resaw blade for 18" bandsaw...3/4" 4/6tpi or 1" 2/3tpi?

[Chris Friesen]

I recently bought the Steel City 18" bandsaw, and I'm starting to shop around for blades. In particular, I'm looking at bimetal blades for resawing. I found a supplier that offers both m42 and matrix blades. Both are variable pitch.

For the matrix blade, the 3/4" blade goes down to 4/6tpi, while the 1" blade is available in 3/4tpi.

The M42 blade has the above as well as a 1" 2/3tpi blade.

I'm planning on resawing some wide boards, so I'm tempted by the lower tooth pitch of the M42, but I've seen comments suggesting that M42 is not well suited to hand feeding. Anyone have any expertise here?

Does anyone have any experience with a 1" blade on this saw? The manual claims the saw can take 1 1/4" blades, so I'm thinking that even if they're exaggerating a bit it *should* be okay with a 1".

Lastly, has anyone actually used a 1/8" blade on this saw?

Thanks for any comments.

[Pete Bradley]

I haven't used this particular machine, but if I've eyeballed it. If I was testing out its resaw capability for the first time, I'd be using a surefire band such as a 1/2" 3 or 4 TPI thin kerf silicon steel ("timberwolf") band. 3 TPI will be faster in side boards, but 4 will usually leave a better surface in hardwoods. It's a lot easier to experiment up in size once you've run a sure thing.

1" strikes me as a lot of band for a machine this light, but your mileage may vary.

Pete

[Rob Millard]

Chris,
I have had outstanding results with the Powerband Matrix II blades. I don’t have a machine as large as yours, so I can’t use the variable pitch blades for re-sawing ( I use their Powerband Matrix II .025 x 3/8 4P for re-sawing), but they are my general purpose blade, and I wouldn’t use anything else. I use my bandsaw every day, and these blades have lasted nearly a year on my machine. The above mentioned re-saw blades have also outlasted any other blade I tried by a large margin.
Rob Millard

www americanfederalperiod.com

[Mike Wilkins]

I don't have any experience with Steel City, but on my Laguna LT18 I use the Resaw King blade in the 1" size. Laguna, like most other blade retailers, can sell you a blade in whatever length you desire. The Resaw King blade cuts like a hot knife through butter for me.
I have also read positive reviews on the Woodslicer from Highland Hardware in several magazines, including FWW and American WW.

[Tom Cowie]

I don't have any experience with Steel City, but on my Laguna LT18 I use the Resaw King blade in the 1" size. Laguna, like most other blade retailers, can sell you a blade in whatever length you desire. The Resaw King blade cuts like a hot knife through butter for me.
I have also read positive reviews on the Woodslicer from Highland Hardware in several magazines, including FWW and American WW.

I too use the Resaw King and have had excellent results. When "NOT" wasting wood matters this is the band that I turn to. You can slice paper thin sheets with this band and not have but minimal saw marks..

Tom