Resaw King Blade---not impressed at all

[Jameel Abraham]

I bought a Resaw King for my Bridgewood 18" saw earlier this year. I ended up sending it back because it only cut a few feet before it started requiring quite a bit of force to cut, in other words, it was dull after maybe 50 feet of 6" resawing in walnut, maple and cherry.

The folks at Laguna thought that the blade was faulty, and they offered to resharpen it for nada. They actually ended up losing track of the blade while it was in their shop, and ended up sending me a completely new one at no cost. That seemed like a fair outcome to me. Although when I received the new one, one of the teeth was chipped, and it looked just like the chipped tooth on the first one I sent it. I didn't mention this to Laguna, since I thought I was getting the better end of the deal. I'm actually not surprised more new blades don't get delivered with chipped teeth, its virtually impossible to uncoil a blade like that with any degree of finesse, those brittle teeth are just begging to be chipped off, even when coiled in the box. You'd think they would ship fresh blades with dip coating to protect those fragile teeth.

So anyways, I mount up the new blade last week and proceed to resaw some 4" wide cocobolo. I get about 6 inches into the board and realize that the performance of this blade is just about the same as the first dull one. Not to mention the cut quality is bad, not smooth at all.

So, I've had this new blade for a few months since I couldn't use it while remodeling my shop. I'm not sure I can return it for a refund at this point. And I don't want to try another one. I'm pretty-much burned out this blade at this point. I'm even getting a little burned out about resawing in general. I was all set to do some great easy resawing when I bought my Italian bandsaw, but so far I've had nothing but frustration. I was getting better results using my grandfather's 1980's Sears aluminum-frame saw!

So, with that glowing review, who would like to buy a 145" Resaw King?

[Chris Zenda]

I had the same troubles with that exact blade, mine was completely dull after using it a couple times.

[Doug Shepard]

I feel safe in saying you won't be disappointed with a Lenox Tri-Master blade on there which even comes with a plastic guard over the edge to protect the teeth. Major bummer that the RK didnt last though.

[Paul Joynes]

I'll take it off of your hands for $50 shipping included.

Paul

[John Fry]

Wow! I've been running Resaw Kings for years on both of my Laguna saws. I've had real good luck!

Timberwolf has come out with a new, resharpenable, carbide blade that looks similar in configuration to the RK. Haven't tried them tough.

[Jameel Abraham]

I had the same troubles with that exact blade, mine was completely dull after using it a couple times.

So what did you do about it?

I'll take it off of your hands for $50 shipping included.

Paul

I'll keep it in mind if they dont satisfy me...Thanks

[Mike Cutler]

I feel safe in saying you won't be disappointed with a Lenox Tri-Master blade on there which even comes with a plastic guard over the edge to protect the teeth. Major bummer that the RK didnt last though.

Yep. I agree completely.
The Lennox Bi-Metal in 2/3 varipitch(same configuration as the Tri-Master) is also an excellent blade at 1/3 the cost of a Tri-Master.
I use the 1" blade on my 18" Rikon.

[Chris Zenda]

So what did you do about it ?

I contacted Laguna and ended up exchanging it for another one but had limited success with that one also.

[jim gossage]

i haven't had any problem with my 1 1/4" resaw king. the cut is very smooth and it cuts well through up to 13" resaw so far. after every 3-5 cuts, i spray a lubricant (non silicone) onto a towel and run it past the teeth. maybe that helps.

[Dave Malen]

I haven't had a problem running one on my Laguna 14se. They do cut slower than more aggressive blades.

Dave

["Gary Brewer"]

Jameel: I read somewhere that Lennox has a new carbide bandsaw blade that was made just for cutting wood ( the tri-master supposedly was originally made to cut metal ? ). You might want to research a little and see if it is better for resaw than the tri-master. It is also cheaper than the tri-master.
Gary

[Greg Funk]

I had the same result with my RK a few years ago on a 16"HD. I cut maybe 100' of maple and oak and fir and the blade went dull. I heard a few similar stories so didn't feel like sending the blade back for sharpening. Since then I've had good luck with Swedish steel blades. They cut a little rougher but last a long time and cut fast.

Greg

[Jameel Abraham]

I'm sending it back to Laguna. At this point, I just want a refund. We'll see what they say.

I'd still like a carbide-tipped (the RK is stellite) just to see how it works. I've read dozens of good reviews of the Lenox here, and I should have probably went with that. That's about $200 for my saw though. Not cheap. In the meantime, I've ordered a Starret Bi-metal 4tpi 1/2" blade from Iturra, we'll see how it performs. He told me he couldn't tell the difference between the Starret and the the Lenox Bi-metal, so I went with the Starret, since it ended up being about $10 cheaper.

[Justin Bukoski]

Jameel, take a look at the 3/4" wood slicer from highland hardware. I routinely slice 1/16" veneers off of bubinga, cocobolo etc and it cuts through them like butter. At ~$40, it just can't be beat.