Blades

[miriamfelt@charter.net]

I buy blades by the gross, Deltqa, Olson, Dutch. Sometime I put a blade in and it won't cut. I make sure the teeth are down and lubricate the blade. I may "gently" push the wood into the blade and it won't cut. I'll remove the blade and the teeth feel sharp. Am I doing something wrong that I am unaware of or are there bad blades. If the blades are bad can the manufacturer be notified or do I have to swallow the bad blades?

After using a blade for awhile, it starts to tear the wood. When I remove the blade, the teeth still feel sharp. How can I tell by running my finger down the blade if it is dull or is there another way to tell if the blade is dull. That may save me time when I replace blades, especially if manufacturers have bad blades ..

[greatdane2]

I am not shure about the quality of the blades but I tend to let the wood go a bit and if I am using a dull blade it will show as the wood gets pushed back toward me. When cutting a lot I tend to loose track of how hard I am forcing the wood into the blade and this will tell me the blade is toaste.

[KtownScroller]

What kind of saw are you using Miriam? I am getting the feeling that there is something wrong with the blade clamping system not holding the blade in the proper position.

[Rolf]

How long do you use the blades? The Olson and FD blades are good quality as are Pegas, not familiar with the Delta qa.
I took some of my new and used blades to work and looked at them under the microscope. Even if they feel sharp to your finger the tips are rounded over.
I have attached a few images. The olson blades look pretty ugly,
When I have time I will do a comparison between the FD Olson and Pegas, With a new blade x amount of time in the same wood and then look at the wear.
I have a new digital camera system for my microscope on order.

[miriamfelt@charter.net]

Dewalt 788. I scroll about 6 hours a day on and off. I usually change blades after 30 minutes or so, depending on the wood.

[wood-n-things]

Rolf,
Those are down right scary looking...Thanks for the view though...

[Pajaro]

I kind of go with Miriamfelt. Normal use varies from 30 minutes to an hour. Depending on the wood and speed of the saw. I have found best results using F/D blades. Also it should not take very much pressure on the wood for the blade to cut. Ill change mine if I feel I am pushing too hard to get it to cut, or I'll speed up the saw a little bit, some times I can get some more use from them.

PS Rolf them are some ugly looking blades. Do new ones look that bad.

[Bill Wilson]

Frankly I think the teeth are too small to really be able to notice a significant difference between dull and sharp, strictly by feel. It's all about the performance of the blade. I've pulled new ones out of a tube that seem dull or drift way more than usual. I get another new one and it cuts great for a longer period of time than I would expect. I would never accept that kind of inconsistent quality and performance with other blades, like for my table saw, bandsaw or planer, but since scroll saw blades are so cheap and have a pretty short lifespan anyway, I don't worry about it too much.