Bandsaw blade question

[Damon McLaughlin]

I have a 5/8" 4 tpi blade that came with my bandsaw, it got pretty dull recently but with some advice I was able to sharpen it (surprisingly easy!). But I will need to get a new blade soon anyway. After reading numerous posts, many of them here, I decided that a 1/2" 3 tpi would probably suit my needs of cutting blanks. A lot of what I do on the bandsaw is cutting corners off square stock before truing up on the lathe. Yesterday I built a log mill sled and spent the day processing small rounds (8-10") into blanks. I'm just cutting local woods so that means blued pine, fir, cottonwood and a newly acquired piece of locust. I went to a local company this morning that makes bandsaw blades and was told that a carbon blade would run $13.50 and a bimetal blade would be twice the price at $27.00. Both are 1/2" 3 tpi with a blade length of 111".

So my question is, is the bimetal worth paying twice over the carbon? If the bimetal lasts at least twice as long then I wouldn't mind paying extra. And when I go to order should I consider a blade larger than 1/2"?

Thanks.

David

[Bob Bouis]

Bimetal for cutting green wood and bowl blanks? Absolutely. Especially when we're talking about sharpening 333 teeth.

[Damon McLaughlin]

Actually its a combination of green and dry wood, depends what I can find. Yesterday I was cutting blued pine that was really wet, you could see the moisture pour out of the end grain. Today I'm cutting cedar. The logs are ten to twelve inches in diameter and came from my great grandfather's old bunk house. They were the supporting beams under the bunkhouse which was built in 1921. At almost a hundred years old they are about as dry as wood can get. Would the bimetal 1/2" be okay for this too or should I consider two different blades, one for green and one for wet?

[Reed Gray]

I have been using bimetal blades for 20 plus years, and won't use anything else. There is a long thread here about the Lennox Diemaster bimetal blades. They cut much longer and straighter than any other blade out there. 1/2 inch by 3 tpi is kind of a standard for cutting circles. If you are ripping a lot of log blanks, and you have the horse power to move it, a wider blade with teeth farther apart is good. On my Laguna 16HD, I use a Lennox 1 1/4 blade with teeth at 3/4 inch apart. They sharpen easily, though I have a saw shop do mine. The carbon blades would do dull with cutting one black locust log section. With the bimetal, you can hit a nail or 5 and it still cuts...

robo hippy

[Curt Harms]

I know Highland Woodworking sells a blade intended for what you're doing - cutting wet turning blanks. I'm sure other band vendors sell similar.

http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/woodturners-bandsawblade.aspx

[Dennis Collier]

I get my blades here......http://supercutbandsaw.com/ I use the Premium Gold Carbide, 1/2" X 3 hook. Using it similar to you and its an amazing blade. Prices are excellent too.

[Damon McLaughlin]

Thanks guys for your input. When its time to buy a new blade I think I'm going to buy one carbon and one bi metal and see how those work out. I don't do a whole lot of cutting on the bandsaw at the moment so those two should last me for a while. When those two are due to be replaced I'll try the Supercut, that will give me an idea which I like the best.

[John K Jordan]

Thanks guys for your input. When its time to buy a new blade I think I'm going to buy one carbon and one bi metal and see how those work out. ....

That would make a great experiment, especially if you can somehow cut enough of the same types of material to judge the difference. It might be hard to make a valid comparison cutting a little of this and that. What if you cut a lot of easily cut wood with the carbon steel blade then cut one board from hades and dull the bimetal blade? - hardly a fair comparison!

I say that only because of an experience years ago. I had a new Starrett bimetal blade (supposed to be top quality) and someone gave me a very thick plank of walnut used as a fireplace mantle - he said based on where he got it it may have been there at least 100 years. (No way to tell for sure.) The new Starrett blade dulled to useless in just a few cuts! I made a couple of crosscuts and ripped some turning squares and couldn't cut any more.

To this day I have no idea if the wood was just that abrasive or if I got a bad bandsaw blade. Some wood is naturally high in silica content. I don't know if very old wood can somehow get more abrasive. Maybe the that particular log or slab somehow got abrasive dust or mud embedded into cracks or voids - I didn't think to check for that.

I put that blade up and never got around to sharpening it to try again. I didn't even think to try the file test on the teeth. I still have most of the slab if anyone wants it!

This, of course, was an unusual experience. As for buying new blades, I always get bimetal. They are made with HSS teeth on a more flexible backing. With normal use in equivalent materials they should outlast a carbon steel blade, especially with the way we woodturners abuse blades! (unlike a woodworker who rarely cuts more than a little clean cherry stock.)

BTW, one tip to keep your blades sharp longer - remove the bark from a log section before cutting it up. Bark can contain a large amount of blade-dulling grit, especially if it has been on the ground (like most!) Bigger sawmills debark the entire log or have attachments that remove the bark on the mill. I sometimes skim off bark with the chainsaw, usually at the same time I flatten a side to set on the bandsaw table, sometimes with a hatchet I keep next to the bandsaw. If the bark LOOKS clean I often don't take the time to remove it.

