bandsaw blades

[Jim Colombo]

I'm probably opening a can of worms but I will ask the question anyhow. I'm looking for a 111" 3/16 10 TPI bandsaw blade (for making bandsaw boxes). Who makes the best blade?

[Curt Harms]

I'm probably opening a can of worms but I will ask the question anyhow. I'm looking for a 111" 3/16 10 TPI bandsaw blade (for making bandsaw boxes). Who makes the best blade?

Yeah, that's sorta like asking who brews the best beer . You could click on the 'advanced search' button in the upper right hand corner then click 'search single content type' tab then enter your preferred key words and time frame. If you don't click on a content type tab, you'll get "nothing found" or similar words. My personal preferences - the ones I have personal experience with - are Lenox flexback and Supercutbandsaw.com. I see Supercut's 3/16" blade offering is limited to carbon tool steel, their premium gold (which I have and seems to last a long time) or bimetal are not available 3/16"; 1/4" is as narrow as they go. Woodcraftbands.com seems to be a pretty popular source. Bimetal blades such as the Lenox Diemaster2 seem to have a minimum width of 1/4" as well.

[Nick Lazz]

I agree with Curt...
For re-sawing I use Timberwolf and Woodslicer. I like them both and you can order custom sizes (which is prob true for most). You just have to try a few and see what you like. Both of the blades I mentioned work well for me but they perform a little different.

[Gus Dundon]

Best blades can be expensive. I'll go with cheap priced 101 Flexback carbon blade. Cost of wood vs cost of blade. Not every cheap blade fail quality.

[Erik Christensen]

I am still trying to figure out the whole bandsaw blade thing after having a saw for 4+ years. Makes choosing a TS blade seem too easy by comparison. The path I went down first was trying to get a good balance of performance (cut speed & quality) and cost and ended up so not happy with the results that my 19" BS was the least used tool in my shop. Finally, before I gave up on it entirely, I bit the bullet and got a carbide blade after trying numerous carbon steel ones. What a revelation - it cuts faster than any blade I have used (not for use on green wood) and the 3tpi blade leaves a smoother finish than the 6-10 tpi steel blades I had been using. It resaws without hassles and does everything I hoped my BS would do but failed to deliver with carbon steel blades (unless they were brand new). If you want a do pretty much anything blade that you can just leave on the saw then to me carbide is the way to go.

Only downsides are - no green wood (here in So Cal the only wood is in the lumber yard) and only available in larger blade sizes so you need a carbon blade for detail work (I have a scroll saw for that).