Hi Guys,

The finish you can get with a bandsaw is determined by the blade selected and the correct feed rate.

Selecting the blade is much more than just choosing how many teeth per inch. The tooth style, size, rake, set etc. relative to the material hardness/density and grain direction (cross cut, ripping or re-sawing) should considered.

All these details are new to me right now, just getting into it. I recently purchased a book: "The Bandsaw" (about $25.00 Cndn) from Lee Valley Tools (forget the author's name) about bandsaws and the section on choosing the blade has to be 30 pages long! Excellent sections on bandsaw tuning and techniques as well. You should see some of the stuff that you can do with the proper blade on a well tuned bandsaw. The guy was cutting .004" thick slices off of a piece of maple!

Until now, I have been using my bandsaw for crude work - ripping 10 pounds of wood off of a hunk of log to leave a 2 pound bow blank. Finish did not matter.

I am now learning more about what you can do with a bandsaw. I am planning to rip a LOT of strips ;-) for kayaks and canoes and I think that the bandsaw will do a good job of it.

My 2 cents.

Hank