Carter AccuRight Bandsaw Blades

Using the 1/2" and 3/4" blades, I was able to follow a straight line in 1"-thick stock to perfection, but the 1/4" blade drifted a little, as you might expect. The wider blades also handled ripping well, gobbling up each board without any drift. Although the 1/4" blade tracked true, I had to slow the feed rate because of the finer teeth. AccuRight blades really shine in resawing. I cut 1/4"-thick slabs from 5-1/2"-wide stock using the 1/4" blade. The blade never deflected, delivering cutoffs that measured exactly 1/4" thick across the full length—very impressive. Next, I set the fence to cut 5/64"-thick slabs. Both the 1/2" and 3/4" blades produced cutoffs that measured within 1/64" of my target, and I consider that acceptable. If you don’t want to change blades for different types of cuts, the 1/2" blade provides the best combination of performance, speed, and cut quality. To test the blades’ ability to make radius cuts, I drew S-curves on 3/4" stock and hugged the lines tightly for each cut. Both the 1/2" and 1/4" blades handled this task without fail. Next, I drew concentric circles in 1" increments. I could cut no tighter than a 5" diameter with the 1/2" blade, but was able to drop that to 1-1/2" for the 1/4" blade. Carter sells blades ranging from 72" to 136" in length, and 1⁄8" to 1" in width. They also custom-make blades to fit almost any bandsaw. —Tested by Pat Lowry