Blade brands

[Quartlow]

When I aquired my mill from my Sister  It cam with a couple of lennox blades of questionable abilaty. Basicly I couldn't get a good cut to save my soul

I've switched over to timberwolf blades and while they are cutting good are they worth the cost?

And what about sharpening? Just how long should they cut providing your not cutting up foriegn objests with them? I got a grinder with the mill and I have yet to try shrpening one of them, is it worth the hassle versus sending them out to be sharpened?

[Brad_S.]

My very first mill was a used Breezewood, and it too came with a grinder (actually a modified chain saw chain sharpener) and a hand held "setter". If this describes your setup, be afraid. Be very afraid. I never did cut a decent board with that mill but I now know that the blades, not the mill, were the problem. Sharpening a blade properly is really quite a science. An improperly set/sharpened blade will cause nothing but frustration and cause you to question your technique instead of pinpointing the real culprit. My advice would be to outsource most of your sharpening while still experimenting with your system. When you can interchange your blades with the professionally sharpened blade with no performance difference, you're there! Note also, most brands of blades are not really sharp right out of the box and will work better after first resharpening.The actual brand of blade isn't as important as the sharpening. Any well known, name brand blade should work fine. The Timberwolfs may be working because they haven't been booged up by "resharpening" yet, while the Lennox has.

[Quartlow]

Well after getting the timberwolf blades I noticed a huge differance in the perofrmance and the relabilaty of the saw. and it actually cuts nice boards

And yes that is the setup for sharpening the blades. I wasn't sure if it would do a reliable job or not, the thing is if  it takes too long to sharpen I may be better off sending them out

[AtLast]

Quartlow,
Alot of it is trial and error...BUT you'll do best by simply trying differant brands and such...I use Lennox alot.....Monkeyblades are VERY good ....the Lennox Woodmaster is what I typically use  at .042x1TPI with great results.....I think WM has a blade program as well you might want to message Bibbyman and ask him about it. But again, my advice, for what its worth, is to try differant manufacturers and settings and find what works best for you.

[Cedarman]

If you find a blade that is cutting great. Save this blade, keep it clean and in a dry place.  Later on when you run into sawing trouble and you are not sure if it is the blade or the mill is out of alignment, take this good blade and use it to make a cut.  If it cuts perfect, then you have blade problems. If it miscuts then you have mill problems.
This assuming you had the mill in perfect alignment when you used the good blade the first time.
Study everything you can on sharpening.  Visit some old pros that do there own sharpening.  There is a science  to getting your sharpener set up , proper sharpening stone, and proper sharpening technique.  

Also, not all steel is the same. Maybe the steel manufacturers have done a better job of making better steel, and more uniform, but there can be poor batches of steel.
The blade performance can be no better than the steel from which it comes from.
Years ago WM had some bad steel. We also had some poor Simonds blades traced to poor steel.
To truly test a companies blades, you must use more than one batch of their blades.
The most important thing for us, will the dealer back their blades up.  Be sure to document any problems that you may have. If they break at weld, most dealers will replace.
We send off to be resharp, as we have very good service, but we have sharpened our own when necessary.

[MrMoo]

Quart,
Trying different blades is a good idea. I have done ok with Lenox and I like the Munks blades. I have found the Munks blades to be pretty sharp out of the box so they are good to use for troubleshooting.
Cedarman is offering some great advice about keeping a blade that cuts well to use it for troubleshooting.

As far sharpening goes it takes a while to get the hang of it. Being patient and getting the grinder setup correct is important. Also getting the nose of the grindstone shaped properly means a lot too. Cooks has a video about their sharpener where they go over shaping the stone. When it comes to setting I have found that being fussy and as consistent as possible works pretty well.

Milling and sharpening blades take time to learn but its a fun path to go down.

[Quartlow]

Thanks for all the tips guys,  When I first brought the mill home at the beginning of the summer I was a frustrated and unhappy camper.

The TW blades seem to be pretty sharp out of the box.  that and new belts on the drive wheels solved a lot of the cutting problems I was having. My blades are 13 feet 6 inches long and have been costing me around $22 0r $23 If memeory serves me right. The bigest reason I tryed the TW blades was I use them on the bandsaw in the shop and had pretty good luck with them.

I still have 3 new lennox blades and may try my had at sharpening one of those. Whats it typicaly cost you to get a blade sharpened?

[Bigdogpc]

If you shop, blades can be sharpened from $5 up.  Having experienced the 5 buck job it was too much. :D

I tried the TW blades and wasn't real happy.  I tried Timberking blades which cut good but the resharps weren't much.  The Monkey-Blades have me bouncing off the walls with how good they cut.  Haven't tried going the resharp route as I am getting good footage from the Monkeys and may just throw them away at the end.  IF you can't tell, I haven't had real good luck with resharps.  Of course, I'm still fairly new at this and learning something every time I fire up the mill....I even have a motto, DON'T SAW THE DOGS, DON'T SAW THE DOGS...

[beenthere]

You're doing real good, as long as your Motto isn't;

DON'T SAW THE DOGS AGAIN!!! DON'T SAW THE DOGS AGAIN!!!......

 ;D

[Quartlow]

I know all about sawing dogs, and I don't mean my labs either
 :D :D ;D

[ohsoloco]

I've been using Monkey-bands for a while now, and using them right out of the box I barely have to put any pressure on the saw carriage they cut so DanG good.  But (and it's a big one) I've been getting really poor footage from the blades.  I just cut some white oak a few weeks back, and after cutting one 10ft. log around 22" in diameter the blade would be so dull I'd have to change the blade  >:(  The logs weren't dirty or anything like that, but I went through at least four blades to cut 785 bd. ft. of that white oak.  There is now a box of new Lennox blades in the shed, so I'll see how they cut.  Just sharpened all of the monkey bands, so I'll see what happens with different species, but I rarely have any trouble cutting oak.  

[Bruce_A]

Have you tried putting plain water on the logs before you start to saw?

[ohsoloco]

I've heard that helps, but I don't have water close enough to the mill, except for that 100+ foot water tower the mill sits next to   :-/  The thing is, I've never had to change blades that often before, so I don't know why it would be a problem all of a sudden.  When I move the mill to my house I'll have water access so I can try that out.

[Bruce_A]

Some  logs or types of wood will react different dry than wet and adding water may be just the key to start the cutting with.