embarrasing discovery

Well.....the old adage "if ya don't know, ya don't know" still holds true.
When I bought my Delta jointer at a garage sale a couple years ago for $50.00 I don't think I had ever even seen a jointer except on the sales floor at Grizzly. I know I didn't understand how useful and important a tool this is in a shop.
Ennyhow, I am glad I bought it and have it. But, I was using it a little dangerously and not getting best use from it until recently. Someone sent me (here?) a YouTube on jointer tips. From that I learned my (all?) jointer has a feature I wasn't aware of.
There is a handle (I cleaned up, painted and made a handle for mine) for adjusting the tilt of the fence. But what I didn't know was that it also could adjust the width of the cutting area. This, for safety, should be used with the narrow setting. The handle can engage two nuts, each has a different function, angle or width.
It also can save wear on the blades not dulling the same spot.
Now I know.

Old dog, new tricks? Nothing to be embarrassed about. You've just been enlightened. I have never met anyone who knew everything........but a few who thought they did and proved otherwise.

I figured the same thing out years ago when I put a nick in the blade. Took me about 2 months for the dawn to shine and just move the fence

I have the same jointer, mines a '39 model that I found at a local Goodwill store for $50. When you move that fence forward like that you do leave a good bit of the knives exposed on the back side of the fence, but there is a hole for a second cutter guard on the outfeed table on the back of the jointer. I used one of these in a small wood shop I worked in several years ago and we had a homemade plywood guard bolted on there for a little added protection when the fence was moved forward.