Bandsaw blade thickness

[Kansas]

We have always used blades based on thinking that if you have the horsepower, and big enough bandwheels, you go thicker blades for more stability and better production. We use the .055 1 1/2 on the LT 70, and .055 2 inch wide on the other mill. When I was at the Richmond show last month, I signed up for a couple of free 2 inch blades from a company. When they told me they were .042, I laughed, and said send them, but I can't imagine them keeping up with the other ones.
It appears I may have been wrong. We tried them this week, first on hackberry, then on cottonwood. The cottonwood in this area is miserable to cut; fibers tear, they don't cut. The first round of the two blades, they cut very well and lasted for a good while. We sharpened them. We decided to up the ante. We put one on. And cut. And kept cutting. We cut for a full day on that one blade. (It was cutting so well,the sawyer didn't want to pull it.) We basically have cut the better part of last week with these two blades. They will get sharpened again on Monday. This will be the fourth time on the mill. We didn't keep track of board footage, but those blades have been pushed to the max, and still won't give up. And the price is way less than the thicker ones.

Have I been going the wrong direction all this time on blade thickness?

[ladylake]

 I don't know but it seems like when my 1-1/4 " blades get sharpened down to 1-1/8 or less the cut better. I tried Lennox  1-1/4" blades once that actually measured 1-3/8 and cut no where near as straight as my Simonds 1-1/4 blades. It doesn't make sence but that seems to be the way it is.  Steve

[Banjo picker]

I think that if your mill is set up really well the thiner blades will cut like they are supposed to ....if something gets a little out of whack...the thicker bands are a little more forgiving...I have run .041 and .042 and .050....1 1/2 " they all cut very well...I am fixing to have to order bands...and really don't know which one I will go with....

[Mo]

On the LT 70 the .055 or .050 x1 1/2 is what you should use due to your hp. By going down in blade thickness it would decrease your production due to the fact you would have to slow your feed rates. Now thinner in width is another thing, sometimes it is best to go to a 1 1/4 in the winter if you are in a very cold area of the country, this helps with frozen logs and waving issues.
Mostly, on re-saws running our .042x2 is very well suited. Longer run times and more sharpenings.
In one case I know of (a customer) that is running those blades is getting a average of 8 to 10 sharpenings using our LTAGA-CBN sharpener.
Applications due vary due to different situations. It is alway's best if you have a question or have a question to see if there is a better application for the task at hand to call and pose the question. We are alway's here to help. 

Happy sawing,
Mo

[Kansas]

Mo, that is exactly what my thinking has always been. And we haven't tried these blades on the LT 70. But the mill we are running the 2" blades on has a 100 horse motor. No shortage of horsepower. Yet they are outperforming the 055 blades.
We put a 36 inch red oak log on the mill just before we left for the evening. See what that does to them. We also have some bur oak logs ready to go on there. This will be the 4th time for the blades on the mill.
We usually average 5-8 times, although we pull them faster off the mill to resharpen than we have these.
Who knows, they might meet their Waterloo on the oak.

[sgschwend]

I think we don't have enough information here.  There are many different types of steels and therefore many different types of physical characteristics.

If the same steel and saw making process was used I believe the idea of the thicker and wider blade bending less and cutting faster would hold true.