Softwood blades

[Lance in Ontario]

I have about 15000 bdft of white pine to saw this spring,right now all the logs are frozen and by the time I am finished they will have thawed out.I have 9&10 degree woodmizer blades because I normaly saw hardwood.Should I get softwood blades (13 degree)for this amount of logs?Would I notice a big difference or would it be a waste of money? I run a Lt40hd25
Lance

[MartyParsons]

I am not sure you have enough hp to run 13's. Unless you have 25 hp Electric. Your 9 and10 degree will work fine. If your pine is clear no knots then you may want to try the 13. How wide of cuts are you making?
M

[beav39]

those blades will do fine in pine!no sense in buying new if you have enough to do the job          scot

[jackpine]

I saw a lot of white pine and all I have ever used are 9° & 10° blades. In the frozen pine the 9° seems to work a little better  but both will do the job very well. I do have to admit I've never tried the 13°, primarily because I don't need another profile to keep track of. ;D

Bill

[woodmills1]

make sure to give them more set than you do for hardwood.

[Tom]

the plain old 10 degree blade will do just fine.  I created 13 degree blades for myself and ran them on a 24 horse LT40 for years, cutting SYP and Cypress.  You will notice a difference and 24 horse is enough to show it, but it really makes a difference when you get up in the 40 horse class.

This is one of the things that makes sharpening one's own blades nice.  You can make one and try it. 

[Tom Sawyer]

I'm with Tom (wait, I am Tom ???).  Take one of your 10 degree blades and regrind the angle.  I made a bunch of mine into 12.5 degrees (the template for that angle comes with the sharpener) to cut a bunch of spruce.  There was definitely a difference in how fast I could cut, but then again I have the 51hp Cat diesel on my mill.  I say try it with one blade and see how it works.

Tom

[pineywoods]

I'm with Tom (wait, I am Tom ???).  Take one of your 10 degree blades and regrind the angle.  I made a bunch of mine into 12.5 degrees (the template for that angle comes with the sharpener) to cut a bunch of spruce.  There was definitely a difference in how fast I could cut, but then again I have the 51hp Cat diesel on my mill.  I say try it with one blade and see how it works.

Tom

I agree with Tom (er Tom also). I'm as much a tinkerer as a sawyer. I set up my WM sharpener to do some 15 deg blades. Too much for the 18 hp briggs on my LT40, but then I installed a 25 hp kawasaki. Now they cut just fine on everything except dry hardwood. Only downside I see is I can push the 15 deg blade hard enough to cause sawdust to fill the gullet and spill over the back of the blade. Leaves a lot of sawdust in the kerf and tends to gum up the blade worse than normal. I cut mostly southern yellow pine and I do use a bunch of set.

[MartyParsons]

Lance if you get me your customer # I will get you a 13 to try. I have not run many 13 my self looks like Tom x 2 have used them. If you grind a 10 degree to 13 it may work. The 13 has a fish hook gullet compared to the other profiles. This helps to carry away the dust chip.
M

[Lance in Ontario]

Thanks for the help guys I will try my bands that I have.I brought home 2 loads yesterday,they are alot bigger looking when they are beside my mill.I only scaled 5 16'logs and I had over 1600bdft.
Lance