Not sure what to think about this email from Grizzly?

[lou Brava]

The OP said He hasn't even used the blade yet ? Use it if and than decide on the Grizz email.Your gonna need more than one blade regardless of it's questionable quality so order a few blades ASAP.

[Jim Becker]

My opinion...it's marketing to sell more bands to a customer that just bought a machine. Bands can have a nice profit margin to them.

[Curt Harms]

I agree with those that say the blade that came on the saw may not be horrible. Top shelf? Of course not but may not be bottom of the barrel either. The blade that came on my Rikon 10-325 was/is usable on stock that might contain hidden "surprises". I did get a blade on I think a Grizzly G1148(?) that was pretty bad but that was back when Grizzly quality was not very good.

[Jim Becker]

I agree, Curt. The OEM band isn't going to be a stellar cutting thang, but as long as it cuts, it's usable until it can cut correctly anymore. There are certainly going to be instances of a truly bad band getting shipped, but in most cases, it will be usable to set up the saw and to start using it.

[George Yetka]

My assumption is that their system tells advertising you own a bandsaw. So blades may be something you are interested in. Granted Upgrade may not be the best wording. "Add you your blade collection " may have been better.

[Keegan Shields]

Its an automated marketing email that attempts to sell you compatible accessories... nothing more.

[Jimmy Harris]

It wouldn't be smart business practice to ship it with the finest available blade. They ship it with a cheap blade to lower the cost, so the bandsaw is more attractive to most buyers. They know that a novice user probably won't know what blade they need and will want something just to get up and running when it comes in. So it should come with some blade, so people don't complain that it's incomplete. And more advanced users will be picky about the exact blade they need, so there's no way to please them all with a single, high-quality blade. Maybe they bought the bandsaw for resawing. Maybe they bought it for cutting curves. Maybe they bought it to cut metal or plastic. Each of those users will need a different blade. And if you started them off with an expensive blade, you're charging them more for something they're not going to use.

Since you can't please everyone, and there's no one-size-fits-all blade, they do the smart thing and ship it with a cheap, generic blade. It's the path that pleases the most people.

[sean hicks]

It may be that they have been getting a bunch of warranty requests from inexperienced users who use the supplied blade for a few month and wonder why their saw won’t cut straight. The email seems like a reminder that the stock blade is just a hold over, not a forever solution. A surprising number of hobbyist users don’t realize blades need to be sharpened or replace more than once a decade.

[Randy Heinemann]

In the end, it really doesn't matter what we all think companies like Grizzly should do. Most bandsaws come with blades that probably don't last very long. However, I found that, when I bought my Rikon bandsaw, the blade it came with certainly worked OK to become familiar with the bandsaw's use. There are so many bandsaw blades available that it has never been clear which ones are better. I have had great success with Starrett blades, somewhat less success with Highland Woodworking's Wood Slicer, about the same with Carter's blades, and various others. I just bought one from bandsawblades.com at a Woodworking Show, so we'll see about that one.

If you want to have the best results resawing, you not only need a good quality blade, but a sharp one, and the bandsaw has to be set up properly.

I'd be curious whether Grizzly actually directed the buyer to upgrade the blade or merely was sending a marketing email to generate additional business. I don't know of any other tool companies that admit to including low quality. In the end, I would just set up the bandsaw and try the blade that came with it. If you don't get results that are satisfactory, try others. No sense in dumping a new blade until you find out what the result is.