Done with carbide blades

[Tai Fu]

Given the cost of the blade, difficulty sharpening it (I don't think I will find anyone in Taiwan who knows how to sharpen them properly, with the 3 types requiring different sharpening methods), and the fact that any ding while installing/uninstalling them could ruin them, I found this steel bandsaw blade in Taiwan that seems to work well. It is a little narrower than Woodmaster series of blades, .032" backing but still cuts as well as the Woodmaster CT. I'm sure it won't remain sharp nearly as long but since it can be easily resharpened probably as much as you want (the sharpener can re-set the teeth if necessary) for only 3 dollars each time, I'm thinking carbide resaw blades aren't worth it. Every professional sawyers in Taiwan use them and they swear by them. The sharpener also has carbide blades but he tells me that he doesn't recommend them, because it seems when steel blades dull it becomes very difficult to feed and wanders, but it is hard to tell that a carbide blade has dulled, so the operator would force feed them leading to breakage. He showed me carbide bands with several welds due to breakage and I told him at that stage the band has fatigued and it will break in other places. So far I have cut some test boards and I like them. Maybe it's dull after a single session of sawing African blackwood but I'll just have it sharpened and it will be good as new. Cost of ownership is probably going to be 20 dollars plus 20 more dollars throughout its life having them sharpened, whereas carbide blade is going to cost me more than 150+ dollars and once it's dull it's worthless.

Does anyone here just use carbon or even hardened spring steel blades and have them resharpened when dull? How does it compare to people using Trimasters or Resaw King? How much does it cost to have a carbon band sharpened in the US?

[Mark Bolton]

Doesn't really pertain to your shop saw but we use steel blades all the time on the sawmill. We don't get endless sharpenings. Perhaps 3-4 at best but were talking about a lot more stress on the blade.

Do my own sharpening and setting with a sharpener that grinds the entire tooth and gullet. At least on mills, breakage occurs mostly when very small cracks form in the gullet. Grinding the entire profile and gullet (rather than just sharpening the tooth) helps remove the cracks before the blade breaks.

The same is true however, as soon as a blade dulls you know it. Where as with carbide you can keep going long after the tooth has lost its edge.

[Clint Baxter]

I would recommend getting a bi-metal blade from Lenox. They last extremely well and there isn't the issues in sharpening you deal with having carbide. I use them much more than my carbide resaw, and they're considerably cheaper as well.

Good do luck whichever way you go,

Clint

[Bradley Gray]

I had the 3/8 skip tooth blades from my Crescent band saw sharpened for a while. It was very reasonable cost- wise, but only the tips of the teeth are hardened, and this was ground off in the process. so the sharpened blade lasted a fraction of the life of a new blade.

[Loren Woirhaye]

I solder up my own now. If I had to do it over I would just by coil stock and skip the carbide blades. I can get more than 10 blades worth of steel coil stock for the price of a single carbide blade. I have a Hitachi resaw with a 3" wide carbide blade. When that wears out I'll probably just convert it over to running 1" wide steel blades.

[Tai Fu]

Is there any difficulty in soldering 1" blades vs. soldering smaller blades? I'm kinda going with the soldering route simply because coil stocks are so much cheaper than buying blades. However I had to throw a few out because of bad soldering jobs that led to breakage at the weld. Problem is when blades break it hits the frame hard enough to permanently deform the blade.

[Loren Woirhaye]

I haven't figured out the variables on soldering myself. I use a 3 wheel Inca 710 saw and blade breakage is a problem due to smaller wheel diameters. I have found the blades break adjacent to the solder joint, not at the joint, so there may be something going on with the heating of the blade I need to figure out. If the blade jumps the tires on the Inca, it may break later so I have to remember to tension the blade every time I turn the saw on. I've forgotten a few times and the saw threw the blade. After that, it didn't take long for the blade to break. If there's a kink in the blade after it breaks, it's done and will break again soon, but if there's no kink, it can be re-soldered.

I'm still experimenting to figure it out and use 1/4" blades on the Inca. I have 5/8" resaw stock for it I soldered a blade from and it seems like a good joint, but I haven't used the blade due to having the Hitachi on hand and the hassles of messing with the guides on the Inca.

Soldering is quick and easy once you get a few under your belt.

[John Downey]

Is there any difficulty in soldering 1" blades vs. soldering smaller blades? I'm kinda going with the soldering route simply because coil stocks are so much cheaper than buying blades. However I had to throw a few out because of bad soldering jobs that led to breakage at the weld. Problem is when blades break it hits the frame hard enough to permanently deform the blade.

There shouldn't be any difficulty if you have a good soldering set up. The main difficulty with soldering blades is getting a good alignment of the blade ends, having a good tight fitting joint, and having enough torch to get the job done quickly without annealing the blade far out from the joint.

I worked with a saw that used to do that when the blade broke, very annoying. Have you thought of sticking some steel plates in the corners of the saw? Then the blade end would probably turn the corner and not deform. They'd only need to be stuck in with caulking or something.