New Lenox Woodmaster CT 1" Blade

[Sam Blasco]

Hi Guys. I had posted this at a few other places and thought some here might like to see it too:

I know Charlie Plessums has reported on this blade and I thought I would throw in my observations. I have had this blade for one month now and been performing side by side comparisons with my all time favorite blade, the Lenox TriMaster. This past weekend, I had six students in for a bandsaw class, and it was really tasked. Very happy results I'm pleased to say. http://familywoodworking.org/forums/images/smilies/023.gif When I first got the blade, my initial reaction was that it was a nice blade, but still not the baby smooth resaw cuts like the TriMaster. And while that still stands true from my observations, the cut quality is mighty close, though the Woodmaster claims a few advantages over the TriMaster.

It is designed with wood in mind, where as the TriMaster was designed for metal, and it just turned out to cut wood so nicely at the faster speeds. And I found that the 2/3 varitooth design worked the best for wood vs. the 3/4 varitooth. The Woodmaster is a more traditional tooth pattern, at a smidge over 1 TPI (methinks 1.3), though it is on the same blade body as the TriMaster. Thus, it has the strength of a TriMaster but cuts noticably faster and with less feed pressure. It is carbide tipped like the TriMaster, with no tooth offset (hence the smooth finish), but the teeth are not as wide and so less waste. I got four more pieces of veneer from the same 7/4 stock with the Woodmaster than with the TriMaster. This is also an advantage when bookmatching, as the bookmatch is that much closer to a perfect mirror reflection than with the thicker kerf blade. I also noted that when using it with my power feeder (6" maple and lyptus boards, 5 footers) the blade did not ride the thrust bearing like the TriMaster, again due to the thinner kerf and faster resaw ability and the fact that less feed pressure was needed.

And even though the finish left after the cut wasn't as silky as the TriMaster, it was a heck of a finish that could be easily handled in the next stage of a project (sand or plane) with nearly the same amount of steps. And the finish is still nice enough to go straight to glue up if you are laminating or veneering.

For ripping, there was no real difference between these blades, but again, the smaller kerf is a huge advantage.

The other big plus is the Woodmaster comes in about 30% less expensive, and because it is not a vari-tooth design, the blade welding step is not quite as critical as getting it right on the TriMaster. (I know more than a few folks who ordered their TriMasters from the lowest priced online place they could find, only to discover that not all blade welders are created equally)

For folks with Mini Max Bandsaws, SCM will begin stocking this blade in our most common lengths, and as always, you can order them for the older machine lengths, too. Or, you can order them from any Lenox distributor, either online or local. Again be cautious of the blade welders -- I'll offer this bit of free advice -- NEVER ORDER A BLADE ON A MONDAY, AND ONLY ON A FRIDAY AFTERNOON IN A PINCH. http://familywoodworking.org/forums/images/smilies/wave.gif

[Mark Singer]

Sam,
That looks like a great blade! I appreciate the review and will consider it when and if my 2 Trimasters ever wear out! They have been going strong for years now and still cut beautifully! I like the thinner kerf of the Woodmaster. What do you think of Wednesdays?:confused:

[Greg Funk]

Sam,

Thanks for the review. Do you know if either one of these blades is preferable for 16" saws. I understand Lenox doesn't really recommend it but there seem to be quite a few people using the Trimaster on 16" saws.

Greg

[Mike Spanbauer]

Thanks for the review Sam. I've the same question as Greg regarding band fatigue (although, it shouldn't matter if it's the same band stock as the Tri).

Thanks for the nice review!

mike

[Bill Reed]

I too am interested in getting one of these blades for my new MM16 and would like to know if they work on 16" saws.

Bill

[nic obie]

Ditto on the MM 16 question.

Thank you for letting us know.

[Sam Blasco]

Mini Max, per se, has no official stance about using a 1" Trimaster on the MM16. That said, MM orders alot of them for folks, and I don't remember any major problems I have heard about. This questions gets tossed around alot, and depending on who you hear from, how ever "expertious" the informer, there seems to be no consistency. Sometimes I hear no smaller the 18" wheels, sometimes 20", sometimes even 24". I can only speak from experience. I went thru two 1" Trimasters in four years when I had my MM16, and neither of those blades were retired due to failure or fatigue. I just wore them out. I was pretty religious about not leaving them on the machine when not in use, but maybe some other MM16 or LT16HD customers can chime in here with their own experiences with the Lenox Trimaster 1" blades. Hope this helps somewhat.

[Warren Clemans]

I'm curious about the advice to take a carbide blade off the machine when not in use. Do you coil it in 3 loops to store it? If so, I would think that leaving it on the machine (with the tension off, of course) would be better for the blade because it wouldn't be bent as severely as if it were coiled. 3 coils in a 154" blade gives you, what, about a 12" diameter circle? If you don't coil it, how do you store it?