The Role Of Wood Bandsaw Blades’ Geometry In Lumber Manufacturing

Bandsaws are the most commonly utilized cutting tool in breaking down logs. Each board foot produced using a wood bandsaw mill will be greater than that of using a typical circular mill. Also, the use of bandsaws results in more lumber because of smaller kerf and less sawdust. However, one needs to have a full understanding of the operation of a bandsaw. One important aspect to know is how the geometry of wood bandsaw blades impacts lumber manufacturing.

Bandsaw Blade Geometry

Bandsaw blades vary depending on their design, width, and thickness. Thus, it is very important that you select the correct type from different wood bandsaw blades. But making the right selection requires you to consider several factors including lumber species, size, and grain orientation. And of course, it is the tooth design of the blade that you must not forget to consider. Generally, there are four major tooth designs to choose from namely, skip tooth, hooked rip, standard shape, and rounded back.

• Skip tooth blade: this is ideal for resawing and rough cross sawing applications because its gullet area is intended to reduce gullet cracks.
• Standard shape blades: this is usually used for narrow wood bandsaw blades because they have greater tooth strength due to their small gullet area.
• Hooked rip blade: this one is great for sawing huge sections of high density lumber because of its lengthened gullet and positive tooth shape.
• Rounded back blade: this is perfect for use in wide wood bandsaw blades due to its curved back which offers a small clearance angle. This geometric tooth design results in greater strength at the tooth point.

Selecting the right blade geometry for your specific sawing application based on those angles identified is very crucial. Otherwise, it can result in major problems that can adversely impact the productivity of the sawing process and thus, your entire lumber manufacturing.