Bandsaw blade recommendation for ripping Micarta.

Fixall

Fixall

Brian
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Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
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Got another one for ya (sorry), lol.

I typically use a 3TPI, 115" x 3/4" Timber Wolf blade on my bandsaw. I processed about 300 maple and redwood burl blocks with it over the past couple of days and it was still cutting like a hot knife through butter.

I ripped about half a dozen 6" x 2" Westinghouse Micarta scales with it, and it was noticeably duller by the second cut. By the end, the blade had lost most of it's bite... So I finished it up by slabbing up some 3.5" stabilized mammoth tusk discs since I never plan on working with the material again. The blades pretty shot at this point.

I'm sticking with the 3TPI Timber Wolf blades for wood, but does someone have a suggestion for a blade for ripping Micarta? I'll be doing the rough cuts for fitting to handles on my portaband with cheap metal cutting blades. This will be solely for ripping Micarta scales.

I have a 4 foot rod of Westinghouse Micarta I need to cut into blocks eventually, lol.

aSkH6r0.jpg


I was looking at a Laguna carbide Resaw King, but I don't like how thick the kerf is. The Timber Wolf blades have a .025" kerf, while the Laguna has a .041" kerf. Maybe super thin kerfs aren't available for carbide blades? I'd also like to hear a little feedback/advice before I spend $150+ on a blade.

And how about TPI? Should I be going a bit higher considering how hard Micarta is? Maybe like 6 TPI?


Thanks!
 
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A couple of the guys on Knife Talk Podcast have been using a wet cutting tile saw for ripping G10 blocks, so that might be worth a shot if you have one around or do a lot of volume with G10/micarta. Definitely gonna have more loss due to kerf size than a bandsaw blade though.

But as far as the bandsaw goes, I use a 14 TPI blade with .025" kerf for cutting steel or G10/Micarta. Seems to work pretty well for me. Even on my wood blocks I use a higher tooth count than you do, since I use an 8TPI blade for that. That being said, I have don't cut nearly the amount of volume you do, if you're cutting 300 blocks at once...
 
I think higher TPI. And bi-metal, micarta is very dulling. I only have one saw in the shop, a variable speed with 9.5 ft blade. I have settled on 14/18 TPI bimetal/M42 for everything from blade steel to handle material.
 
Michael Black said:
A couple of the guys on Knife Talk Podcast have been using a wet cutting tile saw for ripping G10 blocks, so that might be worth a shot if you have one around or do a lot of volume with G10/micarta. Definitely gonna have more loss due to kerf size than a bandsaw blade though.

But as far as the bandsaw goes, I use a 14 TPI blade with .025" kerf for cutting steel or G10/Micarta. Seems to work pretty well for me. Even on my wood blocks I use a higher tooth count than you do, since I use an 8TPI blade for that. That being said, I have don't cut nearly the amount of volume you do, if you're cutting 300 blocks at once...
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I’ll have another 250+ blocks to cut as soon as the slabs come in, lol. The 3TPI blade does really well for breaking down the slabs and logs. I find it cuts so cleanly that I don’t bother swapping to a higher tooth blade for cutting rough blocks before I send them to K&G.

I was looking into a wet tile saw to cut the mammoth ivory and some Fordite…. but I just decided to use my beat up bandsaw blade in the Laguna for the mammoth and my portaband for the Fordite. Worked out well.

With the .055” kerf, it seems like I’d be better off with a carbide bandsaw blade though, unless the carbide blade would be dulled super quick by Micarta too.
 
Scaniaman said:
I think higher TPI. And bi-metal, micarta is very dulling. I only have one saw in the shop, a variable speed with 9.5 ft blade. I have settled on 14/18 TPI bimetal/M42 for everything from blade steel to handle material.
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That’s just not in the cards unfortunately. :(

All I have on hand is a 14” wood bandsaw and a Milwaukee portaband (I use the same portaband blades as you) and swag table. I’d rather throw $40 Timber Wolf blades at the material, rather than deal with the material loss from the imprecise cuts I get on the portaband.
 
Scaniaman said:
I think higher TPI. And bi-metal, micarta is very dulling. I only have one saw in the shop, a variable speed with 9.5 ft blade. I have settled on 14/18 TPI bimetal/M42 for everything from blade steel to handle material.
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How is 14/18 for you on the thinner stock? Or what is the thinnest stock that you will cut with it?
 
