Tip #47
Resawing Techniques (continued)
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Choosing and Using a Blade

Once you're certain that your bandsaw is running smoothly, the next step in resawing is to choose an appropriate blade. There's no way to over-emphasize the importance of this. As surprising as it may sound, choosing a good blade is more important than choosing a good bandsaw. Traditionally, the best choice for resawing is the widest blade your bandsaw will handle, with as few “teeth per inch” as you can find. For most homeshop bandsaw, this is a 1/2"-wide blade, with 3 to 4 teeth per inch.

Figure 3. There are three types of woodcutting bandsaw blades, as these are classified according to the type of teeth on the blade -- (1) regular or raker tooth, (2) skip tooth, and (3) hook tooth.

In addition to the number of teeth, you must also select the type of teeth on the blade. There are three choices-regular or raker, skip-tooth, and hook-tooth. (See Figure 3.) Ordinary wood-cutting bandsaw blades have raker teeth. The teeth are close together with a minimum set to produce a fairly smooth cut. They cut well in thin stock, but there isn't enough “chip clearance” between the teeth to cut thick stock. The gullets fill up quickly with sawdust, and the resulting friction generates a lot of heat. The wood burns and pitch loads up on the blade. As you might imagine, raker teeth are not well-suited for resawing.

Skip-tooth blades (sometimes called “buttressed” blades) have only half as many teeth as a same-size raker blade. There is more room for chip clearance between the teeth, and consequently the blades cut well in thick stock. Many experienced woodworkers prefer these for resawing, although the advantages over hook-teeth are debatable.

Hook-tooth blades have more teeth than the skip-tooth variety, but fewer than the ordinary raker. The gullets are fairly deep, so there is adequate chip clearance for cutting thick stock. The tooth design makes the blade cut aggressively-the stock almost feeds itself. You don't have to pay quite so much attention to the feed pressure, and this frees you to concentrate on tracking the cut. There is a hidden danger, however. Because the cut is aggressive, you may feed the stock too fast without knowing it. This may cause the motor to bog down of the blade to cup.

Once you select a blade for resawing, you may want to “tune” it slightly so that it runs as smoothly as possible. Some blades-especially new one-have a slight “tick” when they're running. This is usually caused by a bad weld. Either the weld is slightly misaligned, or it hasn't been properly ground. In either case, it will affect the quality of the cut. It may also cause the blade to break prematurely if you don't eliminate the tick.

Unless the weld has been badly botched, you can smooth out this tick by “stoning” the blade while it's running. Turn on the machine and let it get up to speed, then hold a soft India (fast cutting) sharpening stone lightly against the back of the blade. You'll feel the weld bump each time it comes around. Continue to feed the stone very gently until you feel the bump disappear. After you stone the back, do the same thing on each side of the blade. Be careful not to stone the teeth, just the band.

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