10 in, 8 Tooth Rip Blade

[Lamar Horton]

Has anyone ever heard of, or used, such a blade. I had a guy who owns a cabinet shop tell me that an 8 toothed blade gives the best surface when ripping lumber. I asked him several times if he meant the number of teeth on the blade, as I have never heard of such an animal. How about any of you, or am I just ignorant?

Lamar

[scott spencer]

That logic seems counterintuitive to most of what I understand about saw blade technology. Assuming all other aspects to be equal, higher tooth count typically gives the smoother cut, while fewer teeth means greater cutting speed at the expense of a rougher cut.

I'd like to hear an explanation of that guy's logic.

[John Miliunas]

Yeah, I totally agree with Scott! Fast? Yes. Smooth? Well, if the guy thinks it's smooth, I guess I'd like to see what his definition of "smooth" actually is!

[John Lucas]

The usual modern anti-kickback rip blade for 10" saw is 24 teeth. 8 teeth in 10" doesnt make sense. I spent some minutes Googling to see if there is any rational and the only reference was to Japanese handsaw where the personmaintained that the best rip was 8 teeth to the inch.
Now here is another possibility: the "cabinetmaker" was counting the teeth with his fingers and, gulp, he only had 8....now that is woodworking experience.

[tod evans]

i`ve used one of those, 1/4" wide carbide and deap gullets. yeah it`ll rip but far from smooth in my opinion. takes way more horsepower than the standard cabinet saw offers too. i don`t remember the brand, it`s been lotsa years...

[Doug Shepard]

Hard to figure whether he's talking about the total number of teeth on the blade or the TPI. Are you sure he didn't say 10", 80 tooth? The circumference around the edge of a 10" blade is something like 31.4 inches. If it's 8 teeth total, that's about 1 tooth every 4 inches. I've never seen anything like that. If it's 8 TPI, that's about 251 teeth total around the edge - also something I've never seen. I've got a 100 tooth 10" blade that gives incredibly smooth cuts for crosscutting, but there's no way I would ever try using it (or an 80 tooth either) for ripping. I can smell the wood burning just thinking about it.

[Lamar Horton]

He really meant 8 total teeth, as i asked several times during our conversasion. I had a difficult time with it also. He did mention, as I should have in the original post, that the blades were intended for a gang rip saws. But they could be used on a table saw. The google search I came up with was a 8 tooth 12 in blade for cutting hardi board. The teeth on this blade were coated with diamonds.

[Charlie Plesums]

The number of teeth in a rip blade is normally much smaller than a combination or cross cut (plywood) blade.

Although I don't change blades for ripping, both my 10 and 12 inch combo blades have 40 teeth, my plywood blade had 80 teeth, but the 12 inch rip blade that came with my saw has only 24 teeth.

I haven't heard of an 8 tooth blade, but fewer teeth in a rip blade makes sense. My dust collector sometimes gets plugged when I rip, because the "sawdust" are really long "1/8 inch wide shavings" that get hung over the safety grid, and this is with a combo blade where only one tooth in 5 is a raker.

[Jim Becker]

I use a 20 tooth Forrest WW-II custom ripping blade. No way does it leave a "smooth" surface, but it cuts like butter in anything I throw at it. I've also never seen any 10" blade with as few as 8 teeth...my 20t blade is scary to look at as it is!

[Jim DeLaney]

Has anyone ever heard of, or used, such a blade. I had a guy who owns a cabinet shop tell me that an 8 toothed blade gives the best surface when ripping lumber. I asked him several times if he meant the number of teeth on the blade, as I have never heard of such an animal. How about any of you, or am I just ignorant?

Lamar

Okay, set your watch back about fifty years... When carbide blades first came out - at least at the 'hobbiest' level, they were very expensive, and didn't have very many teeth on the blade. Somewhere in the 1940's, my dad got a 9" craftsman <b><i>tilting table</B></i> saw. He bought a gee-whiz carbide blade for it in the early 1950's. It had 8 teeth on a 9" blade. It actually cut pretty good - for its time.

Today, that saw is still in the basement at my mother's house, and it still has that 50 year old carbide blade in it. Hasn't been run in probably thirty years, but...

[Charles McCracken]

For ripping you should have 3 to 5 teeth working in the wood (5 to 7 for crosscuts). The low end of that range will give the fastest cuts and the high end the best quality. Going lower in tooth count will give a rough cut and higher will lead to burning. An 8 tooth would only have 2 teeth working so it would be rough even if you were ripping 3" stock and wanted a very fast cut.

Charles M
Freud America, Inc.

[Michael Perata]

To start Charles' off to a good year:

I use a Freud 12" 40T Glue Line Rip and it does give a glue line rip. Nice blade and reasonably quiet.

I can rip 8/4 Lyptus as fast as I can push the stock on my MiniMax.

[Ian Abraham]

My portable sawmill (Peterson) runs a 21" circle blade with 4 teeth. (yes Four - I've counted them all )
Rips very fast by cutting large chips but still gives a suprisingly smooth cut, well for a sawmill anyway. If you have the power to drive the big carbide teeth then yes they would rip very fast. I would think a blade like that was designed for a resaw to edge lumber off a sawmill. Results would be roughsawn, but accurate. I cant see it being 'glue line' but it would be fast and just need a quick plane before use.

Cheers

Ian

[Matt Meiser]

My portable sawmill (Peterson) runs a 21" circle blade with 4 teeth. (yes Four - I've counted them all )

I'm picturing a metal disk with 4 axe heads welded on

[Steve Clardy]

I'm picturing a metal disk with 4 axe heads welded on