What blades for softwood?

[brombones]

Hi fellas, 

Looking for some more advice on blades for when I get milling this spring.  I ended up settling on the Woodland Mills HM130 mill.  The bulk of my cutting will be green logs of cedar, hemlock, and pine.  Some fairly clear, some knotted.

What blade pitch and hook angle is ideal?  And should I be using different blades for knotty timber or just slow down on the cut?

Have had some guys tell me to stick to a 10 degree blade with this horsepower range (14hp Kohler), some say 13-14 degree for green softwoods.  I'm happy running an all purpose blade, but if I can match the right blades to get the mill running as efficiently as possible that'd be good.

Thanks

[Percy]

I cut softwood primarily and 13 degree blades is my choice. However I've never used them on any mill that had less than 35 hp. Some one with a lower hp mill may have tried them. Haven't heard. 

The ones I use are from Woodmizer. They are very similar to Woodmizer's 7 degree turbo. Very tall teeth with large gullets. Using these tall toothed blades makes the mill very sensitive to misalignment imo.  Increasing the set helps lessen the sensitivity and increases feed rate but I'm thinking you may need more horsepower to use thes blades to their full potential. 

[Chuck White]

All I have ever used is Wood-Mizer Double-Hard, 10°!

They have always worked well for me, 95%+ of my sawing is green, fresh cut logs!

[bags]

I mostly mill Doug Fir, White Pine, Ponderosa and aspen up here on my HM130. A 10 degree blade leaves a fairly smooth cut and dosent slow the mill down too much.

[PAmizerman]

When I was running a lt30 with 18hp gas engine I preferred the woodmizer double hard 7° over the 10°. I never tried a 13°. I was sawing white pine and hard wood mostly. Now I run a lt40 super with 42hp diesel and only use turbos.

[Magicman]

I would caution you or anyone against getting into the circle of "chasing blades".  Yes, some may be slightly or even vastly different/better in certain species or certain sawing conditions, but there have been untold millions of bf of lumber sawn with 10° blades.  I have sawn well over a million bf with them myself.

[hamish]

For nearly 3 decades all most could get were 10 degree blades, and they have cut every species of tree know to mankind. No need to overthink things, in the end you will find what works for you.  I chased manufactures then degree and hook angles, settled back on what worked for me.  10 degree 1.1tpi.

[brombones]

Good to know - I'll stick with the 10 deg. blades when I order more 

I did talk to a friend of a friend who has a couple 13 degree blades he says I can have to try out, so will see how they work on a lower hp mill.

[Kbeitz]

I guess to each his own but I was shocked how much better of a cut I get on my mill with the 4 degree blades over everything else.