New Lenox Woodmaster CT 1" blade

Sam Blasco

Member
Messages
359
Location
Smithville, TX
Hi guys. I know Charlie P 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. :thumb: 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. :wave:
 
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