said earlier, I'll get the other two sets sharpened after the holidays are over.

Now you'll remember to always turn the cutterhead a couple of turns by hand anytime after working on it to make sure nothing hits or binds. 

John