Official Luthiers Forum!

I'm looking forward to having my new table saw in the shop within the next week or two and the first thing I plan to do is set up to slot fretboards. I need a blade and have been looking at the different blades that are available (LMI, StewMac, Shane's - High Mountain). The thing that caught my attention was that the LMI blade has 190 teeth while the Shane's blade and the StewMac blade have 110 and 100 teeth. Is there any advantage to the extra teeth? I'm looking for some opinions on what you prefer and why. Also what kind of life can I expect to get out of a blade?

Thanks

Josh

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Josh House

Canadian Luthier Supply
http://www.canadianluthiersupply.com
https://www.facebook.com/canadianluthiersupply?ref=hl
House Guitars - Custom Built Acoustic Instruments.
http://www.houseguitars.com

Josh;
I have all the blades from all 3 you mentioned.
The Stew-Mac blade does not need any added stiffners.
BUT the High Mountain one is a few thousands thicker that works great for me.
I find the Lmii,Stew-mac .023 slot to tight .

Just my 2 cents.
Mc

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Mike Collins

There's an article in the latest A.S.I.A. magazine (Guitarmaker) that covers this topic nicely. Maybe y'all should subscribe?

Dave F.

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Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

Shane's have plenty of teeth and work great. They do need stiffeners though.

Happy New Year,
Danny

Shane's blade and Lee valley stiffeners. The combo has worked flawlessly for me for years.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

I use the Stew Mac .023 is the industry standard . I have the power blade and the hand saw both work well. Your results are only going to be as good as your templates .

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

I use the Stew mac .023 on my table saw, without stiffeners, with the Stew mac template and they seem to work very well for me.

Chuck

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I get the impression that any of these blades will work fine, provided that they are set up properly (stiffeners on the blades that require them). I guess I mainly need to decide on the width I want for my slot. Since I started building I have been using the LMI miter box and Japanese pull saw, and all my templates are LMI. I've been working with .023 slots and so I will probably stick to that.

thanks for the input

Josh

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Josh House

Canadian Luthier Supply
http://www.canadianluthiersupply.com
https://www.facebook.com/canadianluthiersupply?ref=hl
House Guitars - Custom Built Acoustic Instruments.
http://www.houseguitars.com