Chippygeoff
Established Member
I wrote an article on blades some time back and quite recently I have been experiencing a few anomalies with the blades I have been using. Over many years I feel that I have used most of the blades available to the scroll saw user and I also feel, without wishing to boast in any way that I get through more blades than most people. Some days I am in the workshop for 14 hours and at least 5 days a week.
Going back some time I think most of us that used FD blades had problems with the blades breaking, it just wasn’t me with a bad batch. As a result most of us stopped using them. I sent off for a selection of Olsen blades at the time, just a dozen of each type and then tried them all out over a period of time. I was quite impressed with 2 of the types I bought; the first one was the double toothed blades, easy to stay on the line and gave a very smooth finish. The other blades were the Mach Speed, I bought 5s and 7s, the 7s were brilliant, they cut 20mm hardwoods so quickly, strangely enough the 5s were not bad but not as good as the 7s. I then ordered 2 gross of 7s and 2 gross of 5s.
It was quite soon after I had placed this order that Mike from Mikes workshop retired, after all he was clocking on for 90 and it was about time he put his feet up and took life a bit easier. Mikes workshop was taken over by the Wooden Teddy Bear Company and are the main dealer in America for the Flying Dutchman blades and are also a main stockist for Olsen blades.
I really missed the FD ultra reverse blades. I had been using them for years and had got so used to them and when I switched to the Olsen blades I had to practice quite a bit on scrap wood in order to get used to the characteristics of the blades.
Going back a few months I was in contact with the Wooden Teddy Bear Company and spoke to them about the quality of the FD blades and the problems we had here in the UK. I had a conversation with a lovely lady there called Kari and she assured me that since they had taken over Mikes Workshop they had not had a single complaint about FD blades. Kari very kindly sent me a load of the FD ultra reverse blades in several sizes free of charge to try out and I have just about used them up. The 5s, ones that I use the most were absolutely brilliant, in fact I did not have a single blade break and it was a joy to be using them once again. Not quite the same could be said of the 7s, Last week I used 4 blades on a single and small internal cut out but overall they were not to bad, maybe the ones I have left are from an old batch.
I have just sent off an order for 2 gross of number 7s and 2 gross of number 5s. The main point of all of this and the conclusion I have come to is that regardless of what make of blade we use, now and again we will encounter a problem, and the most common response is that we assume we have just been unlucky with a bad batch.
I still have well over a gross of the Olsen mach speed 7s and a bit less on the mach speed 5s. The 5s are fine but it is impossible to use any of the 7s I have left and will have to bin them. The reason is that when I put a new blade in the clamps and start to cut I have to hold the wood at a very severe angle, much more than I have ever done before and it is not normal and impossible to keep the blade to the line of the pattern being cut. One of the things I just cannot get my head round is why there should be such a diverse difference in the quality when using the same blades, it’s not just FDs but all the makes I have used. I would have thought in this day and age there would be some form of quality control on the production line, where they take a blade now and again and test it in a lab and check the quality of the steel they are using.
I would imagine that blade manufacturers buy several tons of steel at a time to make their business more viable and surely they must lay down a criteria as to the quality of steel they require. I know they give the steel additional treatment to make the blades better and longer lasting but some where along the line they are doing something wrong and after many years of manufacturing I would have thought by now they would have had it down to a fine art. If my wood supplier kept sending me wood full of wood worm I would soon change my supplier.
Going back some time I think most of us that used FD blades had problems with the blades breaking, it just wasn’t me with a bad batch. As a result most of us stopped using them. I sent off for a selection of Olsen blades at the time, just a dozen of each type and then tried them all out over a period of time. I was quite impressed with 2 of the types I bought; the first one was the double toothed blades, easy to stay on the line and gave a very smooth finish. The other blades were the Mach Speed, I bought 5s and 7s, the 7s were brilliant, they cut 20mm hardwoods so quickly, strangely enough the 5s were not bad but not as good as the 7s. I then ordered 2 gross of 7s and 2 gross of 5s.
It was quite soon after I had placed this order that Mike from Mikes workshop retired, after all he was clocking on for 90 and it was about time he put his feet up and took life a bit easier. Mikes workshop was taken over by the Wooden Teddy Bear Company and are the main dealer in America for the Flying Dutchman blades and are also a main stockist for Olsen blades.
I really missed the FD ultra reverse blades. I had been using them for years and had got so used to them and when I switched to the Olsen blades I had to practice quite a bit on scrap wood in order to get used to the characteristics of the blades.
Going back a few months I was in contact with the Wooden Teddy Bear Company and spoke to them about the quality of the FD blades and the problems we had here in the UK. I had a conversation with a lovely lady there called Kari and she assured me that since they had taken over Mikes Workshop they had not had a single complaint about FD blades. Kari very kindly sent me a load of the FD ultra reverse blades in several sizes free of charge to try out and I have just about used them up. The 5s, ones that I use the most were absolutely brilliant, in fact I did not have a single blade break and it was a joy to be using them once again. Not quite the same could be said of the 7s, Last week I used 4 blades on a single and small internal cut out but overall they were not to bad, maybe the ones I have left are from an old batch.
I have just sent off an order for 2 gross of number 7s and 2 gross of number 5s. The main point of all of this and the conclusion I have come to is that regardless of what make of blade we use, now and again we will encounter a problem, and the most common response is that we assume we have just been unlucky with a bad batch.
I still have well over a gross of the Olsen mach speed 7s and a bit less on the mach speed 5s. The 5s are fine but it is impossible to use any of the 7s I have left and will have to bin them. The reason is that when I put a new blade in the clamps and start to cut I have to hold the wood at a very severe angle, much more than I have ever done before and it is not normal and impossible to keep the blade to the line of the pattern being cut. One of the things I just cannot get my head round is why there should be such a diverse difference in the quality when using the same blades, it’s not just FDs but all the makes I have used. I would have thought in this day and age there would be some form of quality control on the production line, where they take a blade now and again and test it in a lab and check the quality of the steel they are using.
I would imagine that blade manufacturers buy several tons of steel at a time to make their business more viable and surely they must lay down a criteria as to the quality of steel they require. I know they give the steel additional treatment to make the blades better and longer lasting but some where along the line they are doing something wrong and after many years of manufacturing I would have thought by now they would have had it down to a fine art. If my wood supplier kept sending me wood full of wood worm I would soon change my supplier.
