Official Luthiers Forum!

Group Hug, I mean Buy...

Absouletly what Bob S said about the Hastings blades. Super thin kerf,
smooth as silk cutting. Mine are 5/8" wide and track like a champ on my
MiniMax S45. Another thing to conisder when choosing a blade is the quality
of the welds as well as the band itself. The Hastings blades are dead straight
at the weld & perfectly finished.
I tried a couple of Timberwolf blades (bought them at a wood working show)
and every one of them failed at the weld. I later heard they had some labor
problems at the time that they've solved by now, but once bitten...
Chas Freeborn38727.5352430556

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Freeborn Guitars
and home of BeauGuard©

TWice shy... mmmm hmmmm...

My first Timbercarbide had just a little thump as the weld passed the guides, but it ran in. You are right though, alignment of a weld is terribly important on a wide blade.

So, John kicked off an interesting steel string band question which veered off into carbide being better in so many ways. Sanding especially and great cutting. Great thread. This should go in the archive. Oops wrong forum.

I have a 1/2" Lennox TriMaster blade that I will use for really tough woods, like brazilian et. al. My only gripe with it is that it seems to chop through the wood rather than cut through it, if you know what I mean. I've had some nasty tear-out at the bottom of the cut from it. Other than that, it seems to cut cleanly.
Unfortunately I don't have a good bandsaw...14" Rockwell. Ick.

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

[QUOTE=Dickey] Group Hug, I mean Buy... [/QUOTE]
Bruce do some homework. I'd be interested.

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Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

Anyone have the source info for Iturra Designs?
Nelson

I think Larry already did the homework. Half price for Carbide what a savings.

Might as well throw my 2 cents in..
I have the Laguna 24",started with Laguna's resaw King blade-like Bob said seemed to dull quicker than Lenox Trimaster,but had a smoother cut.
Had the Laguna sharpened twice after the second time got about 15 sets and the blade broke in two places-not at weld.
Got over a 100 sets out of Lenox Tri-Master, lots of tough wood(can you say Ziricote?) Just had it resharpened ( $60.) and away we go again.
I think I am sticking with the Tri-Master.Brad Goodman38727.5528935185

The mention of the quality of the welds is a very good point. Before I started buying from hastingssaws.com the supplier that I used was buying whole coils and welding to order. I went through two of his blades that I was not happy with. On both, the weld was slightly off (in different directions). I complained and got no real satisfaction.

So I switched to hastingssaws. They order custon from Lennox and all of the blades they sell are factory welded. Absolutely a world of difference!! So, I would suggest that you ask if you order one of these blades.

BTW, my 155" long 1" carbides cost me about $175 with shipping last time I ordered.

Grant

Hasting's thin-kerf blades are 5/8", not 1/2". Thanks Chas for the correction.

What is truly remarkable is how many times over the last few years a few of us have had this discussion. The ain't no holy grail so far as blades go, only different trade-offs. If you are a wood-selling guy the trade-offs are usually different than if you are a builder and occasional resawer.

For me, I've settled on using relatively inexpensive steel bands for almost all of my resawing. It is only for especially ignorant woods like makore or desert ironwood that I keep around a carbide blade.

So that's my strategy and I am sticking to it. Until, of course, I change my mind... again.

I want in on a group blade buy too.

John

a thousand foot spool of carbide reverse engineering the math at half price.

1000 feet divided by a 12.5' blade, will make 80 carbide blades. At half of $200, one blade costs $100, multiplied by 80 blades that a spool will make up.....

Dear Lord, is that $8,000? Big Ol'Grin. Maybe we'll just have to settle on the group hug on this one?

Hit the refresh button, Bruce...I took a zero out of the 1000lf. I should do nothing that requires thought at that time of the morning 100lf is proper and the rolls can very a bit. The last roll I bought about 18 months ago had only 12" of waste leftover...perfect. The welds cost $12 each (at that time) at Sierra Saw in Woodland, CA. Not every shop has the equipment to do the carbide bands, but Sierra Saw did all my knife sharpening for years when I had the retail store in Sacramento and were very good. Hastings probably has the most public reputation because of their advertising and they are excellent also.

Oh, so it's 8 bands not 80. Well that's more like it. Like fretwire then, rather than a roll of powerline cables.... grin.