Which Carbide Blade

[Tom Cancelleri]

There's a few options out there to consider for my MM20 bandsaw. While yes I know I'm not a production shop and I'm not running thousands of linear feet a week through my saw, I would like to weigh my options. 

The saw uses a 168" blade, here are my options

Laguna Resaw King 2-3 TPI - $299

Lenox Trimaster 2-3 TPI - $229

Lenox Woodmaster CT 1.3 TPI - $149

Timberwolf Carbide 2-3 TPI - $238

The RK can be resharpened 4-5 times, Timberwolf (Suffolk Machinery) will resharpen a Trimaster or a Timberwolf carbide blade for about the cost as the Resaw King probably 2-3 times  at most. The woodmaster has a weird alternating tip geometry that makes resharpening it something nobody wants to do. 

[Chestnut]

I voted cheap and i thought I'd explain it's becomes I'm a cheapskate and on my 14" i plan on buying a dermal and just hand sharpening it when i need. For how little i plan on doing any large resawing for me it's not worth it. Though I'll run a 93" blade which would probably be easier to resharpen myself. Again I'm cheap.

[Brendon_t]

Tom,  how much does resharpening of the carbide cost including shipping if you have to send it off. 

[Tom Cancelleri]

About 80 bucks each time

2 minutes ago, Brendon_t said:

Tom,  how much does resharpening of the carbide cost including shipping if you have to send it off. 

About 80 bucks each time

[Brendon_t]

Hmm.. that is an interesting question.  Given that you got a Slamming deal on the saw, and that I assume it will be your primary resaw machine,  I would go carbide.  Which one is all you,  but the increased sharp life  would be the selling point for me.  I don't like machine down time and would proabably have a backup non carbon blade for when you are out for sharpening or sawing questionable stock you may not want to put carbide through. 

[shaneymack]

Carbide. Resaw king. Why? I have it and love it. 

[andrew-in-austin]

From other reviews I have read, where users had both resaw king and lenox, lenox lasted much much longer than RK before getting dull, to the point that the lenox was cheaper in the long run.  Again, this is "from what I have read", so who knows...

I need to choose soon as well (except it's 233" blade), and the Woodmaster CT seems like the best bet.

[Tom Cancelleri]

I ordered the Woodmaster CT 1.3 TPI, after doing extensive amounts of reading on various forums and such, I figured I'd be a guinea pig and get one and review it myself. Worst case scenario, it cuts wood and I have to sand a little more. I'll do a write up of cut speed and performance in the review section after I get it and try it out. 

[Tom King]

I missed this earlier, but you ordered the right blade.  I tried RK, and Trimaster on my 14" saw.  They did fine, but were very slow. I ordered the 1.3 WM, and tried it on the 24" Centauro.  Of course, the ones for the 14" were 1/2" blades, and the WM a 1".  What took 20 seconds to cut with either of those 1/2" blades on the 14", took 3 seconds on the 24" with the WM.  Cut quality was no worse, and maybe even better with the Woodmaster.

I tried several non-carbide tipped blades, but none cut for longer than 20 minutes before getting way too dull, and the cut quality never approached any of the carbide tipped blades.

The Woodmaster cut about 10,000 lineal feet of Cypress, and shows no signs of dulling yet.  For fun, I ran some White Oak, to see what it would do, and it cut as smooth, but of course not quite as fast, as the Cypress. I can't see a hobbiest needing to resharpen the WM for many years.  How much wood do you guys process before you need to resharpen one of these blades?

I don't see why anyone would use another blade for resawing if their saw will run it.  There are some wider, and larger toothed ones, for really big saws that will tension a 2" blade, but for a 1" blade I doubt it can be beat.

I know of one guy (MM rep) who swore by the Trimaster for years, but now recommends the Woodmaster.  The Trimaster is designed for cutting metal, and the Woodmaster is designed for cutting wood.  The cuts are about the same quality, but the Woodmaster cuts way faster.

There is absolutely no need to run a Resaw King, unless you have a saw that won't tension a 1" blade.

[rodger.]

You saved a tonne of cash by refurbing that machine.  Treat yourself and go with the resaw king!

[Coop]

Those of you that have carbide blades, do you save it for only resawing or do you leave it on the machine for everyday use as well?

[Tom Cancelleri]

Those of you that have carbide blades, do you save it for only resawing or do you leave it on the machine for everyday use as well?

I'm going to run my 14" for curve cutting. The mm20 will be for ripping and resawing.

Sent from my 831C using Tapatalk

[shaneymack]

Those of you that have carbide blades, do you save it for only resawing or do you leave it on the machine for everyday use as well?

I leave my resaw king on my big saw for ripping and resawing.

Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk

[Tom King]

It's easy to swap the blade back and forth on a small saw.  I'm keeping the 14" for everything except resawing.  It's too much trouble on the big saw to go from a 1" blade down to a smaller blade.  It's doable, but would take longer to make the change than what I would use it for.  On a Euro saw, the teeth on a 1" blade run off the front of the wheels.  It's more of a change to a smaller blade which runs on the wheel.

[Guest]

Is the woodmaster a new model?  I bought the trimaster about a year ago from bandsaw blades direct.   I don't think they carried it then.  If they did, I did not see it and did not know to look for it. 

I am happy with my 1/2" trimaster.   It is like a jack plane of blades.   I can rip, resaw, and cut moderate curves.   I wanted something I could set and forget.   Blade changes are not too difficult on my PM1500, but still not my favorite task.   

 

[Tom King]

It's not new. 1" is the smallest size.  The Trimaster cuts fine, just much slower than the Woodmaster.  The Trimaster comes in narrower sizes, so people can run them on smaller saws.  I think there was confusion caused by talking heads recommending the Trimaster since they use them on a 14" saw.  The large teeth on the Woodmaster probably scare some people into thinking it must leave a coarser cut, but it does not.