expensive (VERY) bandsaw blades

Frank Fusco

Member
Messages
12,782
Location
Mountain Home, Arkansas
The following post appeared on a penturning forum. I am not trying to promote their product. I am only interested in learning if these blades can really be worth 6 to 8 X more than other quality blades.

<<<--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay fellow woodturners, I am sure most have you have heard of the Resaw King Blade. I was told earlier today that we have a surplus of our 3/4 in. stock, which is great news for anyone looking for this blade. The blades will sell for $99.00 for either a 93.5" or 105" blade, this is not an advertised special so you must either call me or PM me in order to get the promotion. The standard price of the blade is $161.76 for a 93.5" blade and $181.65 for the 105" blade. If anyone has a question regarding the blade or the sale please let me know. >>>>
 
Frank I don't know much about this blade. I plugging in the size I would need and the price showed @ $225 or something close to that. That also was a 1" blade. I had called in the past to inquire about a carbide tooth re-saw blade for my grizz 013 saw and was told that it would not work well for sawing wet wood which was what I wanted one for. :( Seems I am stuck using good 'Ole silicone steel. I might take the chance and have one made with 3/4 stock and see what happens............or maybe not.:D
 
We had one at our shop, It came with the Laguna we bought. As the name implies, it's for resawing, thin kerf, very smooth cut. IMO it might be worth the money if you sawed a lot of veneers, thats about it. Not a good general purpose blade. I was suprised at how fast ours dulled for a carabide blade. I read on some other forum a while back that the teeth are not true caradide like a lennox tirmaster, but don't remember the details of the discussion. I would never buy one, but that is a very good price on it.
 
Simply and easily put - NO :eek:

I am sorry but at a cost such as that the blade will need to cut to such a degree of GREATNESS that I will not need to joint, plane or sand - AND - I do not even need to cut. - I should just put the wood somewhere near the saw and the ROYALTY highness blade will take the wood and do all the work for me. :rofl:

***NO*** :eek:

That is simply WAY too much money for any band saw blade - even at 131-1/2 inches. :rofl:

*** NO *** :eek:

I have never heard of anything so absurd in all my hobby woodworking life.


*******************************************************************************************************

Uhhhh - well -- OK

IF and I mean IF - you are a professional - using your bandsaw for a living - and your livelihood DEPENDED on that band saw ---->> MAYBE <<-- otherwise - See my post above

Did I make myself clear on that? :huh:

I paid around $30 per blade for what I thought was TOP of the line Suffolk Timberwolf blades. $30 dollars - and I thought THAT was a lot of money. :D

OK - I will shut up now. :eek:
 
Last edited:
i run the lennox version of a carbide on my large saw and find it to be a wise investment. about 60% cheaper for the work i do than carbon steel, even more if i bought the "silicon" jobs.
 
Those lengths indicate most likely a 14" saw (with or without 6" riser). What I've read has led me to believe that the vast majority of 14" bandsaws aren't "beefy" enough to properly tension a 3/4" blade without running the risk of damaging the saw.

Of course, I could be misremembering that it's just my cheap saw and others at the low end of the 14" saw spectrum that can't handle 3/4" blades. I'm sure someone will chime in if I'm way off base.
 
Those lengths indicate most likely a 14" saw (with or without 6" riser). What I've read has led me to believe that the vast majority of 14" bandsaws aren't "beefy" enough to properly tension a 3/4" blade without running the risk of damaging the saw.

Of course, I could be misremembering that it's just my cheap saw and others at the low end of the 14" saw spectrum that can't handle 3/4" blades. I'm sure someone will chime in if I'm way off base.

mark,
1/2" is about all a tai/chi cast iron saw really wants and if you`ve got a riser on it going over 1/2" is pushing it for sure.
turners cutting green wood should look for a blade that has very few teeth with deep gullets and lots of set to the teeth that are there. removing the sawdust from the kerf is the biggest battle especially with wet/stringy wood.
 
mark,
1/2" is about all a tai/chi cast iron saw really wants and if you`ve got a riser on it going over 1/2" is pushing it for sure.
turners cutting green wood should look for a blade that has very few teeth with deep gullets and lots of set to the teeth that are there. removing the sawdust from the kerf is the biggest battle especially with wet/stringy wood.

For wet turning blanks, I use the 3/8" 3TPI or the 1/2" 3TPI >> BLADES << that Lee Valley sell, I find they last well and cut well.
:wave:
 
Frank,
what you run on your bandsaw depends on a lot of things, but most of all it depends on the saw and its capacity. I have a 25 YO Delta 14", and for the most part I run 1/4" Lenox, Woodslicer, or Timberwolf 3 or 4 tpi skip tooth. They don't cost all that much. I simply won't put a Delta blade on it - waste of money and effort.

