BS blade/thrust bearing/blade stone, etc

[David Ragan]

Do you all think that your BS blade, after hitting the thrust bearing for a period of time, gets work-hardened and thus shortens the life of the blade?

For instance, if that is the case, the rear edge of the blade hits the thrust bearing, effectively making a 90 degree corner there, and then, work hardening would facilitate a wire edge, then maybe a small crack, leading to blade failure.....?

Perhaps if one ground a slight round on the back of the blade, and kept it there, all this domino of events might not happen?

Because.........properly set up, the blade (whilst not over-doing the feed rate) is supposed to hit the thrust bearing, right?

I have had a small purpose made stone for this purpose for some time, and have about $300 tied up in a nice blade, but must admit have not been too disciplined about using the little stone.

What do you all say?

[Bill Huber]

Nothing, I just don't see the problem, I use a 1/2" blade on the saw the most for re-sawing and really have not seen a problem.

[Erik Loza]

David, what width blade are we talking about?

Erik

[Bill White]

I usually stone a new blade, and have not seen the need to re-stone afterward.
Bill

[Peter Quinn]

When I first started I watched a few videos and read a lot of books, in one of the. It was recommended to stone a radius on the back of BS blades to reduce drag when cutting curves, so I got a stone and did so. Then I started using timberwolf blades, noticed the backs didn't seem to have any burr, so I called and asked their advice. They told me theirs were smoothed during manufacturing and dressing the backs was unnecessary. So I skip it. Last year I got a Lenox die master for resaw, that didn't seem to have any burrs on the back either. I'm thinking if your blade gets hot enough to case harden, maybe something is wrong with the bearings? In any even when I've seen blades break it's usually when they were getting dull, so they got real hot from working too hard, could be minor surface cracks on the backs that gave up? Hard to tell, but the blades were pretty close to shot at that point anyway. So if it's a carbide blade, get it sharpened before it reaches pretty close to shot seems the best insurance to me, can't see where stoning would hurt?

[Erik Loza]

Minimax USA used to sell "tuning stones" back in the old days. I've done it a few times to Olsen blades (never to Lenox) and maybe it did something, maybe it didn't. Couldn't honestly tell.

That being said, my suggestion for any blade wider than 0.50" is to set the thrust bearing far enough back that the blade never touches it during the cut. Really no reason to, assuming tracking and tension are good.

Erik

[Jason Beam]

That being said, my suggestion for any blade wider than 0.50" is to set the thrust bearing far enough back that the blade never touches it during the cut. Really no reason to, assuming tracking and tension are good.

This. If you're pushing the blade off the wheel, you're pushing too hard and feeding too fast (or the tension is too low).