I got some 7 degree blades

[Magicman]

I called ReSharp and they will now replace my reject 10° blades with 7° blades.  I called back and argued that they sent me 10° blades.  OK, then I put the 7° blade on top and I could see the deeper gullet on the 7° one.

I sawed a couple of White Oak logs this afternoon.  After I quit looking for a difference in sawing, everything was OK.  White Oak is probably my toughest to saw, and it did fine.  These are rather large logs, 22" to 30".  Maybe I was just wanting them to cut better, but it seemed that they did.

I'll be sawing SYP next week.  Maybe I'll try one on that, but I don't have but three.

[Bibbyman]

 



Here is a 7° (top) vs. 9° (below).  10° kind of falls inbetween.

[Magicman]

Sometimes it takes Google Earth to find my mill, but I would love to have you visit.  This Spring, we gotta have another unauthorized "Southern FF Council" get together again.  I'll be happy to host it again and promise not to burn the chicken.



This year's "crispy" chicken.   :-\

[paul case]

wow did you crucify that chikn??? smiley_turkey_hide smiley_turkey_hide     pc

[Tom]

That's the Landlubber's version of Blackened Red Fish.

[sandhills]

are "mid-americans" allowed?  And heck, I've burned things way worse than that! ;D

[Coon]

I can still recognize that is was chicken.  I have done worse myself.  I can even burn water.  :D 

[ladylake]

 Did you try a faster feed rate, you should be able too and still cut straight.   Steve

[terrifictimbersllc]

That chicken looks like a plate of dead bats for some witch soup.

TerrificWoman says it's worse than that!

[Magicman]

Did you try a faster feed rate, you should be able too and still cut straight.   Steve

(All threads have to get to food sometimes.)

Yes, I was able to increase my speed rate considerably.  I'm glad that I am sawing White Oak where I could really give them a true test.  And I had better get to it right now.   :-[

[Bibbyman]

You may want to check the drive belt tension on your mill.  I feel the 7° blades pull harder due to their deeper gullet depth.

I just changed out the drive belt on our LT40 and it's sawing better than before.

[paul case]

Did you try a faster feed rate, you should be able too and still cut straight.   Steve

(All threads have to get to food sometimes.)

Yes, I was able to increase my speed rate considerably.  I'm glad that I am sawing White Oak where I could really give them a true test.  And I had better get to it right now.   :-[

i was sure he was talking about the blackened chicken and not white oak.   pc

[Magicman]

Personally, I was not pleased with the performance of the 7° blades.  I really didn't see any improvement as far as cutting ability over the 10° blades.

I was only able to saw 300bf of 4/4 before the blade was dull.  And that was on clean logs that had never been skidded.  No dirt what so ever.

I'm not into the physics and geometry of the blade design, but 3° less cutting angle is that much more toward 90°.  That means that the 7° blade is doing more scraping and less cutting than the 10° blade.

Bottom line, I've been using 10° blades and ReSharp for 9 years, and will continue to do so.  I'll call ReSharp and continue to have my rejected blades replaced with 10° ones.  Over 75% of my sawing is "softwood" anyway.

[Chuck White]

I have to agree with MM on this one.

I just can't picture that big a difference between the 10° and the 7° blades.

I have to admit though, that the 10° is the only blades I've used, but I am very satisfied with them and see no reason to change.

But also like MM, about 90% of my sawing is softwood!

[Magicman]

I called ReSharp and am now back on the 10° replacement blade plan.

I did have a short discussion with the technician concerning 7° blades.  Yes, they do "scrape" more than 10° blades and tend to dull faster.  Also, he commented that they can be sharpened fewer times.  The gullet is deeper when new, so there is less metal available to sharpen away before the blade reaches an unacceptable width.

[Brucer]

I've used the 10 degree blades for years (in western softwoods) and they have done a great job in most of my work. However ...

A regular customer asked me to resaw some 20" wide spruce timbers that he'd had sitting in his shop for several years. I tried everything trick in the book, but I could NOT get the saw blade to run true. There was serious ripple on every cut. I didn't charge the customer but he was pretty unhappy with what happened to his wood.

The 7 degree blades had just become available, so I had WM send me three of them to test. I mounted one up and then called my customer and said I wanted to try a new blade on some of his dry wood -- no charge. He was over in a flash with some really dry, 23" Larch, and some 18" spruce. Those blades cut absolutely true -- and they kept cutting. Even when the blade was getting dull, the cut was dead straight.

