Post by herb on Oct 1, 2021 18:40:26 GMT -5
Hi everyone! I purchased my 18" saw used, over 8 years ago and for all that time the blade that was with it (I think it was a Black Blazer) served me well. But the blade is showing its age. It still has a good amount of diamond on it and cuts pretty well but I seem to manage to have at least 1 rock a year slip out of the vice. Sometimes there is no noticeable damage, other times there is a visible bend in the blade. I've been able to (mostly) straighten things out each time but now all those mishaps have added up to give the blade a fair amount of wobble which makes cutting larger rough difficult (blade bogs down sometimes) and for successful cuts, the blade wanders a bit before biting in and cutting straight. For slabs it isn't that big of a deal, just a little 1/8 inch or so area at the edge of the slab that is thinner. But for cutting thundereggs it is more of a problem because I either have to flat lap alot longer to get rid of the mark, or manually grind and polish the wandering mark out.
So with my history of rocks slipping out of the vice, I was wondering which blade people think is more durable, eg: able to be salvaged from a mishap. I was going to get a MK-301 blade because of the continuous rim (my current blade is continuous too). Seems less likely that a slipped rock would trash the blade. But now that I am shopping for one, it seems to be out of stock at the more reasonably priced sites (around $250 - $275 range) Places selling them for $400 and more still have them in stock but I am not ready to spend that much.
I was thinking of getting a MK-303 blade instead, but it is a segmented blade and I am worried that a segment would more likely suffer damage from a rock slip that could cause the blade to be unusable.
Anyone have any thoughts as to which blade will give me the most usable life?
So with my history of rocks slipping out of the vice, I was wondering which blade people think is more durable, eg: able to be salvaged from a mishap. I was going to get a MK-301 blade because of the continuous rim (my current blade is continuous too). Seems less likely that a slipped rock would trash the blade. But now that I am shopping for one, it seems to be out of stock at the more reasonably priced sites (around $250 - $275 range) Places selling them for $400 and more still have them in stock but I am not ready to spend that much.
I was thinking of getting a MK-303 blade instead, but it is a segmented blade and I am worried that a segment would more likely suffer damage from a rock slip that could cause the blade to be unusable.
Anyone have any thoughts as to which blade will give me the most usable life?