But a couple years ago, I ended up with a Lenox Trimaster, which is a carbide-tipped blade used a lot for pattern making and resawing. It is a truly remarkable blade that I kept on my saw almost non-stop for more than two years. Used it for everything, it was so good. The only thing it didn't work at was cutting small radius curves. And my local price for that blade was quite a bit more than $100. I couldn't get anything else at the time, but in the grand scheme of things it has saved me money. And it can be resharpened.

Bruce, a MN galoot.
 
Bruce, first, welcome to the Family! Second, have you looked into what the cost would be for resharpening? I'm assuming that like a carbide tipped circular saw blade resharpening is best not attempted at home (unless you're a professional sharpener with the appropriate tooling in your shop, which I'm not and don't).
 
On one of the pen turner forums there was a discussion about bandsaw blades some months back. One of the pen turners did some research and talked with one of the better blade suppliers.. don't remember for sure which, so won't name names... the researcher was told by the supplier that most saw blades, regardless of name, etc... were good for about 200 board feet before they need to be sharpened or replaced... you can get 8 or 9 of the cheaper blades from the big box stores at the sale price of this blade... not the same blades obviously, but they work for my purposes.
 
Once again, FW has educated this old head.
While I won't be getting the Rolex...'scuse me...Laguna blades, I have changed my thinking towards what kind.
As soon as I install the riser on my 14" Grizzly I'll be ordering more blades. In the past, I have had excellent results with the Timberwolf 3/4" X 3 & 4 tpi blades. I prefer the 4 tooth.
But, as pointed out, the riser adds a weakness to the structure of the unit and trying to crank tension into a 3/4" blade might exceed what it was designed to handle.
I'll be getting the T'wolf 1/2"X4tpi for my bigger stuff and will have some smaller blades on hand for other work.
I'm quite sure I have been saved a lot of grief by y'alls advice.
Thanks Family. :)
 
expensive (VERY ) bandsaw blade

Its a heck of a lot more than I would spend fo it.I have been getting my blades from highland tools for the last 3 or 4 yrs.I have been using the 1/2"woodslicer ( 73" ) on my little Delta and I can resaw a 7 1/4" birdeye maple with no problem,cost 35 bucks.I use there 3/8 blade they have just for cutting wet bowl blanks,again with no trouble,cost 18 bucks.Been using the woodslicer for two yrs now and the blank cutter for about a yr.
Ken
 
Mark,
First, thanks for the welcome. Sorry my response is so late, but I'm working nights this week. I first joined this group to keep tabs on Stu's progress with his aparto renovation, what a great read that was! Anyway, it seems like a great place to hang out.

No, I haven't priced out resharpening that blade. I know of a couple places that will do it, but I haven't needed to yet. I just stuck in a 1/4" blade because I needed to do some sharper curves, so the Trimaster hasn't gone back into the bandsaw yet. I did put on a really crappy old beater of a blade for a short while to cut the bark off some walnut boards I had slabbed out a few years ago. But I stuck the 1/4" back in. For general use, though I sure like the Highland Hardware wood slicer.

Bruce, a MN Galoot.
 
Mark,
First, thanks for the welcome. Sorry my response is so late, but I'm working nights this week. I first joined this group to keep tabs on Stu's progress with his aparto renovation, what a great read that was! Anyway, it seems like a great place to hang out.

No, I haven't priced out resharpening that blade. I know of a couple places that will do it, but I haven't needed to yet. I just stuck in a 1/4" blade because I needed to do some sharper curves, so the Trimaster hasn't gone back into the bandsaw yet. I did put on a really crappy old beater of a blade for a short while to cut the bark off some walnut boards I had slabbed out a few years ago. But I stuck the 1/4" back in. For general use, though I sure like the Highland Hardware wood slicer.

Bruce, a MN Galoot.



Hi Bruce, welcome to the Family.
Somewhere, back in our cyber-files is a tutorial on sharpening bandsaw blades yourself.
Impatient me hasn't tried it yet but probably will one of these days.
 
Hi Bruce, welcome to the Family.
Somewhere, back in our cyber-files is a tutorial on sharpening bandsaw blades yourself.
Impatient me hasn't tried it yet but probably will one of these days.

Frank, we were talking about a carbide tipped bandsaw blade - I honestly don't know if those are a do-it-yourself kinda thing.

A friend of mine has some sort of jig to hold a handheld grinder (I think it was either an angle grinder or a dremel - it's been awhile) in place to touch up the big blade he had on the portable bandmill that he stored at his place for some time. Not sure if this is what you're talking about or not for steel blades.
 
the regular blades i buy cost around 10 bucks (or less) for my little saw 130" blades.......not worth the time to sharpen and set teeth to me.
 
Top