John,
Thanks. I think. I'm new to band saws, and most of this for that matter.
So the "Silicon Steel" is towards the lower end of the blades?
Just get the bi-metal one and use it for both wood and metal?
In chatting with the local shops, I understand that there are folks that only use Timber Wolf, or Olson, or whichever brand (or none of the brands carried locally are good enough...). I'm not that high end - I just like getting the "right" tools to do the job when I do get something.
Thanks for the education/opinions,
Ed
Others - though I am addressing these to John, feel free to join in, too, if you want. I don't want to hijack the GB thread, but I do want to make an informed buy in the GB.
Shawn,
Let me know if you'd rather I move this discussion to another thread.
Hello Ed
Every company has their own take on their blades they sell and reasons for each ones. Weather a blade is soft back or hard back, weather a blade is flexible or not meaning it needs less tension are all selling hypes. All blades will cut right out of the package and depending how hard you use them or how often you use them will vary from person to person. So when someone tells you they had a blade for 10 years, maybe they only used it 3 times in that spread. So i do not believe what people say and you can choose to ignore what I say for the same reasons. Everyone likes certain brands for various reasons and I will not go into this.
Here is what I will tell you and this goes for wood blades or metal blades or resaw blades, there is more to buying a quality blade then looking at a chart. Not all blades are suitable for all work. How you treat the blade and how hard you push it or tension it correctly will go a long way in determining the length of time the blade will last.
With that said. Here is the way blades stack up to normal usage.
Spring Steel-- Thin kerf resaw blades, low tension such as (Woodslicer or Bladerunner)
Silicon Steel
Carbon steel
Bimetal steel
Carbide tipped
Least to best from top to bottom. Stays sharper longer. Price will reflect this mostly also. Not sure if this answers your question. These are my opinions.
