Thread: Skip tooth blade

Have a read John here

I have only encountered the skip-tooth blade idea in the context of a wide-ish (1") low-tooth-count blade for re-sawing thick material ... it is a strong blade with an aggressive cut and good waste clearance.

Cheers,
Paul McGee

Hi John,
I think as Paul said, the straight tooth kicks all the cut wood out, while the other 2 do all the cutting.
I've used Hakasson? 3/8" x 6TPI, for many years, & I can't fault it. It is Skip Tooth.
That Blade does every bit of cutting that you can think of.
Some still say, " Oh, but you can't cut that, it's not the right thing to do ".
I get to think they read to many books, as I just do it, & I still have all My Fingers, but now & again I get a bit of a shock, when the Blade goes BANG, & I've done My Blade.
I have never owned a 1/4'' blade, but then again, a lot of Turners do.

Plurry hot here at the moment. 42.6 Deg. I have the Thermometer outside in the Shade @ 4pm.

Thanks for the input guys.. I will get around to using it one day.

Originally Posted by munruben

I have heard about them but never used them. Why do I need a Skip tooth blade.? when would or should I use it?

On a 6tpi blade cutting through a 1" workpiece there are 6 teeth in contact with the timber. On a skip tooth blade every second tooth is missing, so for the same size teeth on the equivalent skip tooth blade there are half as many teeth in contact with the workpiece, meaning your saw wont have to work as hard and less heat is generated in the workpiece itself. It also allows better clearance of waste as only half as much waste (in theory) is generated for each pass of the blade and there is more space between the teeth to allow the wast to be removed.

So knowing this, when would you use it?

Let's imagine a theoretical bandsaw, extending the above example. to keep the maths easy lets imagine this saw can cut through a one inch piece of, say, ironbark, but will struggle with anything thicker.

Lets say you want to cut a piece of 2 inch ironbark. now we already said the saw can power six teeth in contact with the workpiece (6tpi blade and one inch workpiece) so why not a 3tpi skip tooth blade - still only six teeth identical to the ones on the other blade in contact over the now two inch thickness. I stress that this is theory only and it doesnt quite work out like this in practice but i think you can see where I am going with this.

In short, use the skip tooth blade when cutting thicker timber, or harder timber. sometimes the skip tooth can give a smoother cut and sometimes it can be rougher. I cant predict which is which, maybe someone else can, but it seems to be dependent on hardness of the timber and thickness.

Another feature of the the skip tooth blade is that it requires less set than other blades because of the enhanced waste clearance so it has a smaller kerf, therefore less wastage but it also means it cant cut as tight a curve as other blades of the same width.

I hope i have explained all that clearly enough.


Doug

Thanks for that Doug, appreciated.

Originally Posted by munruben

What is the pros and cons of a skip tooth bandsaw blade?

Hi Munruben,

I just saw a video link in another group i subscribe to that really shows what a difference less teeth (ie skip tooth) can have in a cut. the way he shows this on the video makes what i said in my previous post crystal clear.

Having said that I do not necessarily support the way the video presents a perceived need to highly tension the blade to overcome drift and warping of the blade. If the wheels are coplanar, the table is perpendicular in every sense, the guides are properly adjusted and the workpiece is fed at the correct pace while listening to the blade in the cut, then it should not be necessary to overtension the blade. the way he uses sawdust and a false blade to demonstrate waste removal in the cut is absolutely brilliant.

Here is the link:

Matthiaswandel's Channel - YouTube

Doug

Originally Posted by doug3030

the way he uses sawdust and a false blade to demonstrate waste removal in the cut is absolutely brilliant.

Here is the link:

Matthiaswandel's Channel - YouTube

Absolutely agree. Great demonstration.

"Why is it so?" ... Julius Sumner-Miller

However ... Do you use fewer teeth also in cutting large metal pieces? Does the same principle apply?

Paul McGee