I'm often asked what sort of blades I use on my bandsaw. And the answer is – it depends.

A bandsaw blade has to be matched to the job in hand and, to a lesser extent, to the size of the bandsaw.

You would not try to rip a 2 "board with a tenon saw, nor crosscut plywood with a greenwood saw. You would select the right blade for the job, and the same is true for a bandsaw. Just because the machine is powered does not mean that one blade will cut everything, it won't.

So we need a selection of blades, dependent on what we are doing. Fortunately, despite there being a vast array of blades to choose from, we can do 99% of our normal work with just two or three different blades.

Blade width

Given that the challenge with a bandsaw is to get it to cut straight, it is easy to think that the wider the blade the better, and to a certain extent this is true. You are likely to get better results with a ½ "or ¾" blade than a ¼ "one. But the temptation is to go as wide as the wheels will take. Which is an inch or more. The problem then is that few consumer- grade bandsaws are strong enough to tension such a wide blade and an insufficiently-tensioned blade is likely not to give good results. You can rip perfectly well with the correct ½ "blade on any bandsaw, if it is set up properly on the machine.

Conversely, it's no good expecting to be able to cut tight bends with a wide blade. If you are doing lots of curved work, you will need to fit a narrow blade. A motorbike can go round a much tighter corner than a bus can!

Number of teeth

As a general rule you should use as few teeth as you can get away with whilst ensuring that there are at least 3 teeth in the wood. So for home woodies making furniture, 3 TPI is good for ripping solid timber. Why are fewer teeth better? Because the sawdust has to have somewhere to go and it is the gullets behind the teeth that do that job. Ripping produces long curls of sawdust which have to go somewhere. So my standard ripping blade is 3TPI Skip tooth. That means the teeth are the size they would be if it were 6TPI, but every other one is missing. This means the gullets are easily able to carry away the sawdust and I get a smooth and clean cut.

If we are crosscutting, however, or using much thinner material, then 3TPI is simply too coarse to get a smooth cut. Here, the sawdust is finer and we can get away with smaller gullets without them getting clogged up. 6, 8 or 12 TPI may be more suitable.

If cutting sheet metal like brass, that TPI count may go up to 24. That would still give us 3 teeth in 1/8 "material.

I recommend that when buying a new blade, buy two the same. There is nothing more frustrating than breaking a blade and having to stop whilst a replacement arrives in the post!

So I suggest you start with a ½ "3TPI Skip blade for ripping and a ¼" 6TPI for crosscutting and curved work. That should get you through most of your tasks. You can then add other blades as and when you need them.

Happy woodworking!