Dull Blade?

So we just moved cross country and I thought it might be a good time to tune up my saw (Delta contractor, Bies, cast wings, WWII blade, link belt, runs nice and quiet, no vibration). It’s been a great saw and I used to get glue line rips from it all the time after my first battle with the trunnions and shimming them for good 45’s.

Anyway, I bought some PALS and installed those, cleaned the blade, aligned to miter slot (same tooth, yada yada), aligned fence to same slot (tried both 1/64 open and dead nuts on) but my rips are nasty. Now, this blade is about 1.5 years old, has been through some purpleheart, paduak, zebra and a bunch of birch to make my bench as well as a bunch of ash for beds and boxes. It’s no spring chicken by any stretch, but there are no obvious signs of dulling and it doesn’t burn anything, just some light crosshatching on both workpiece and offcut.

I don’t mind buying a new blade and sending this one off for sharpening, but I want to be sure that it actually is the blade before spending all that cash.

I put the new delta blade that came with the saw, and its the same pattern but way way worse.

The problem is, I can’t recall if it was doing this when I packed it up or if I caused it….But I really can’t see how it could be an alignment problem if I’ve measured from several teeth 45 degrees apart and they are all right on the money from the slot.

People I’ve talked to say the most common sign of a dull blade is burning, but….no burning here.

What to do?

JC

-- Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. -Carl Sagan