Ellis Bandsaw Blade mini-Review

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.

Ellis Blade (1).jpg . Ellis Blade (2).jpg . Ellis Blade (3).jpg . Ellis Blade (4).jpg

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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Glad you like it so far, Glenn. :thumb: My go-to blade for cutting turning blanks is the 3 tpi 1/2" Flexback. I've also used a 5/8" 3 tpi on bigger stuff. They do a great job cutting wet or dry blanks up to the max capacity of my saw (12"). In my opinion, they're better than the Timberwolf blades with the same width and tooth count. They last longer and are 1/3 to 1/2 the price. And to give credit where credit is due, Tod Evans is the person who got me started using Ellis blades. He's forgotten more about woodworking than I'll ever know, so when he recommends something, I figure it's generally a good idea to follow his suggestion. ;)

And you mentioned the weld quality...since I'm typically just rough-cutting turning blanks, I tend to use blades well past their prime. I've run some that were painfully dull, and yet no matter how hard I've pushed the limits, I've yet to have one of the welds break.
 
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