A Radically New Table Saw Blade For a K3 Hammer

[Chris Parks]

I have been looking and debating whether to buy one of these blades since they became available possibly 18 months ago and finally caved in.



This blade is the only blade needed to do either rip or cross cuts and in a word it is astonishing but so it should be for the price which is well over $600. The noise reduction is absolutely unbelievable for one thing and the effort needed to push a piece of timber through is reduced many times. It has a quoted life of years before needing replacing and one disadvantage is it cannot so I am told be re-sharpened and hitting a bit of metal it would write it off I would think. I will only use it on new wood and other blades would do on used/recycled stuff.

The finish off the blade is way smoother than even the best conventional blades I have tried and is truly glue ready. As a comparison I have WW11, Leitz, Felder (Leitz made) BCP, etc all good blades meant for production. Today I cut some Sydney Blue Gum which is one of the harder woods around and the results can be seen in the photos below.

This is obviously not for everyone but I reckon it will filter down to a lower level and a saner price over the next few years so more of us can enjoy using one of these. I am surprised the Chinese have not already copied it to tell the truth. Why did I buy it? I just love new technology I was curious about its performance. I asked Felder if they had sold any others and they said they hadn't so perhaps others who have likewise been curious might now do so.
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[Bauldy]

It will be interesting to see how it performs in the longer term, but from the Promo it looks like a real asset for your cutting.

One thing I don't understand is that I thought the Gullett on a traditional blade was important for clearing the chips, yet this blade does not seem to have very much at all?


Bauldy

[FenceFurniture]

Looks excellent! Nice thin kerf too, at 2.0mm

[Chris Parks]

It will be interesting to see how it performs in the longer term, but from the Promo it looks like a real asset for your cutting.

One thing I don't understand is that I thought the Gullett on a traditional blade was important for clearing the chips, yet this blade does not seem to have very much at all?


Bauldy

I have no answer for the gullet question Bauldy and that aspect puzzles me also. The lack of noise is one of the biggest changes, because every other blade emits a lot of noise this one takes a bit of getting used to. These blades are not exactly new, apparently they were first used in about 2014 but I dd not become aware of them until last year through another forum.

[woodPixel]

Ripper!

Oops, pun

I use the Freud P410T and P410 which leave unbelievable finishes and cuts smoothly.

The use of diamond and carbide now is amazing.

This blade reminds me of the bandsaw blades I use from WoodMaster. They are apparently "unsharpenable".... but with a little diamond file and a jig it can be done. Its slow and methodical work, but it can be done.

Those Felder tools are incredible. So sexy.

[Austin_Turner]

It will be interesting to see how it performs in the longer term, but from the Promo it looks like a real asset for your cutting.

One thing I don't understand is that I thought the Gullett on a traditional blade was important for clearing the chips, yet this blade does not seem to have very much at all?


Bauldy

I'm guessing its not a coincidence they show a moisture meter and say that the optimal moisture range is 6-10%...that is very dry and I wonder if this blade is basically producing more dust than chips and so needs less space for chip removal because it packs denser in the gullets?

[elanjacobs]

They can be resharpened in theory if the tips are thick enough (Leuco says their diamond tipped saws have up to 2 resharpens in them), but there wouldn't be many places equipped to do it as it requires special equipment. Diamond tips are sharpened by erosion, rather than abrasion; you can't effectively use abrasive on diamond because the hardest abrasives ARE diamond, so the material is removed by an electrical discharge basically zapping it off (look up wire EDM for an idea of how it works).

As for the gullet... Because the whole part of the saw body behind the tooth stays at its full diameter (as opposed to traditional blades where it is ground back on an angle), it creates a chip limiter that prevents the tooth from taking a large cut. It doesn't need a large gullet because the shape of the blade means it physically can't make a large enough of a chip to fill it.

Also, not to be "that guy", the cut finish in your pic looks no better than what I was getting with a normal carbide tipped 96T ATB Leuco Topline :/

[Fekit]

it will filter down to a lower level and a saner price over the next few years so more of us can enjoy using one of these

To be honest, after just watching the video, I'd say this is a very specialised blade and not likely to be used by many, which in itself would imply that the price is not going to come down.

Clearly this blade is not for cutting actual wood. It requires a MC of 6%10% LOL good luck with that one. And it needs to be removed and cleaned whenever there's build up in the gullet. Personally that sound more balltearingly irritating than changing the plastic bags on my dust collector, blindfolded.

I think I'll stick with my CMT low noise blade.

[elanjacobs]

Yeah, the tech isn't going to filter down to lower priced stuff simply because both the material itself and the machinery required to process it is very expensive. It's also very time consuming; I saw a video about sharpening diamond tipped saws and a blade like that would take several hours, if not the better part of a full day.

It's more aimed at workshops that are cutting MDF and other abrasive materials all day, every day.

[Chris Parks]

Yesterday I ripped a 50mm slab of Sydney Blue Gum which is damned hard and very dense and the finish was like it had been done finished with a hand plane, there simply is no marks at all as you get even with the best conventional blade and I am totally surprised a thin kerf blade would cut it at all. The big winner in my book is it happily rips stuff like this as well as it cross cuts. I only really bought this out of curiosity more than anything else because I love new technology and I never expected it to cut as well as it does and I readily admit it is out of reach for most woodies. A few people who have used it were utterly amazed including one professional woodworker who earns a living building solid wood furniture.

[Austin_Turner]

Chris, when cutting is it quiet enough to not wear ear protection? Is the feed speed the same as a conventional blade or a bit slower? (Its easy to feed a rip cut fast with a slider!)

[Chris Parks]

It is more quite that a conventional blade when cutting but I wouldn't rave about the difference but before cutting the difference is astounding. The effort needed to cut is also lower but that depends on the material of course. On say 18mm MDF you can hardly feel the difference when the cut begins but in general it requires less effort to push the table through. Of course I am comparing it to a 3mm conventional Forrest WW2 45T blade and this is a 2mm kerf both of which can be said to be all purpose blades. I do have Leuco and Leitz blades as well which are purpose rip and cross cut but it is a bit hard to do comparisons with all but in general I would put the diamond blade at the top of the file. I have to go through all my blades now and sell the ones I don't want.