JKJ

[Reed Gray]

I have found walnut tends to dull every thing more quickly than other woods. Most of the time I am cutting wet and figured it was the acid in the wood, but no idea really. No idea why your walnut piece was so hard on the blade.

I asked my saw blade guys about carbide tipped blades, and they said, only if you are cutting fancy veneers. When properly set up, you can cut very thin and need pretty much no sanding. The Lennox variation had very tiny tips, and could not be resharpened at the saw shop. Hitachi had one for resawing that had big stellite (cutter material on Woodcut coring blades), but that blade was 3 inches wide for their saw only I think.

robo hippy

[Bob Bouis]

A pressure washer really helps get crud out of bark that you might ordinarily miss.

The thing about bandsaw blades is that they're fragile. They're easily damaged by the workpiece and sometimes fail from metal fatigue. The teeth can sometimes lose their "set" also, which is hard to fix. Rough use can diminish the quality of the cut without breaking the blade. When deciding which one to get you need to weigh those concerns against the expected benefit of better teeth. For $13 bimetal is a no brainer. Carbide may be a different story.

[Van Huskey]

A quality bi-metal blade will last 7-10 (sometimes more) than a similar quality carbon blade. The only issue with bi-metal blades is they take roughly twice the tension of a carbon blade to operate at their best. At lower tensions they won't last quite as long and be more susceptible to damage so it requires a saw that can tension them properly to get the most life out of bimetal blades. My preferred bimetal blade is the Lenon Diemaster II.

[Damon McLaughlin]

I'll have to check to see what the local saw blade shop uses for their bi-metal blades, hopefully they're the Diemaster. He said they should last twice as long but 7-10 times as long would more than justify the extra cost.

John, mostly I'm cutting what I find here which happens to be pine and fir so I might be able to have a little consistency between blades this year to see how it works out.

[andy bessette]

+1 on carbide.

[Van Huskey]

I'll have to check to see what the local saw blade shop uses for their bi-metal blades, hopefully they're the Diemaster. He said they should last twice as long but 7-10 times as long would more than justify the extra cost.



That would be fairly cheap for a Lenox, I would expect them to be in the $35-40 range for a 9' 3" blade.

7-10 times is a reasonable expectation in wood BUT when working with wet and/or resinous wood you have to make sure to keep the blade clean or it will shorten the life.

[Van Huskey]

+1 on carbide.

Carbide is excellent and will outlast bi-metal several times BUT I don't use them for cutting thick raw wood. If you hit a chunk or metal or stone in the wood you risk stripping off teeth and ruining an expensive blade. While carbide blades can cut metals (even extremely hard metals) with no issues at the speeds wood bandsaws run they tend to shock them and crack carbide.

[Bob Bouis]

It may be that some particular brands of bimetal blades require more tension, but there's nothing inherent about bimetal that requires it, is there?

[Dennis Collier]

Just so were clear, the Premium Gold Carbide blade I recommended from Supercut is not a carbide tipped blade. Its a carbide impregnated blade. Give one a try. You'll buy more.

[andy bessette]

The blade I use on my 20" Agazzini is carbide tipped. Been using it for years without sharpening. Even cut aluminum with it.

[Chip Clark]

Just in case anyone is reading this with a Craftsman 14" BS - I recently tried out www.sawblade.com with a 3/4" 3 tpi and absolutely love it! Before this I was using a 1/2" woodslicer, which was pretty good, which is the same price as the 3/4" from sawblade. I do mostly resaw work and my first test cut was on 8" cocobolo and this blade cut 50% faster than the woodslicer, with much less blade drift, and smoother, so less time through the planer. Part of this improvement of course could be that I have probably gotten better at tuning the BS, but so far I highly recommend trying them. They custom cut to length and quick shipping. Just make sure you don't accidentally order portable BS blades!

[Van Huskey]

Just in case anyone is reading this with a Craftsman 14" BS - I recently tried out www.sawblade.com (http://www.sawblade.com) with a 3/4" 3 tpi and absolutely love it! Before this I was using a 1/2" woodslicer, which was pretty good, which is the same price as the 3/4" from sawblade. I do mostly resaw work and my first test cut was on 8" cocobolo and this blade cut 50% faster than the woodslicer, with much less blade drift, and smoother, so less time through the planer. Part of this improvement of course could be that I have probably gotten better at tuning the BS, but so far I highly recommend trying them. They custom cut to length and quick shipping. Just make sure you don't accidentally order portable BS blades!

If you are getting a smoother cut with a 3tpi blade with any significant set than from the Woodslicer (or any of the other impulse hardened spring steel blades from the same blade stock) there was something wrong with the blade or there was an issue with setup.

[Bob Bouis]

The price on the sawblade.com sawmill blades is really good, especially with the free shipping. At ~$20 for a 16'er it's mighty tempting to give them a try.

[Chip Clark]

If you are getting a smoother cut with a 3tpi blade with any significant set than from the Woodslicer (or any of the other impulse hardened spring steel blades from the same blade stock) there was something wrong with the blade or there was an issue with setup. yes that's why I included the part about improvements may have been due to me improving with my saw tuning.