Official Luthiers Forum!

What's the skinny?

Must be able to cut curves, so some sort of 1/4" blade...

We have one saw equipped all the time with an Olson All Pro 1/4" 6 TPI. Always smooth running, stay sharp, breaks are extremely rare. We cut solid and laminated neck blanks on this saw.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

Any bimetal 1/4" bandsaw blades such as Olson MVP or Lenox Diemaster will do well.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

For a blade for regular use in the 1/4" range, I think the Viking blades from Lee Valley, or the Timberwolf brand, are just fine.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Timberwolf brand works for me.

+1 Timberwolf


Ken Jones
Mountain Song Guitars

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Mountain Song Guitars www.mountainsongguitars.com

Plain (as in inexpensive) carbon steel 3tpi skip tooth unless you're cutting thin stuff under about 1/4". I like the skip tooth because I find it easiest to accurately follow curves - it goes where you push it & doesn't self feed. YMMV

Kevin Looker

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

Timberwolf 1/4" 8 TPI RK. Cuts small stuff clean. Resawed a maple neck blank with it the other day and worked good, just slow.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Timber wolf isn't available at 125" unless I missed it...

The size I use is available 54" to 234" in 1/2" increments from Suffolk Machinery

http://timberwolfblades.com/index.php

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Awesome, thanks!

E- vil bay is where I get my narrow blades e.g. laguna for the 10in craftsman and 12 in BS, they track well. esp. for free hand work

R & D Bandsaws (Tufftooth) in Toronto will weld to whatever your specs are, and you may save a bit with shipping being domestic.

Been using their blades for 5-6 years now and never any issues.

My limited personal experience suggests to me that once we ditch the freebie POS that came on the bandsaw out of the box, anything with appropriate width/tpi will represent such a huge improvement that it's a can't lose propoisition if we buy a blade from a vendor who peddles namebrand professional saws, like Lenox, for one. They're all going to perform so well that the OP will be delighted no matter what brand he buys. Again, a personal opinion.

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Peter Havriluk

Peter I tend to agree with you entry level BS blades are at best junk -- even Olson's. And I also agree that most all the name bands offer reasonably prices blades that will handle the every day tasks very well -- premise being the part time maker will save some $$ to spend on other fun stuff rather than buying the top of the line -- which again we can assume will offer most excellent performance but is it necessary for the tasks at hand? Now this logic (my logic) does not apply for blades intended for re-sawing -- for that I recommend the very best blade one can afford -- I've settled in on the "Wood Slicer" I've tried many including carbide tipped, I've found no peers.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

Interesting.

I did buy a resaw king with my SUV. I want to get a wood slicer as well, just to see what it's about.

Something I find confusing is the options on TPI, rake angle and such. Day to day usage sees almost entirely extremely thin pieces, except once every guitar where it needs to chew 3" neck stock material..

Does the woodslicer come in1/4"?

For the non- resaw blades I would just buy them from the local sharpening shop. These shops generally have rolls from lennox, olsen or morse and charge by the length. Cheap enough to have a few on hand.
Ed, in Vancouver Quality saw and knife sells BS blades this way. I also send these guys my better circular blades as they do the best job I have found.

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My memory is so good, sometimes I remember things that never happened.

I get my blades from them presently. I didn't think to ask for better quality. They are the peeps who turfed my fretsaw blade...

Wood slicer only comes in 1/2 and 3/4. It does make extremely nice and super thin cuts. I think I was getting something like .045 kerf. Does NOT last long and exotics though.

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Pat

That's what I've read as well. Apparently the resaw king is better that way...

I think woodslicer is designed for applications where the wood is extremely expensive and you want the maximum yield, regardless of how many blades it take to saw it.

It doesn't really do curves at all since it has no set, so it's bad for curves. Maybe it can be easily resharpened.

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

+1 for R&D bandsaws in Brampton Ontario .. only blades that have been on myh saw since day one ... I only really use 2or 3 blades .. 1/2 3 tpi for resaw, 1/8 - 10? for fine stuff, and sometimes a 3/16 8 or similar, I couldn't seem to get a 1/4 6 to run smooth, might have been a bad blade, but all the others I from there I have ever tried have been great .. going to get some more this weekend at the Hamilton wood show ...

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"