cutting steel with band blades

[spencerhenry]

am doing some resawing on reclaimed doug fir. real popular stuff around here right now. building dept in aspen gives you "points" for useing reclaimed material, or manufactured products.  after hitting a 1/4" lag screw my blades still cut ok. they dont make as nice of a cut, and they tend to ride over the knots, but i can generally finish the cut. which is good because these beams are EXPENSIVE. my question is whether or not the blades can be resharpened or if when i hit metal, i need to just throw them away. am planning on charging the guy i am cuttting for, the price of the blade new. i havent had time to inspect each tooth on each blade, but the few i have looked at just looke a little rounded. also as a side question, what do others use for cutting 7% mc doug fir?

[Tom]

Usually a blade that has hit metal and still has all of the teeth intact can be reset and sharpened.  It may require several times around the sharpener which wouldn't excite a sharpening service.

This is a good example of why it would be nice to have your own blade maintenance equipment. 

Having the blade paid for will keep you out of the red as long as you make sure that you have plenty of blades in reserve.

Usually, the slower your feed speed, the less tooth damage.  When you are really "honking", the nail, or whatever, gets well into the face of the tooth rather than just on the tip and many teeth may be broken.

Damage to look for is not only the destruction of the tip but the shattering of back of the tooth, knocking the tooth out of set and stretching of the body of the blade such that it no longer runs true.  Even though you might not notice these damages right away, the longivity of the blade will have been greatly diminished.

Whether the blade is recoverable or not, still get your money for it.  There is time lost in swapping blades.  There is money incumbered in keeping an inventory.  If you take the blade off because of damage, charge for it.

[Rockn H]

For dry ERC, I use a .045 thick x 1.25w with a 9deg hook.  Could probably go with a 10 deg. but I cut more with a 9 and it seems to work good for me.