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That moment you realize band saw blades have tripled in price since 2015
Was cleaning out my old ledger book from the shop in St. Louis and saw I paid $18 for a 1/2 inch blade back then. Now the same blade runs me $54. Any of you guys switching to hand saws for small batches to save money?
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rivera.henry2mo ago
Wait have you tried re-sharpening your old blades instead of buying new? I got a cheap blade sharpener off Craigslist for like 40 bucks and it paid for itself after sharpening maybe six or seven blades. The trick is to keep a few spares in rotation so you can sharpen them all at once. Also check out local saw sharpening services if you don't want to do it yourself they usually charge 8-12 bucks per blade which is way cheaper than buying new. I switched to hand saws for small stuff like cutting dovetails or tenons but for resawing or breaking down thick stock you still gotta bite the bullet on a fresh blade. That price jump is brutal though I remember paying 15 bucks for a 3/4 inch blade back in 2010.
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tylerr292mo ago
Sharpening's a fool's errand when new blades keep getting cheaper and run smoother out of the box.
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beth_baker6922d ago
Tyler those 15 dollar blades from 2010 are probably 30 now if you can find them. My thing is how many blades are you actually burning through in a year? If you're a weekend warrior swapping blades every six months maybe new makes sense but if you're running a shop and chewing through one every couple weeks that math changes pretty quick. What kind of volume are you actually working with?
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