BS Blades

[John Fricke]

I am going to order a new blade for cutting green wood. I know I want like 2-3 TPI but what width blade works best for cutting bowl blanks? I will be cutting mostly 10-20 inch blanks.

[Alex Yeilding]

http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/i...OD&ProdID=6944

Just bought one yesterday, but haven't mounted it yet, so can't vouch for it. But HW hasn't let me down yet.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Call Suffolk Machinery they will help you. The Timberwolf blade I have is a 1/2" AS 3 tpi and works well. I am thinking of trying there 3/8" blade for a tighter curve.

[Steve Frederick]

http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/i...OD&ProdID=6944

Just bought one yesterday, but haven't mounted it yet, so can't vouch for it. But HW hasn't let me down yet.

I can! I've had one on my bandsaw for two years. I just broke it last weekend. (My fault, forcing the cut)
I bought another, plus a spare!
Quick cutting in any grain direction. Cuts the full depth of my machine (12").
A very nice blade.

[Nathan Hawkes]

http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/i...OD&ProdID=6944

Just bought one yesterday, but haven't mounted it yet, so can't vouch for it. But HW hasn't let me down yet.

I don't know if it was here in general woodworking, or on the AAW forum website, but I've heard of a number of people, including myself, having problems with the welds on Highland's "woodturner's blade" I had three in a row break on me, which Highland promptly replaced at my demand, but one of those broke too. Admittedly, it did bind a bit which was my fault, but they are 0.032 thick, and shouldn't break that easily. I'm not saying they aren't great blades; they just obviously had an issue with quality control on the welding. Scared the ::#$(*& out of me when they broke, every single time. I've never had an olson or suffolk blade break. The highland blades used to be packed on a yellow cardboard sheet with a shrink plastic cover, but are now just loose with ties around them. I used several for a looong time, sharpening them roughly with my chainsaw grinder until the rake was significantly shorter. Maybe they're doing them in-house from a reel to cut costs, or outsourced to cut costs? At least one that broke was badly aligned; with each rotation there were a few teeth that cut significantly more than the others, dulling very quickly and creating a series of ridges around the blanks; not an issue, but disconcerting when you're cutting to have a constant slamming sound hitting the guides intermittently.

They are really good blades. I haven't ordered from them since my issue because I'm afraid of trying to set aside the time to spend a day cutting blanks, and have a bunch of blades break on me.

[Burt Alcantara]

John,
I've used 1/2 x 3 and 1/2 x 2 AS Timberworlf blades. Out of the box, they cut well. I only had one blade break and that was on my 14" saw pushing the blade way beyond its useful life.

My complaint against TW is the blades dull fast, at least that is my experience. My last blade, 1/2 x 2 AS, was like the proverbial knife through butter but the blade lasted about 1 week. After that, it wouldn't cut maple syrup.

I have a Diemaster 2 3tpi hook on order. Hopefully, that will last longer then a week.

Burt

[Dennis Ford]

I recently switched to a lennox diemaster 1/2 -3 tpi, the blade is a little more aggressive than I would prefer but has already cut more than wood than any other blade and is still cutting very well.

[Dick Strauss]

Is a Diemaster good for cutting green wood?

[Dennis Ford]

Yes it is good for green wood, that is probably 90% of what I do with mine. It is also good for resawing but I don't like it for cutting thin (less than 2" material).

[Jason Solodow]

I cut anywhere from 6" to 16" diameter blanks with a 1/2" 3TPI skip tooth blade. I order mine from bandsawblades.com and get 10 blades for about $90 including shipping. I think they're pretty good blades, I'll usually get anywhere from 75-100+ wet blanks per blade before they dull out.

[Jim Underwood]

I've had two of the Highland Woodworking blades. On the first one the weld was so badly aligned that it banged around the saw as soon as I put it on. So I took it back off and called them up. They sent a replacement immediately free of charge.

Since then I've cut a lot of green blanks with the second one. The biggest problem I have with them is after a day of cutting the pitch buildup is so bad it's really hard to get off and won't cut worth a darn after that. You have to remove it, clean it up, then re-install it.

It actually broke a week or two ago... and I was totally without a working blade... I got the Mapp Gas torch and the silver solder out and put it back together. It's been cutting ever since.

Time to buy some new ones though, these have been bent a couple of times...

How do you all clean your blades?

[Steve Frederick]

My Highland blade got a 3-hour workout today. Cut really well..until I smoked the motor!!
I cut over 40 blanks from some Box Elder, Locust, Elm and Lilac.
Now, off to get a new motor.

[ron hossack]

Another place that offers not only good blades but good prices as well.

http://www.woodcraftbands.com/

[cliff smith]

have had great success with he highlad woodturners blade , cuts green wood blanks like butter . highly reccomend