Resaw Blade Review

[JohnW]

I bought a Laguna 14" SUV bandsaw about 6 years ago and got their carbide tipped Resaw King 1" blade. (Remember their promo video of paper thin slices that just floated through the air?) I wanted that kind of performance when re-sawing expensive exotics for musical instruments. I never quite reached the floating paper stage but was very impressed with the Resaw King. Well, the King broke last week right in the middle of a project where I needed it. The 1" blade is a bit too wide for a 14" wheel, but Laguna makes them thinner then typical 1" blades and I had strongly considered buying another, ON SALE at $179.95. But I opted to order a 3/4" Wood Slicer from Highland, primarily from some good comments on it on this forum. Once it arrived I installed it, made the proper adjustments which are extremely easy on the Laguna, and completed my project. Did not have time to experiment with the blade but was impressed with what I had seen so far.

Today I had some time and decided to see what the slicer could do. Within a few minuets I had thin wood slices floating through the shop air. At 1/5th the cost of the carbide tipped Resaw King, I'm highly impressed with the Wood Slicer.

My thoughts are:

Brand new and sharp, the Slicer performed better then my Resaw King, even when the King was new.
The Slicer takes a thinner kerf which equals less waste.
The Slicer cut was a bit cleaner then the King, although both make good clean cuts with less bandsaw marks than most blades.
Slicer costs $39.00. The King list is $199.00 and can typically be found for $179.00
I'm assuming the Slicer will dull faster, but since I'm not a production shop, I think it will last and perform well for several years.
The Slicer cuts a bit slower on harder woods. The King is a bigger blade and the carbide tips chew up wood faster. But the Slicer is plenty fast enough for what I do.

 

[Bill Clemmons]

Thanks for the review, John, and glad to hear you like the Wood Slicer. I'm among those who sings it's praises on this forum. Great blade.

 

[pcooper]

Wow!!! What timing!! I began looking for a resaw blade that does better than what I've used in the past, the review convinced me to try the wood slicer, as I was on the ragged edge of springing for the resaw king. I figure both are good blades for my use, but cheaper wins so long as it will perform.

 

[scsmith42]

Great review John.

One thing that I discovered about the Resaw Kings is that they cut cleaner and leave less kerf marks after they've been resharpened. When I spoke with the Laguna rep about this he told me that they can't maintain the same tolerances on the mass produced coil stock that they can achieve when they spend the time to reset one band.

I'd order a Woodslicer for my horizontal resaw but unfortunately it takes a 1" band and the Woodslicer is only available up to 3/4.

 

[sawman101]

I've used the Wood Slicer in the past and have been happy with it's performance. However for me the price is too much; now why do I say that? I buy blades from Hickory Saw And Tool for my Jet 14" with riser block which equals 105" blade. On the Jet, 1/2" blade performs the best. The Wood Slicer, with shipping, costs me nearly $50. I buy a 1/2" 3 tpi blade from HSAT for $15.50 + tax. The downside is not that perfectly smooth cut of the Wood Slicer, but still smooth enough I have to look carefully to see the saw marks. Now here's the big difference; no matter which blade I use to resaw with, I still have to run the piece through the planer to get the required size. So for me, as long as the blade does an acceptable job of resawing the cost of the Wood Slicer is unjustified. I can buy 3 blades at Hickory Saw And Tool for the cost of 1 Wood Slicer. I don't know who makes their blades, but I'll try to find out next time I have a blade made.

 

[JohnW]

When I spoke with the Laguna rep about this he told me that they can't maintain the same tolerances on the mass produced coil stock that they can achieve when they spend the time to reset one band.

Scott,
Laguna told me the same thing. BTW, I've finished my cabinet project using your QSWO. Came out great and I learned a lot about ebonizing WO. I plan on writing up an overview and posting pics when time allows but wanted to thank you for your help.