So ... I keep a few 7 degree blades on hand for cutting wide, dry wood. For regular work I stick to the 10 degree blades.

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Note to self:

Stop at fast food joint and eat before visiting Magicman so that you can honestly say you are full just in case he offers you a chicken dinner!

That pile of burnt chicken came out as well as some brownies one of my daughters made a few years back. She was a Freshman in high school and decided to put her math skills to use. If the directions say to bake brownies for 20 minutes at 350, you can save time by baking them for 10 minutes at 700 degress. Only problem with her logic was that 6 minutes into baking, the smoke detectors went off and Dad had to use a pair of gloves, reach into the oven, and throw the fully engulfed flaming brownies out the back door, despite the fact that mathematically they still had another 4 minutes of required baking time. When you add the 30 minute lecture she got about not burning the house down, it actually took her twice as long to make the brownies.

[bugdust]

I kinda straddle the fence on the blade types because I've got great service from both. I do admit the 7° outcuts the 10° on white oak. I too have notified ReSharp to replace 10° with 7°, at least until I have a few for backup. I actually sawed dried hickory with a 7° that the 10° only brought smoke and a dull blade. Most of my logs are soft but occasionally I come across something like the dried hickory.

[paul case]

all of our dried hickory just turns to bugdust. no pun intended.
i am not sure how he gets them and it may be he is misled, but a friend of mine has been getting reject wm blades that simply have no set for a serious discount. they seem to cut real good after 1 trip around the old setter. anybody else ever done this?
pc

(ps this is highjacking, but i didnt do it to my own thread by posting a picture of blackened chicken a la magicman)

[Magicman]

Brucer, I remembered you posting that incident about the Hickory.  I have three 7° blades that I will keep for such instances.

I was/am  not bad mouthing 7° blades or their use.  It's just that for my use, I will stick with the 10° blades.

[qbilder]

I just got in a box of 7-degree .045 WM's & tried out on oak & maple. They cut fast & straight but that's all I can say for now. I don't know yet about longevity as I have only cut a couple hundred bf. But so far so good.        

[pnyberg]

After 9 months of turning logs into lumber on a part time basis, I find blade profiles continue to be one of the bigger mysteries of the craft. 

Back when I was heavily into my research and analysis phase, I created a spreadsheet of blade profiles and their recommended uses.  I can't remember my source for sure, but I think I used the Wood-Mizer online blade selector site.  Within the 0.045 x 1 1/4" family, the 9° came out as the most versatile.  The only type of wood that the 9° was not recommended for was green softwood. 

I expected to be sawing mostly hardwoods, so I chose 9° blades as my standard profile, and I think I've done fairly well with it.  I've milled some green softwood with these blades and only run into difficulties with some spruce. 

As for oak, red or white, I look at this as my most trouble free species. 

I do have a box of 4° blades that I bought mostly because I'm afraid of those frozen logs that I may be running into soon.  But my plan is to only put them to use if the others don't seem to be doing the job.

I do wish that Wood-Mizer would be more forthcoming with factors of their blade configurations other than tooth pitch, i.e. set and gullet depth.  I'm sure the biggest difference between 9° blades and 10° blades is something other than the 1° difference in pitch, but I can't recall seeing an official explanation of what the other differences are.

--Peter

[Magicman]

I have or maybe had a 9° blade in my box.  I got it from Bob during a service visit.  I lost track of it, but really couldn't tell any difference sawing.  I would see that red paint for a while.  I guess when ReSharp got it, they sharpened it with their 9° wheel?

I agree with you about the "mysteries of the blades".

[Larry]

Horsepower plays a big role in how a band performs.  What may be the worlds best on a high horsepower electric or diesel mill may be a flop on a low horsepower gas mill.

[Peter Drouin]

Hi Pete, The only mystery on blades is to try different ones to find what works for you. Different parts of the country have different kinds of trees and horsepower does make a difference. Up here in the Northeast I use the new 7's 11/4" 55's. I have a 51 horse Cat that will pull the thick blade.  I tighten it up to 3000psi and I don't care if it's hardwood, softwood, frozen wood, green wood, dry wood.  My LT40 Super cuts them all real well.  I just have to make sure also I keep my drive belt adjusted tight. Good luck with your search. 8) 8) 8) 8)