Not sure what to think about this email from Grizzly?

[dennis thompson]

I just bought a new bandsaw from Grizzly last week.
Today I got an email from them telling me to “ upgrade my bandsaw blade”.
I know that the blade that came with it is not the best, I haven’t even tried to cut anything yet, but the implication that they ship their bandsaws with junk blades doesn’t seem to be the most brilliant marketing strategy.
I’m tempted to respond asking them why I need an upgrade, (of course I know the answer to that).

[Keith Outten]

Higher quality blades are so much more expensive and the variety available makes choosing a higher quality bandsaw blade kind of a personal decision IMO. Shipping bandsaws with a lower quality blade saves the customer money in the long run, you have a lower quality blade to use when its appropriate and get to select the more expensive higher quality blade that suits your needs.

I purchased a Felder FB 610 several years ago that shipped with a general quality blade but I new at the time I was going to have to order the blade I really wanted.

[Richard Coers]

Higher quality blades are so much more expensive and the variety available makes choosing a higher quality bandsaw blade kind of a personal decision IMO. Shipping bandsaws with a lower quality blade saves the customer money in the long run, you have a lower quality blade to use when its appropriate and get to select the more expensive higher quality blade that suits your needs.

I purchased a Felder FB 610 several years ago that shipped with a general quality blade but I new at the time I was going to have to order the blade I really wanted.

I can't agree. Why not send a great blade so you can start working right away. A beginner has no idea what kind of upgrade he needs. Send them a blade they can really use.

[Bill Dufour]

Or make a deal with a quality blade maker and ship it with a clearly labeled blade to impress the buyer into sticking with that brand.
I think tire makers give good deals to car factories as advertising. Lots of folks will replace wit the original brand figure the factory knows what is best for my machine.
Bill D

[mike stenson]

I can't agree. Why not send a great blade so you can start working right away. A beginner has no idea what kind of upgrade he needs. Send them a blade they can really use.
Is there a blade that is great for everything?

I don't think so.

[Robert Hayward]

Is there a blade that is great for everything?

I don't think so.

+1. No matter what blade the saw was shipped with most would find fault with it.

[Mike Cutler]

I'm with Keith. Ship it with a servicable blade so the customer can get it up and running.
IIRC, Dennis bought a 14" Grizzly? Get a few T-Wolves, and experiment.

You'd be surprised at how "not junky" the blade that shipped with your saw might be. It won't last long, and you do want better blades, but it will cut as long as you're using the blade for it was meant for.

[Nick Crivello]

My Laguna didn’t even come with one. Buy what you want. :shrug:

[Aaron Inami]

It could be a marketing type email to influence you to come back to their site and "buy more blades", lol.

[Richard Coers]

Is there a blade that is great for everything?

I don't think so.
No, but every after market blade is better than the one they put on the saw now.

[Warren Lake]

non of my new machines came with blades or tooling.

Many of the used ones came with blades, used shapers with tooling.

[Bill Dufour]

For metal working it is normal to speed as much on tooling and work holding as you paid for the machine.
Bill D

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I think this is the norm for most large power tools. They send an average quality blade with the tool to get the new buyer started. For reason of being cost competitive, they don't send a higher priced blade unless, the buyer orders it and pays for it.

[Rick Potter]

I wonder if some customers may have received blades from a bad batch, and they were trying to give a warning?

[Earl McLain]

Maybe not in bandsaws, but i've seen a few exceptions to the Junk Blade on New Saw...
1. Ryobi BT3000 table saw, bought new 30+ years ago. Included blade was an Italian-made (purported by Freud) combo blade. Got rid of the saw 12-15 years ago, still using the blade after a handful of sharpenings. I'm not a combo blade fan, but will say that for a combo blade the Ryobi has performed favorably to the Forrest WW2 i tried.
2. Makita Magnesium circular saw. As a construction grade blade the Makita blade included was excellent on decking material out of the box, and also has held up well.

I'm sure there are other examples, but those are my first-person results.

In bandsaws, if i ever buy a new one--i'll treat it like no blade is supplied, just based on so many comments from various sources. If it ends up being otherwise, i'll view it as a bonus. I've felt the same about used BS blades included with the used BS's i've bought--and i didn't place any value on the blades being included in the deals.

[lou Brava]

The OP said He hasn't even used the blade yet ? Use it if and than decide on the Grizz email.Your gonna need more than one blade regardless of it's questionable quality so order a few blades ASAP.

[Jim Becker]

My opinion...it's marketing to sell more bands to a customer that just bought a machine. Bands can have a nice profit margin to them.

[Curt Harms]

I agree with those that say the blade that came on the saw may not be horrible. Top shelf? Of course not but may not be bottom of the barrel either. The blade that came on my Rikon 10-325 was/is usable on stock that might contain hidden "surprises". I did get a blade on I think a Grizzly G1148(?) that was pretty bad but that was back when Grizzly quality was not very good.

[Jim Becker]

I agree, Curt. The OEM band isn't going to be a stellar cutting thang, but as long as it cuts, it's usable until it can cut correctly anymore. There are certainly going to be instances of a truly bad band getting shipped, but in most cases, it will be usable to set up the saw and to start using it.

[George Yetka]

My assumption is that their system tells advertising you own a bandsaw. So blades may be something you are interested in. Granted Upgrade may not be the best wording. "Add you your blade collection " may have been better.

[Keegan Shields]

Its an automated marketing email that attempts to sell you compatible accessories... nothing more.

[Jimmy Harris]

It wouldn't be smart business practice to ship it with the finest available blade. They ship it with a cheap blade to lower the cost, so the bandsaw is more attractive to most buyers. They know that a novice user probably won't know what blade they need and will want something just to get up and running when it comes in. So it should come with some blade, so people don't complain that it's incomplete. And more advanced users will be picky about the exact blade they need, so there's no way to please them all with a single, high-quality blade. Maybe they bought the bandsaw for resawing. Maybe they bought it for cutting curves. Maybe they bought it to cut metal or plastic. Each of those users will need a different blade. And if you started them off with an expensive blade, you're charging them more for something they're not going to use.

Since you can't please everyone, and there's no one-size-fits-all blade, they do the smart thing and ship it with a cheap, generic blade. It's the path that pleases the most people.

[sean hicks]

It may be that they have been getting a bunch of warranty requests from inexperienced users who use the supplied blade for a few month and wonder why their saw won’t cut straight. The email seems like a reminder that the stock blade is just a hold over, not a forever solution. A surprising number of hobbyist users don’t realize blades need to be sharpened or replace more than once a decade.

[Randy Heinemann]

In the end, it really doesn't matter what we all think companies like Grizzly should do. Most bandsaws come with blades that probably don't last very long. However, I found that, when I bought my Rikon bandsaw, the blade it came with certainly worked OK to become familiar with the bandsaw's use. There are so many bandsaw blades available that it has never been clear which ones are better. I have had great success with Starrett blades, somewhat less success with Highland Woodworking's Wood Slicer, about the same with Carter's blades, and various others. I just bought one from bandsawblades.com at a Woodworking Show, so we'll see about that one.

If you want to have the best results resawing, you not only need a good quality blade, but a sharp one, and the bandsaw has to be set up properly.

I'd be curious whether Grizzly actually directed the buyer to upgrade the blade or merely was sending a marketing email to generate additional business. I don't know of any other tool companies that admit to including low quality. In the end, I would just set up the bandsaw and try the blade that came with it. If you don't get results that are satisfactory, try others. No sense in dumping a new blade until you find out what the result is.