When is a blade blunt???

[rob39]

Hi all, now this is a stupid question How can you tell when a blade is done or just the grain causing it difficult to feed (if you know what I mean) ](*,)

 

[bodgerbaz]

If its a brand new blade and doesn't seem to be cutting very well it might pay to try a more aggressive blade with less teeth. For instance, if you are using a #5 try a #7.

If you've been using the blade for a while it may very well be blunt. It also makes a difference which way up the blade is. Could it be upside down?

Barry

 

[Chippygeoff]

I can get through round about 20 blades with a full days workload. One of the obvious ways to tell a blade is becoming blunt is that it won't cut as fast. Another way to tell is that it is more difficult to keep the blade on the line of the pattern. If you use flying dutchman blades they never wear out, they break long before that. A selection of good quality blades, like Olsen or Pegus may seem expensive, but they do last and I can't recall having one break on me. As Barry said, it's so easy to put a blade in upside down and you will soon see the difference when you start cutting. I will give you a tip here. I keep my blades in test tubes that have a rubber bung in them. When I get a new order of blades I put them in the tubes so the tops end of the blades are at the top end of the tube so when I replace a blade i know straight away which end is which.

 

[scrimper]

In the middle of cutting last week I had to change to a thinner blade but after doing so noticed that it did not cut too well and wandered from the line, when I checked I had put the blade in upside down!

 

[Claymore]

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[rob39]

Thanks for the advice, currently using pegas reverse skip tooth blades 5 and 7. How do you know these are upside down :roll: lol

 

[scrimper]

Thanks for the advice, currently using pegas reverse skip tooth blades 5 and 7. How do you know these are upside down :roll: lol

As far as I know all reverse tooth blades have to be used the right way up. the Niqua blades I was using only have a few teeth at the bottom facing upwards whilst all above point down so cut on the down-stroke as is correct, generally you can tell which is the right way by running your finger along the blade. Some blades like the Ultra- Reverse FD blades appear to have a few reverse teeth all the way along the blade length,

(FWIW some blades such as FD have a small kink in the non cutting part to indicate which is the correct way up)

 

[martinka]

Thanks for the advice, currently using pegas reverse skip tooth blades 5 and 7. How do you know these are upside down :roll: lol

These days I find a magnifying glass comes in handy for anything other than the FD blades that have a marker. The stronger the better.

 

[ardenwoodcraft]

Hi,

When you fit a reverse tooth blade like a Pegas or Niqua have a look at the tooth pattern.

You will see that there are a lot of teeth going one way and a few teeth at the other end going the opposite way. The end with the few teeth going the "wrong" way is the bottom of the blade and these teeth help to reduce tear-out on the bottom side of your cut.

The blade should be installed in the saw with the teeth facing you, ie:- to the front edge of the saw table.

If you are using FD Ultra Reverse tooth blades these have reverse teeth every so often along the full length of the tooth pattern but they have the kink in the top end of the blade so you know which way is up.

I also use a magnifying lamp over my Excalibur and it's been a godsend when I'm installing blades such as number 1's and 3's.

Hope this helps,
Regards,
Dave.