WM carbide blades

[KWood255]

 Yesterday while sawing some big white spruce logs, I decided to give a carbide blade a try. I've had one hanging on the wall for a few months now, thanks to Howie's Saw in Thunder Bay. 

I have struggled a lot as per previous posts with white spruce and waves. I had this minimized/eliminated to well past "acceptable" especially when running the .055x1.50 739's on my LT40. These blades saved my sanity when it comes to spruce. 

While cutting pine yesterday on .045x1.25 10* blades, I threw a 20" spruce on the mill. Immediately I had significant waves. I replaced the blade with a new .045x1.25 7* carbide, which produced perfect straight, flat cuts...every time. I could not be more impressed. I ran the blade for about 2 hours, cutting around 800-850bf. The carbide blade seems just as sharp, with no imperfections in the cuts noticed. 

I am awaiting a BMS250 and BMT150 combo. It's tempting to move strictly to the carbides and forget the sharpener if this performance continues. Time will tell I suppose. 






 

[ladylake]

  
 Looks good, how much do those blades cost..   a 10°  .45   1 1/4 is not going to cut spuce staight.  Steve

[Stephen1]

I used the carbides for a whole season but at the end it was to expensive.  You will find they only get so many revolutions around our small wheels. You usually need to sharpen after a day of sawing and need a diamond stone on your bms250. I saw a lot of urban salvage, nails really hurt carbide and my wallet at a $185 a blade. I do keep a couple on the wall to flatten slabs, that is the best use for them. 
I tried the Bimetal for a while, still have a few in the rotation, but they are only good for a few sharpening also. 
I really like the silvertips 1.5" 7/39. .45th Great price , sharpen a few times, sometimes 5-6 times if they make it past all the hardware. 

[KWood255]

 
Looks good, how much do those blades cost..   a 10°  .45   1 1/4 is not going to cut spuce staight.  Steve

The carbide blades are $145 here. 

[terrifictimbersllc]

I have a box of them cost $80 each last December.

[Magicman]

I can not even consider using them because I only saw customer's logs.  $45 is expensive enough for metal strike damaged blades.

[terrifictimbersllc]

I've only used them once, and that was where the customer agreed to the higher replacement cost if I hit metal. We were cutting cedar power poles which he had removed some labels and a few other exterior metal from, and they were pretty much dirty in their cracks, from wind blown dirt. It made a huge difference in productivity. 

If I were in the situation where I had a huge amount of brushing of sandy logs that  the customer was paying for  I think I would offer the carbides as long as I expected that the logs would be reasonably metal free.And let the customer decide. Of course it would not work if pebbles or stones were involved.

[Stephen1]

 
Looks good, how much do those blades cost..   a 10°  .45   1 1/4 is not going to cut spuce staight.  Steve

The carbide blades are $145 here.

KWood255 Where is here? 

[tule peak timber]

I have an unused blade by Laguna that I've been trying to give away on the forum without any takers. Paid about 175 for it. I need to measure it. ;D

[KWood255]

 
Looks good, how much do those blades cost..   a 10°  .45   1 1/4 is not going to cut spuce staight.  Steve

The carbide blades are $145 here.

KWood255 Where is here?

Northwestern Ontario 

[Percy]

I have found that if I am cutting clean metal free fresh logs, the carbides are slightly less expensive to run than the double hards. (Can't get silver tips up here for some reason). They regularly give me about 10,000 bdft of 2 inch plus before showing signs of dullness.   The blade body seems to be of a higher quality than the regular blades