so anyone run out and buy some BC Saw blades?
this was only a limited scope review - 14" w/ riser, 1/2" resaw; but BC Saw looks impressive - good speed, excellent flatness, and good smoothness for $10; compared to Suffolk AS (vgood, vgood, fair) for $19.
In my case, the priority would be flatness/smoothness and then a distant 3rd speed.
I curious to hear others reviews as well. Based on your email (I haven't read article yet), the one thing they didn't address was durability. The $10 blade is only a bargain if it lasts reasonably long compared to the Timberwolf (more than half at any rate).
Tom Bergman asks:
Durability tests would have been nice, but the time it would take to test each blade to the point it loses its edge might be excessive in terms of article cost. I'd like to have seen speed and price both placed after flatness and smoothness, as they are both less important, but charting is often a guessing game with your readers.
I'd also have liked to have seen some woods more likely to be used in thin stock, either as veneers or as backing or facing or sides on instruments. Say walnut, cherry (which has its own special needs), hard maple, some curly or bird's eye maple. I know it's difficult to get consistent stock in any one wood, but a single test in soft maple doesn't really tell you that much, IMO.
Hell, I cut some 6" wide chinaberry recently using an Olson MVP, and got consistently excellent results, as I did with a 9" wide piece of red oak and another of white oak. Of course, I was adjusting feed to suit the grain and the wood itself, by hand, and I was using a single point guide clamped to the table, with no fence, so whadda I know.
My personal opinion is that anyone who wants to check out the best in bandsaw blades should locate the nearest really good luthier and ask him or her.
Charlie Self "Health food makes me sick." Calvin Trillin
Did they review Laguna Tools Resaw King - carbide with special depth of cut limiter design and special gullets for dragging saw dust out of the kerf. Made specifically for resawing, not to be used on cutting up logs/mini-logs/logettes.
I think Torben, the president and owner of LT either designed the blades or was in on the design. He's a bandsaw freak and loves cutting paper thin slices of 12 inch blocks of cherry, maple etc.. Not cheap - about a dollar an inch, $30+ to resharpen. For $130 for my LT16SEC I'll stick with TimberWolf. The 1/2" resaws nicely Have a look
charlie b
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