Q&A

Question:

I am involved in a project that entails gluing up strips of a variety of wood species, padauk, cherry, hard maple, red gum and a couple of others that I have sliced to various thicknesses 1/16" and thinner using your 3/4" Wood Slicer blade. After allowing the glue ( Titebond III ) to cure for several days, I created a glued-up stack of mixed strips 3" thick with the strips in a horizontal position. Then I attempted to slice 3/16" segments creating half-an-arrow-like feather piece. Each and every time the blade would flex enough to create a non-uniform strip, each one different. My first reaction was that the saw and blade were not properly adjusted so I redid it many times, all with the same results. Then I ran a 6"-wide block of hard maple through the blade with perfect results! Why is this happening? I have been using the Wood Slicer for some time with fantastic paper-thin results.

Answer:

Wow, looks like a very cool project. Our Wood Slicer is purely a ripping blade. It does a great job of "slicing wood" with the grain, but it was not designed for crosscutting as you've found out. The tooth geometry that gives you paper-thin veneers only does a so-so job when going across the grain. A general purpose blade like our Sterling bandsaw blades will give you better results.

Thanks for your question,
Chris Black
Highland Woodworking