Are carbide bandsaw blades worth it?

Tom Lewis

Tom Lewis

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Feb 24, 2000
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I have a Wilton 14" bandsaw. I have used bandsaw blades from Ellis for a number of years, but lately they just don't hold up. I am cutting scales off stabilized blocks of wood usually 1 1/2" square and 5" long. Cutting stabilized black palm or stabilized buckeye burl the blade makes maybe five cuts and then cuts very slowly. The blade feels sharp to the touch but has lost it's cut.
I can get maybe 6 regular blades for what one carbide bandsaw blade would cost. So those of you with experience, is a carbide bandsaw blade worth it.
My saw takes 92 1/2" bandsaw blades. All the carbide bandsaw blades I have seen are 93 1/2". Do you think that size would fit my bandsaw?
 
Hey Tom, I don't know about carbide blades, but my bandsaw is a weird size too. I've found that the bandsaw specific suppliers will make custom length blades for little to no extra charge.

Like I said though, I've only ordered regular wood cutting blades though, never carbide ones. So it might be different.
 
I have a Wilton 14" (with high and low gear for wood/metal). The blade tensioner has quite a bit of extra travel and I have a resaw blade that is a good bit longer than my regular blades and I have not had any issues with it. You only need 1/2" of travel to accommodate a blade that is 1" longer.
 
my wood saw takes both the 92.5 and 93.5 blades.. the blade it came with was junk..
i bought blades at Woodcrafters here in Potland in person .. they were just a normal blade they carry
i use these for lots of re saw type of work.. and have not had any problems with them.. i make sure not to tension the blade when not in use..
call me superstitious..
 
I'm sure Ben can chime in here, but how many TPI are the bandsaw blades? If you're using 12-14 tpi blades, like you use for metal, you have too many teeth in the cut and can't clear the waste. People go as low as 3 TPI for re-sawing...
 
My opinions for 14 inch saws,

For knife makers a carbide saw is not worth it. They can be damaged, or catch, or fail in other ways. They are excellent for furniture or guitar makers. If you are cutting large resawn pieces from clean, prepared material in a repeated process carbide blades are great. That's not what knife makers do, they cut small, hard, irregular pieces and make lots of small odd shaped cuts.

My other reccomendations would be to use more TPI. 6 tpi is too high for most work. Fine teeth leave a smoother finish but cut slowly, can't cut thick material and are more likely to burn or gum up in a cut. I would reccomend 3-4 tpi for most work. There are lots of different brands of blade, but Timberwolf blades by Suffolk machines makes my go to. They are the best made none bimetal or carbide blades I've used.
 
Just a little extra, I think lots of people want carbide bandsaw blades because carbide tablesaw blades are so good. Unfortunately the physics of the cut and mounting are quite diffrent, and you can't get the same excellent plug and play ability with carbide bandsaw blades that you get with tablesaw blades.
 
Only thing I think might be worth adding to those two posts, I have used a 3 TPI M42 bimetal blade for resawing and it does seem to hold up better than the plane carbon steel blades. It is thicker steel, which means I have gone with a 1/2 wide blade rather than 5/8" 3tpi carbon steel. The saw is a 14" which takes 111" blades and on paper claims to handle 3/4" wide blades, but in practice they don't work all that well and 5/8 is better. I have found 6tip to be pretty good with a 1/4 or 3/8" wide blade for profiling handle scales.

Is it possible that the slowing cutting speed, while the blades still feel sharp is the result of losing set?
 
I get excellent results with my Lenox carbide-tipped wood cutting blade in veri-tooth spacing. I don't remember when I last changed it.

That said, any good grade blade will do what most knifemakers need. Knowing HOW to cut wood is what is important.
 
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I can't complain about my Lenox 3 tpi carbide blade so far in light use. I got it in 1/2 in for my small saw (9 inch), which is absolutely the limit for my saw. It cuts clean and smooth for me for resaws and I dont have to spend much time flattening or sanding through tooth gouges. I did some with smaller carbon blades (3/8 or 1/4 inch) but they wander too much. I use a simple fence and consistent pressure through the cut.
 
I’ve cut a few thousand blocks, and tried several different options (but not nearly as many as some of the others here).

This is what I’ve found works the best for me.

For unstabilized wood and REALLY rare/expensive phenolics and epoxy, I use a Timber Wolf 3/4” 3TPI blade. The blades last forever with unstabilized wood, but I only get about five cuts when ripping 1.5” x 5” phenolics. At $40 a blade, it’s more than worth it for the really valuable material because of the super thin kerf.

For stabilized wood and Micarta UP to 1” thick, I use a 7-1/4” thin kerf circular saw blade and zero clearance insert with a table saw and Grr-ripper push block. I like the Norske and Diablo 40 - 48 tooth blades for this. For Micarta and stabilized wood that is 1” - 2”, I use an 8-1/4” thin kerf circular saw blade in a table saw with a zero clearance insert. I like the Norske and and Diablo 60 tooth blades for this. The smaller circular saw blades do a few things for you on the table saw. First, the smaller kerf means less resistance and material loss. The smaller diameter increases the torque of the saw. And last, the smaller diameter reduces the speed of the teeth, which should reduce the chances of burning. I’ve tried about twenty options, and have found this setup to work the best, by far.

For really thick Micarta, I use a carbide blade on my 14” wood band saw (thanks D DevinT ) and it works pretty well, but isn’t ideal. Keep in mind that most of the carbide blades can be sharpened three times or so, before they need to be replaced. A metal cutting band saw at a fairly slow speed would be ideal. I recently cut a 5-3/8” x 48” Micarta rod on a liquid-cooled, horizontal metal cutting band saw and I got nearly 100 cuts on a bimetal blade before I had to swap in a fresh one.
 
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Thanks to everyone who wrote in in response to my question.
On Amazon I found a carbide bandsaw blade for about 1/3 the price of other carbide blades. The ratings were very good on this item so I ordered it. It is "Supercut 93 1/2" x 1/2" x .025" 3 tpi carbide.
I have been very impressed with this blade. I have cut a lot of very hard stabilized blocks and the blade is still sharp.
My bandsaw took 92 1/2" blades, but the 93 1/2" blade fit.
 
Tom Lewis said:
Thanks to everyone who wrote in in response to my question.
On Amazon I found a carbide bandsaw blade for about 1/3 the price of other carbide blades. The ratings were very good on this item so I ordered it. It is "Supercut 93 1/2" x 1/2" x .025" 3 tpi carbide.
I have been very impressed with this blade. I have cut a lot of very hard stabilized blocks and the blade is still sharp.
My bandsaw took 92 1/2" blades, but the 93 1/2" blade fit.
Click to expand...
I have been using Supercut blades for years. Good blades and last far longer then other blades I have tried
 
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