Cutting 1/4” BB re Blade Life

[Heli_av8tor]

Just finished cutting my first Baltic Birch project and was amazed at how quickly FD Ultra Reverse blades wore out.

Is this common / normal?

Are there better blade choices for this wood?

Thanks, Tom

[fredfret]

Yes that is pretty normal. The reason is the glue used to make it. All plywood dulls blades faster than "real" wood. Simply the nature of the beast.

[Rockytime]

It's like Chicago politics, "vote early and vote often." "change blades early and change blades often."   They are cheaper than ruining a project as if I had no experience.

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

I use FD silver reverse #5 blades and can cut for hours using them. I sometimes change for the sake of changing. These are my all time favorite blade and boy do I have many different blades. 1/4" BB should not dull the blade that fast. That is not thick. But do agree that any plywood will dull a blade quicker than some hardwoods because of the glue and the orientation of the plys. Grain runs different on each layer.

[lawson56]

I agree they do wear out fairly quick.I go thru a blade at least once every other day,I have my saw set on 4,tightness set just right,and I cut,I agree with you guy.the glue,the way the plywood is laid out.it all has to do with wearing out the blade.

[kmmcrafts]

I cut a lot of BBply and you do have to change blades quite a lot.. for me probably about every 30 min. of cutting.. sometimes more often..  

[stevan]

31 minutes ago, kmmcrafts said:

I cut a lot of BBply and you do have to change blades quite a lot.. for me probably about every 30 min. of cutting.. sometimes more often..  

Ditton on the 30 minutes here too.

[NC Scroller]

Scroll saw blades are a disposable commodity like paper towels and sand paper. You wouldn't wash all your windows with one towel or try to sand all your projects with one sheet of sand paper.  Most of us scrollers are cheap and tend to use blades well beyond their effective life.  I as guilty as anyone else.  Cutting BB the effective life of a blade is 20-30 minutes.

[Heli_av8tor]

Well looks like my 20 to 30 minutes blade life isn’t that out of line.

But, I’ll have to get some of the FD Silver Reverse blades that JTTHECLOCKMAN gets hours of cutting with.

[kmmcrafts]

11 minutes ago, Heli_av8tor said:

Well looks like my 20 to 30 minutes blade life isn’t that out of line.

But, I’ll have to get some of the FD Silver Reverse blades that JTTHECLOCKMAN gets hours of cutting with.

I'd only get a small sample of them.. if they do indeed last hours of cutting time then that sample should last several weeks.. and plenty of time to get more on hand before you run out.. I only tried one blade out of the sample pack that I had of these and the rest of them still set in my drawer.. Maybe I'll mail them to JT..   You should try lots of different blades.. as everyone has different taste and style of cutting.. I didn't like these blades at all.. Not my style.. could be for you though.. Hours of cutting.. that's pretty stretched.. I only lasted about 5 minutes before I had enough of that blade myself.. again.. you might like it though..  

I've tried almost every blade style offered by Olsen, FD, and Pegas... Not saying that all there blades are junk or anything.. but.. I almost exclusively cut BB ply or solid Cherry, Oak, and soft Maple.. I've always gravitated back to just the FD Ultra Reverse or... Pegas Modified Geometry.. Those are the main two blades I always come back too.. They are sharp, fast cutting, and a good all around blade that I don't seem to have issues with burning.. well I do something will burn cherry if using the Ultra Reverse blades for some reason.. but never have with the Pegas. which is really pretty much my go to blade.. The Pegas MG numbers 3 and 5 primarily..   

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

11 hours ago, kmmcrafts said:

I'd only get a small sample of them.. if they do indeed last hours of cutting time then that sample should last several weeks.. and plenty of time to get more on hand before you run out.. I only tried one blade out of the sample pack that I had of these and the rest of them still set in my drawer.. Maybe I'll mail them to JT..   You should try lots of different blades.. as everyone has different taste and style of cutting.. I didn't like these blades at all.. Not my style.. could be for you though.. Hours of cutting.. that's pretty stretched.. I only lasted about 5 minutes before I had enough of that blade myself.. again.. you might like it though..  

