Where You Buy Your Blades, Does it Matter?

Where You Buy Your Blades, Does It Make A Difference? Cooks Saw MAKES The Difference!

How can Cooks Saw do anything different to the blades that they weld together when they all look the same and are from the same MFG?

This is a fair Question.

Let me explain...

Back in 1992 when experimenting with Thin Kerf bandsaw blades I came across 'something' while altering a band blade tensioning roller (most of these experiments lasted till 1:00 or 2:00 am in the morning). This 'something' that I had discovered has led me to finding a way to make band blades cut better, faster, and straighter.

Over time I discovered something that made blades run better, faster, and straighter. This 'something' seemed to stabilize the band in the cut better than anything else that I had done. Yet it was a hit and miss because I had not yet realized what exactly was yielding the performance.

So I searched to find what it was that all the good cutting blades had in common. In our experimenting we observed blades that cut great and some blades that cut poorly. We saw some blades rising up in the cut, and we saw some blades diving down in the cut.

What we learned is that we could only judge the band by its first reaction in the cut, and if we judged the first reaction then we could predict the second reaction. We soon found that if we could solve the first reaction of bad cutting we in fact had solved the cutting difficulty.

For instance if the first reaction when the blade deviates from the cut is up the second reaction will be down. If the first is down the second will be up. If we can make it cut straight when we enter the cut it will continue to cut straight. There will be no second reaction. We also noticed that groups of bands had common characteristics, such as all in one box could be divers, or all risers, or all good cutting.

In this research we found one common thing that affected the blade more than any other. That is after we established the things that have to be correct for any blade to run correctly, like sharpness and side set. This extra common thing was “flatness of the body of the bandsaw blade”. We sometimes refer to the curvature of the bands because there in no such thing as a perfectly flat band. We say it has a curvature because we know that it will have a slight variation from perfectly flat to either the inside or the outside.

The solution was to control this curvature before it gets to the sawmill. Since we knew that the blade could not be perfectly flat we found that the best situation was for the band to have a crack of daylight (dish or curvature) on the inside of the band which would be the roller guide side. This band would cut better that all others.

On the contrary if the band had a slight hump on the roller guide side or the inside this blade would dive. Through these experiments we learned what the band needs and we can control the flatness of all the bands that we ship out.

There are bands that turn clockwise and some that turn counter clockwise. We have to know the direction they turn before we can condition them correctly.

Another thing we learned is that this process has to be done after the blade is welded. Otherwise it cannot be welded correctly. Many factors have to be taken into consideration before we condition a bandsaw blade.

There is no such thing as a generic blade that a welding center can just cut, weld and ship to the customer. You will see many problems if you get blades welded that way. It just doesn't work. When blade suppliers do this they get a lot of complaints about blades differing in how they cut from one box to another.

Let me give you a good example:

I had a customer that purchased our sawmill and 40 blades. All worked well until he needed more bands. As most people do, he looked for bargain prices in the same blade brand that we sold to him (thinking that they are all the same).

As soon as he started using the bands trouble started and he could not saw his lumber straight. He called me for help and I thought he had bandsaw blades that came from us. Thinking this I was searching for solutions other than blades. He struggled for a week or more and called back still having the same problem.

I told him that I was now sure that his blades had a wrong curvature in the body and I was puzzled as to how he got blades like that from us. He cleared his throat and said "I didn’t buy them from you". Now I could understand his problems. He got the generic: 'weld em' and 'ship em' bandsaw blades.

He asked me to send correct blades ASAP. We did and his problems were gone as soon as he began to use our blades with the correct curvature. (We sell a Advance Bandsaw Technology video and DVD that explains this and other blade problems in depth.)

I have solved literally thousands of customers problems just like this one. It takes extra effort to send out consistent blades, and we put forth that effort. Not that we never make mistakes, but we strive for what we know to be correct for each customer. Knowing the problems that the customer is encountering is the beginning of all solutions.

At Cooks Saw we need to know your rotation, the type guides, and it is good for us to know the MFG of your sawmill. With the proper information we can deliver the bands shaped the way that you need them to saw consistently.

By taking the bands through this process we spend twice the time with the bands than any other company that supplies band blades.

As you can figure we cannot be the cheapest supplier. We all know that you get what you pay for. Do yourself and your lumber a favor and buy your bands from Cooks Saw. You will find though our blades may be a little higher they will save you money. Our goal is to help you make/save more money."

For further information on this subject refer to earlier articles Titled: Stop Wavy Cuts and buy our new Advanced Bandsaw Technology video/DVD mentioned above.

Until Next Time,

aka... the "Saw Doctor"
Co-Owner CooksSaw.com
Leaders in Bandsaw Technology!