I have a 14” Record Sabre 350 saw and used a 10/14 vari-tooth M42 bimetallic metal cutting blade to cut 1/2 phenolic sheet. This saw has two speeds 440 and 1000 metres per min, and I believe I tried the slower one. In any case, it got the material hot and there was a strong phenol smell. It was not what I would term a success. Much better with wood cutting blade with fewer teeth, fast. Maybe the 6/10 would have been better….

If you haven’t seen a carbide blade in action, this video is good.

 
Sorry for the delay. I was on the road all day picking up a free Versitron AT-130-R rockwell tester. No idea if it can even measure in the Rockwell C scale, but we'll find out, lol. It can take a 150kg test load, so I assume it can measure in C scale.

I looked into Lenox carbide tipped blade, but the cheapest 115" x 3/4" I could find was well over $200, unless I was looking at the wrong product. Other than going with a $200 plus custom, I don't really see anything other than the Laguna. :(
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Carbide tipped Lennox blades work well.
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Unfortunately this isn't my experience. I bought a carbide tipped, 3 tpi Lennox for resawing micarta blocks and for whatever reason it doesn't want to smoothly cut the blocks at all. It binds up when I start feeding the material and it's pretty scary when it does. Not entirely sure why. It seemed like a good idea in theory but it hasn't worked well in practice.
 
Signalprick said:
Unfortunately this isn't my experience. I bought a carbide tipped, 3 tpi Lennox for resawing micarta blocks and for whatever reason it doesn't want to smoothly cut the blocks at all. It binds up when I start feeding the material and it's pretty scary when it does. Not entirely sure why. It seemed like a good idea in theory but it hasn't worked well in practice.
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Interesting…. What have you found works best? Right now in deciding between just saying screw it, and trashing $40 timber wolf blades when I cut it (they do make nice cuts), or just biting the bullet and picking up the Laguna. It can be sharpened 4 times at least.

Cutting some scales for you is a actually what brought this question on, lol! And message me you shipping address!

CA68C266-85BD-4230-A22A-D314233A1AB0.jpeg
 
I would not recommend the Laguna carbide blades, I tried one for g10 and micarta and was extremely rough with a very jagged kerf, I use a 14” wood saw for all of my micarta and use a 4 tpi skip tooth blade, that type of blade has larger gullets between the teeth which helps carry away the micarta dust and helps the blades last longer. The carbide blade lasted me one day in the shop (granted I was trying it for g10 also but it was such a rough cut I couldn’t use it for most things) the starret or Timberwolf blades I get usually last me for a few months of rough cutting out handle profiles, I’d say I get a few weeks of really good cutting for slicing scales.
 
Joshua Fisher said:
I would not recommend the Laguna carbide blades, I tried one for g10 and micarta and was extremely rough with a very jagged kerf, I use a 14” wood saw for all of my micarta and use a 4 tpi skip tooth blade, that type of blade has larger gullets between the teeth which helps carry away the micarta dust and helps the blades last longer. The carbide blade lasted me one day in the shop (granted I was trying it for g10 also but it was such a rough cut I couldn’t use it for most things) the starret or Timberwolf blades I get usually last me for a few months of rough cutting out handle profiles, I’d say I get a few weeks of really good cutting for slicing scales.
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Bah. It’s sounding like I may as well throw Timberwolf blades at the rod. Two blades should do it. Maybe I’ll try a 6 TPI instead of a 3 TPI.
 
Fixall said:
Bah. It’s sounding like I may as well throw Timberwolf blades at the rod. Two blades should do it. Maybe I’ll try a 6 TPI instead of a 3 TPI.
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Biggest thing I’ve found between different blades is using skip tooth over hook tooth style blades, it clears the dust better which prolongs the blade and gives smoother cuts with less drifting (drift is partially caused by tooth loading)
 
I tried 3 TPI, 6 TPI carbon and 14/18 TPI m42 on my 3 wheel Emco bandsaw (blade is more then 2m length) and micarta killed all the blades quite fast. Thick micarta (4cm) is not nice to your blade. I rip the blocks on the table saw and cut away as much as possible with an old bandsaw.
 
Joshua Fisher said:
Biggest thing I’ve found between different blades is using skip tooth over hook tooth style blades, it clears the dust better which prolongs the blade and gives smoother cuts with less drifting (drift is partially caused by tooth loading)
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That's interesting. I think all of my blades are hook tooth style.
 
Joshua Fisher said:
Biggest thing I’ve found between different blades is using skip tooth over hook tooth style blades, it clears the dust better which prolongs the blade and gives smoother cuts with less drifting (drift is partially caused by tooth loading)
Click to expand...

I'll give that a go.
 
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