glenn bradley
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Vaughn has spoken highly of Ellis blades for awhile on here. Dad picked up an order and so gave me one to try. I had pretty well run a Woodslicer to ground on a couple of large pecan projects and it had started to track poorly. So I put on an Ellis Flexback, 3/4" wide, .032" thick, 4TPI skip tooth blade. I adjusted the tension via the flutter method as is my practice on blades in this material. My saw is setup to cut parallel to the miter slot so I don't experience drift so I just aligned the guides and ran some 1/16" slices off of a scrap of walnut.
The blade is brand new and so was very sharp. I took the first slice at what I would consider a comfortable feed rate. The blade tracked fine, left a finish that would be too rough for veneer but, was smoother than the 2-3 skip Timberwolfs I often use. The second cut was fed faster but no where near pushing the limits of the blade. The cut again tracked fine and as one might expect, left a rougher surface than the slower feed. I then fed at about 6 seconds per inch (painfully slow) and the finish was pretty darn good.
. . .
The price on these blades is quite a bit lower than a Timberwolf or a Woodslicer. The Timberwolfs cut much faster (and rougher) but, you can get them in lower tooth counts so that makes sense. The Woodslicer cuts smoother and faster but, cost much more. I plan to leave this guy on for awhile so I can see how it does on taller stock. All in all it is a great blade, inexpensive, and I could definitely see myself picking up a batch.
I almost forgot to mention that the weld was very smooth and when I held a rule up to the back at the weld, it was straight and true. Any of you who got a Timberwolf during that period when their welds were showing up looking like someone's nephew was doing them as a summer job know how frustrating it is to un-roll a blade only to find it is not usable. The Ellis was top quality all the way; clean, true, well packaged, etc. Some other popular suppliers could learn a thing or two .
The blade is brand new and so was very sharp. I took the first slice at what I would consider a comfortable feed rate. The blade tracked fine, left a finish that would be too rough for veneer but, was smoother than the 2-3 skip Timberwolfs I often use. The second cut was fed faster but no where near pushing the limits of the blade. The cut again tracked fine and as one might expect, left a rougher surface than the slower feed. I then fed at about 6 seconds per inch (painfully slow) and the finish was pretty darn good.
. . .
The price on these blades is quite a bit lower than a Timberwolf or a Woodslicer. The Timberwolfs cut much faster (and rougher) but, you can get them in lower tooth counts so that makes sense. The Woodslicer cuts smoother and faster but, cost much more. I plan to leave this guy on for awhile so I can see how it does on taller stock. All in all it is a great blade, inexpensive, and I could definitely see myself picking up a batch.
I almost forgot to mention that the weld was very smooth and when I held a rule up to the back at the weld, it was straight and true. Any of you who got a Timberwolf during that period when their welds were showing up looking like someone's nephew was doing them as a summer job know how frustrating it is to un-roll a blade only to find it is not usable. The Ellis was top quality all the way; clean, true, well packaged, etc. Some other popular suppliers could learn a thing or two .
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