I've tried almost every blade style offered by Olsen, FD, and Pegas... Not saying that all there blades are junk or anything.. but.. I almost exclusively cut BB ply or solid Cherry, Oak, and soft Maple.. I've always gravitated back to just the FD Ultra Reverse or... Pegas Modified Geometry.. Those are the main two blades I always come back too.. They are sharp, fast cutting, and a good all around blade that I don't seem to have issues with burning.. well I do something will burn cherry if using the Ultra Reverse blades for some reason.. but never have with the Pegas. which is really pretty much my go to blade.. The Pegas MG numbers 3 and 5 primarily..   

Take all you have Kevin. I am not telling anyone which blade to use and I agree try different blades and all the blades I have ever used those are my go to blades and have scrolled many a project using them. Have to say I do not scroll much BB so my times are way off but know for sure without doubt it would be longer than 30 minutes. Your mileage may vary. 

[kmmcrafts]

5 hours ago, JTTHECLOCKMAN said:

Take all you have Kevin. I am not telling anyone which blade to use and I agree try different blades and all the blades I have ever used those are my go to blades and have scrolled many a project using them. Have to say I do not scroll much BB so my times are way off but know for sure without doubt it would be longer than 30 minutes. Your mileage may vary. 

Everyone has a different style cutting.. blade life will be very dependent on many different variables from blade speed, feed rate, to the material at hand.. I think most of us know that..  You might get an hour on them blades.. but " hours " is quite a stretch.. I say this as I did get an hour cutting BB ply last night but with spirals.. and I was only cutting a stack of two. .. My style of cutting wears out blades faster..  Back to style of cutting.. I almost always stack cut up to 5/8" thick BB.. probably the heat from cutting such thickness.. but if I''m only cutting 1/4 or less then yeah.. blade last much longer.. and it is typically too sharp at first so I slow the saw down until the blade gets that edge off.. as I start having to push into the wood a bit.. then I'll speed up the saw. In this case.. yeah you probably can get over an hour.. probably a stretch to get 2 hours though.. Not saying your wrong or I'm right.. just different style cutting.. BB ply is tough on blades though.. that's a fact.. LOL  

[ike]

If you get hours out of your blades stick with them. i have tried olson's, FD' and pages and olson's match blades suit me best. I buy them by the gross and they are cheep @ about $0.25 each I usually get 30 to 45 minutes of cutting with them I was cutting the other day and my blade was dull but I only had about 10 minutes left so Idiot change the blade and that was a mistake the blade didn't break it just cut wrong and scrapped the work. don't push your blade past the dull stage it is a cheep expense

IKE.

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

4 hours ago, kmmcrafts said:

Everyone has a different style cutting.. blade life will be very dependent on many different variables from blade speed, feed rate, to the material at hand.. I think most of us know that..  You might get an hour on them blades.. but " hours " is quite a stretch.. I say this as I did get an hour cutting BB ply last night but with spirals.. and I was only cutting a stack of two. .. My style of cutting wears out blades faster..  Back to style of cutting.. I almost always stack cut up to 5/8" thick BB.. probably the heat from cutting such thickness.. but if I''m only cutting 1/4 or less then yeah.. blade last much longer.. and it is typically too sharp at first so I slow the saw down until the blade gets that edge off.. as I start having to push into the wood a bit.. then I'll speed up the saw. In this case.. yeah you probably can get over an hour.. probably a stretch to get 2 hours though.. Not saying your wrong or I'm right.. just different style cutting.. BB ply is tough on blades though.. that's a fact.. LOL  

Kevin he said 1/4" not 5/8" and I agree you will get much less time cutting thicker wood but 1/4" and only a half hour then throw the blades away and buy some real blades. Said nothing about stacking. The more plywood you stack the more layers and glue you are cutting through and it has nothing to do with style. Never timed the blade usage and I have been doing this for over 35 years. When a blade dulls you know it. With those fancy timers you will be able to calculate many aspects of scrolling and add blade usage to that list and use many different blades to cut a single project and keep a chart. This could be all valuable info for the newbies as they try to figure out what blades are best. 

My statement about longer times cutting BB is true and I stand by it and as I said your mileage may vary.  I will say I never got good mileage from any Olson blade. I never tried pegus blade and only use FD blades. When you find something that works why change. As My Dad always said if it is not broke why fix it. I will say at one time before my use of FD blades and getting to know Mike I used a blade called Tiger blades that were a German blade sold by Steebar. When I worked for them I use to always buy their blades and they too were a good quality blade.