Bandsaw Blade

Richard Oedel replies: It depends. We use three teeth per inch with a skip tooth and a hardbacked blade. At 1/2˝ wide, this is fussier to work with but gives a good cut on most resawing less than about 6˝ although we’ve used it to resaw wood up to 15˝. We also have a carbide tipped, 11/4˝ wide blade that works really well for tough jobs, but at $300+ per blade, it is expensive.

Any good quality brand seems to work pretty well but we tend to buy Morse blades.

Bruce Wedlock replies: I have used the 1/2˝ 3-4 teeth per inch Wood Slicer blade from Highland Woodworking for years with excellent results. It produces an extremely smooth cut and the 1/32˝ kerf is great for cutting bandings. I’ve cut 8˝ stock into perfect 1/16˝ veneers with this blade. The speed of a bandsaw is not usually adjustable, but for wood, the blade speed should be about 1,000 feet/minute. What is more important is the feed rate into the blade. Thicker pieces require slower feed rates, slow enough to allow the blade to clear the sawdust. If the feed rate is too fast, the sawdust can cause the blade to cut a barrel shaped surface.