Great resaw blade

Just after Christmas I got two new band saw blades from Iturra Design (no web site) in Florida. The blade I’m reviewing here is a 105” 3/4” woodslicer 3/4 TPI. (That means it’s variable, 3 teeth in one inch, 4 the next) for $21.20. Along with Mark Duginske and his Band Saw Handbook, the guys at Iturra are band saw gurus. I believed in them before, but I hadn’t bought into their recommendations on blades. I don’t know what I was thinking.

My saw is a 3/4 HP Jet 14” saw with the 6” riser kit, and just two other after-market add-ons: a wheel brush, and cool blocks. Quite a while ago I bought a 1.5 HP motor for it. But I haven’t put that on yet, and wasn’t sure this saw would work well enough to be worth it.

After adding the riser block I bought three blades from a maker who has a very good reputation. But the saw was running poorly with them. I tuned it a number of times following the Duginske book. But it ran really loudly, and cut slow and rough and with a thick kerf. On the resaw blade especially, I could see a kink in it where the weld is. And when the weld went through the cut it would widen the kerf noticeably. I’m not mentioning the blade brand because I’m not sure I didn’t mess something up. But I won’t buy those again.

Enter the Woodslicer. The saw runs quieter, and cuts as well as I could have hoped. The photo is of a piece of 4/4 ash about 2.5” wide that I sliced freehand. It doesn’t show the cut surface, but it’s very smooth. If anyone needs old blade stock for scratch stock let me know. I’ve got 315” of it for cheap.

-- johnjoiner