Bandsaw Blade Gave Good Service

[Tom Bender]

Timberwolf Silicon Steel 1/4" x 6 PC .025

After a lot of hard use it snapped, while I was not around. It surprises me that it did not break at the weld. Welding involves a lot of metallurgical trauma after all. Oh well, no matter, it was dull and should have been replaced last year. I'll probably order a Lennox bimetal of the same configuration. 3/8" might be better for all around use,,,,still thinking it thru.

[Jim Becker]

I recently put a 1/2"x .025 Dimaster on my MM16 to try them out for my general purpose cutting. I generally use a 1/2" or 3/8" blade for that purpose. Definitely feels sharper and "beefier" than the Timberwolf bands I've used for a couple decades, but I have not cut much. Yet.

[John TenEyck]

I had two of those exact same blades break, too, Tom, also not at the welds, but they broke during use. Never bought another. I've been using Starrett now after a friend gave me a 100 ft role of both 1/4" and 3/8" stock. Both work great and none have broken, but I leave a 1/4" one on most of the time, for ripping (works surprisingly well in stock up to around 2") and general use. Diemaster II blades are good, too, but free is hard to beat.

John

[Tom Bender]

My use involves every kind of ordinary cut except making veneer. I rarely change blades because it's easier and faster to just resaw slowly with a narrow blade. 1/8" blade was just too light, 3/16" was too. 1/4" does ok and still makes contour cuts well enough but is pretty slow on resawing and a bit rough. I don't make veneer but have a 1/2" blade should I need to. Resawing is just to break down thick stock in small quantities. Am leaning toward a 3/8" Diemaster 4 tpi. This is going to frustrate me on curves.

Saw is an old 16" Grizzly

[Holmes Anderson]

I started using the less expensive Lennox Woodmaster C and flexback blades after damaging too many of the more expensive blades including Diemaster. The less expensive blades are still very good and I don't care as much when one finds a staple or suffers some other damage before reaching its max potential cutting life.

[Edward Weber]

I'm one who has never had a good experience with TimberWolf blades. I never found them to be particularly sharp, which then required more feed pressure, just not for me.

Currently (for green wood processing) I've been using Supercut blades. No one else can touch them for price and they last as long as more expensive blades I've tried. YMMV of course.
JMO

[Bruce Wrenn]

Years ago, FWW ran an article "The Little Blade That Could." It was a 1/4", 6TPI, hook pattern, 0.025 bi-metal blade. Ran one for 14 years cutting out Toy's for Tot's car bodies.

[Mark Wedel]

My understanding is that just like a well done glue join will be stronger than the wood it is glued to, same is true for welds - a properly done weld should be stronger than the metal that is being welded. Like most things, there are some exception (an exceptionally strong/tough steel), but saw blades have certain required characteristics (need to be able to bend in the case of bandsaw blades). So probably not too surprising that the breaks are not happening where it was welded.

[John Kananis]

You'll lose more than half your turning radius by going from a 1/4" to a 3/8" blade but that only really matters if you need tighter than a 1.5" circle radius on your cuts. 3/8 is plenty narrow for most things.

My use involves every kind of ordinary cut except making veneer. I rarely change blades because it's easier and faster to just resaw slowly with a narrow blade. 1/8" blade was just too light, 3/16" was too. 1/4" does ok and still makes contour cuts well enough but is pretty slow on resawing and a bit rough. I don't make veneer but have a 1/2" blade should I need to. Resawing is just to break down thick stock in small quantities. Am leaning toward a 3/8" Diemaster 4 tpi. This is going to frustrate me on curves.

Saw is an old 16" Grizzly