 

[Matt Furjanic]

I also have a Laguna SUV 14. My resaw king broke several years ago and was a good blade, but not for the high $$$$.
I too resaw exotics, such as gaboon ebony, bloodwood and other very hard woods. The Wood Slicer is an incredable blade and resaws smoother than any blade I have used, but is overpriced, in my opinion. You can get an equivilent blade for half the price at Spectrum Supply or Woodcraft bands, and these cut as smoothly as the woodslicer. All of these blades are great, but will dull quickly when resawing these hard exotics. The woodslicer dulls just as quickly as the Spectrum or Woodcraft bands blades. My chioice is the Spectrum blades which cut just as smooth and last just as long as the Woodslicer.

 

[danmart77]

John -- you are leaving one big factor out:

The King can usually be resharpened about 3 or 4 times. The WS is a good blade for the occasional RS job. If you cut 1000 linear feet of 8" and greater curly maple, the only blades that have endured on my 20" delta are the Laguna and Lenox blades.

The bi-metal Lenox is a great blade for a man on a budget. I hope the WS lasts a good while for you and report back in after using it a good while. At the price you paid, it might be worth revisiting??

My machine takes 140-141" blades.

New tires. You need patience for that job

​

 

[PhilCK]

Thought I had read somewhere that the Wood slicer was a rebanded meat slicing blade. If you can find the non-Highland Hardware version, it is much cheaper. But perhaps my memory is going.

 

[Wyatt Co.]

I bought a wood slicer a little while back. I was actually blown away by the performance. I often make my own veneers for small projects like boxes and whatnot. I have a 14" Grizzly (no riser block) and if I remove the top guide assembly, I can cut 8 1/2" tall stock consistently at 30 mil. Mostly I've been doing this with Maple, Walnut, and Oak. Not that long ago I was doing projects out of 130 year old pine that was hardened in a fire. After resawing much of this, my wood slicer has developed drift that I can't get out. I really haven't ran that much wood through and the performance didn't fade away, it just stopped. I'm kind of disappointed to be honest.

 

[PhilCK]

Little research of other internet forums for somewhat cheaper Wood Slicer

"The other important note is the same bandstock can be gotten from Iturra (as the Blade Runner) for less money and Spectrum Supply (as the Kerf Master) for significantly less money."

Also WoodSlicer and Blade Runner are made from Atlanta Sharptech blade stock.

 

[JohnW]

I agree Dan that the King and other carbide blades have the advantage of being resharpened. But I have a 14" wheel that uses a 125" blade, and the carbide tipped blades I found were all thicker band material. I have a feeling that my thicker 1" blade going around the tight curve played a roll in fatigue. If I had a larger wheel the King might last long enough to resharpen. I'm very careful about releasing tension when not in use and keeping it adjusted. Blade just broke and I think it was due to fatigue. For my use, the blade was still plenty sharp enough when it broke.

So, like many choices, it comes down to application. In mine, I think I need to say away from thicker carbide tipped blades. But I am interested in your comment about the bi-metal Lenox. I looked at their Lenox carbide tipped blades and found them to be too wide & thick for my saw. But they have a lot of non carbide blades with the bi-metal name on them. Which one do you recommend?

 

[danmart77]

Which one do you recommend?

We are very different machine operators here. I have an old 20" that runs well with 1" blades. I would never put a blade that wide on my 14" Delta.

Reading the comments you wrote and the inputs from others, it looks like you can get the WS performance thru other dealers not marking it up so much. I don't think the WS price is that high really I was just not happy with how quickly it got dull.

I think I am going to try the blades from Spectrum Supply or Woodcraft bands like Matt mentioned.

I am slowing down on some of the really hard and wide boards I used to cut on my bandsaw. I'm taking the wide curly maple and crotch walnut to Scott Smith. His horizontal bandsaw is just great if you want to cut uniform thick veneer pieces 8' long.

I have a dozen boards like the one opened up in photo 1. Scott did this for me this year and I could not be happier.

The board above is 18" wide and 84" long also cut down to thick veneer slabs

When you're thinking about blades and consider the cost of some of these boards, its best to think QUALITY

On a visit to Gibsonville last week, I saw a small piece of crotch walnut 6-7"wide x 13" long. It was for sale for 12.50bf. That is something you can break down with a saw at home and have something special for a small project.

For big stuff to be glued down for table tops, I'm off to New Hill

good luck​