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Just broke my bandsaw's blade. Any suggestions as to pitch/width that will see me through trimming tonewoods and cutting braces? The blade I broke left scorch marks on the wood I cut, dunno if that was the oiliness of the wood or the blade's being too fine of tooth. Shopping expedition on Friday.

Thanks very much.

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Peter Havriluk

For general-purpose, I like 1/4 inch 6 TPI

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Pat

I have found the bs very useful for luthiers and have been accumulating a wide range for different purposes. Just took off a 3/4" thin curf 3-4 tpi I used for resawing guitar sets from maple and walnut, as well as veneers for perfling designs. Now I have a 14 tpi, 1/2" I have been using to cut out purflings from glued up sandwich; 3/32" thick.

I have placed two orders of 5- and 7 blades from Specturm supply over the past year. That's a lot but I am experimenting. I have 6 tpi blades 3/8" that I have not tried yet. I have also burned through several of their 5/8" thin curf x .016" . They are very thin and tension well but dull quickly.

pete it all depends on what you plan to cut , plus THE TYPE OF BANDSAW. i HAVE 5 OF THEM and have been using them for 35 years . If you tell us the type of BS you own, plus what type of wood you will be cjutting, the olfers may have suggestions

I thought I was safe in asking for advice from a luthiers' forum, that I wanted advice about bandsaw blades suitable for lutherie. Shoulda' made that clear. So. The bandsaw in question is a Craftsman 21400, a rebranded
Rikon 10-305, near as I can tell.

I'm grateful for all the advice so far. Much obliged.

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Peter Havriluk

Not sure how big of a saw that is, but basically I do ressw and general purpose cutting. I've got a beefy resaw setup just for that, and then I use a quarter inch blade on my other. You need a quarter inch to cut some of the tight curves that we do.

If you only have one saw, say 14 in bandsaw, you should at least get one resaw blade. I recommend a half inch Wood Slicer brand, and a quarter inch general-purpose blade. The general purpose blade doesn't have to be anything fancy. But make sure to have two of them on hand as it seems like when they go dull it happens instantly. Probably get two of the resaws if you can also for the same reason.

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Pat

I own the same one caftsman 10 in ,70.5in blade . I use a 3/8 in 3 or 4 tpi blade from saw blade express and there are many other suppliers

Thanks, everybody. And today I bought an 'emergency' blade over the counter at my local friendly Woodcraft store. Starrett, 4 tpi, 1/4". Have to do till I mailorder what I want. I'll take a look at Blade Express. I think I'd be happier cutting B&S and soundboards with a blade with more teeth per inch. Long time ago my A&P instructor told me that in order for a hacksaw to work metal without misbehaving, at least three teeth ought to be engaged with whatever is being cut. Wonder if there's a rule of thumb like that for bandsaws and wood.

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Peter Havriluk

On teeth, I have read 3 one place and 1 another, but have no idea which is correct, or even if their is a firm number. That's why I say I am experimenting. My bs is a 20 yr old delta 14". 14 tpi was the finest blade I saw at my supplier so I got it. When cutting up glued up perfling veneers of 3/32" it leaves a rather ruff edge but has a very small curf of about 1/32 or so. My other option is a 1/16" table saw with a curf of 5/64" or so I guess. It seems no smoother so I lean towards the 14 tpi bs method. Today I used it to successfully rip 3/32" strips off a 1/16" piece of bloodwood and cherry( both cut off of a 1" plank with the table saw, which excels on this cut). I read post and watched youtube videos for 9 months before I started cutting wood. Only by cutting with my tools and setup did it all begin to make sense.

Probably not. Thicker materials generally require a low TPI blade. For resawing acoustic instrument wood, 2 to 4 TPI blades are commonly used. Take a look at this:

https://www.highlandwoodworking.com/lib ... _guide.pdf

Of course, for every rule of thumb, there is some scoundrel out there happily breaking it.

Fewer tpi allows for faster sawdust removal, and will generate less heat.

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

"at least three teeth ought to be engaged with whatever is being cut."

That is also a rule of thumb for wood, but for the thin stuff we cut may not always be practical. For a 10 inch saw I would go with 1/4 in 6 tpi and for thicker stuff 1/4 in. 3 tpi skip tooth. With a 1/3rd hp motor you won't cut anything too thick too quick. The skip tooth blade allows for more room for sawdust when cutting thicker wood (2"+).
When you mentioned cutting B&S and soundboards I assume you mean trimming wood from 1/4 inch thick stuff - not resawing logs and thick boards into 1/4 inch thick slices.