buffalo hide and band saw blades

[gene atkinson]

hello gentlemen ,
have a couple questions that will help me eliminate trial and era and save time and money.any and all help is as always appreciated , so thank you in advance.
   what type of blades do you use and for what purpose or multi purposes?
   started  using buffalo hyde with a prevail sprayer until i get a compressor.
 to what mixture do you go with on a prevail sprayer ? the ratio on the can is to thick for it , it seems.
 again thank you.

[bornofmud]

I use as thick a blade as my saw can comfortably handle (which on my 14" grizzly is a 3/8" blade).  There's a handful of nice wood only blades on the market, I was using the woodslicer or something like that from highland woodworking. What you can't do with a normal blade is cut glass.  It will dull your blade immediately.  I got around that for awhile by dedicating one blade to cutting glass, and a nice one for wood only.  If you plan on cutting a lot of glass or working with g10, then you'll want a carbide tipped blade eventually (and many folks use them even if they're only cutting hardwoods as the blades last a lot longer and cut much nicer), though they're about 3x the cost of a normal blade (about $150 for a nice lenox blade).

I use the preval sprayer with buffalo hide and do the 50/50 mix that they recommend with no issues.  I like the texture of a sprayed finish, so i keep it pretty thick.  If it's too thick, then follow the directions for adding thinner (you have to let the epoxy catalyze for awhile before adding it). If your sprayer isn't working, the straw/tube might be plugged from a previous use or some other issue, maybe try a new can or straw.

[gene atkinson]

yes i am definitely going with a carbide , i was looking more for like do you use a raker , skip tooth? etc. and TPI

[JamesV]

I bought a 3/4 X .040 3 TPI Bi-metal (medal cutting) blade for my saw, like $36 delivered. This thing cuts wood and glass great. I have built 6 bows and the blade is still going strong. Maybe 2 with a wood cutting blade.

[bornofmud]

I run a 3/8" x .032 3 TPI skip on a 14" bandsaw

[BigJim]

I am running a tri master 3 from lennox (1/2" wide) on my 14" grizzly. It has been on the saw so long, I don't remember when I installed it. That bandsaw is dedicated to anything with glass or phenolic. I use it to cut out my limbs and also to cut out risers with reinforcement.
It cost about $115, but I would guess that I have cut out more than 200 glass bows with it and going strong.

As far as spraying the Buffalo hide, you can thin it as much as necessary to get it to spray as you like. The thinner you spray, the more coats you should put on.
good luck, bigjim