Simonds Blade and Sawing Terminology

Blade and Sawing Terminology

Beam Strength is the result of a combination of a blades hardness, thickness and width. A wider blade provides greater Beam Strength which usually produces straighter and smoother cuts. However, never use a blade wider than that specified by the saw builder.

Cutting Edge is the toothed edge of the blade from the points of the teeth to the base of the gullets. The rest of the blade is considered the back.

Gullet is the valley from the tip of one tooth to the tip of the next tooth. It is designed to carry the chip from the kerf.

Kerf is the cut in the material being sawed. The width of the kerf is determined by the thickness of the blade plus the set of the teeth.

Set that is given saw blades is actually the tilt or angle given to the teeth of the blade which provides clearance in the cut. The overall set to right and left is another factor in determining the width of the kerf.

Tooth Pitch is always measured in the number of teeth per inch---from tip of tooth to tip of tooth. Variable Tooth blades are indicated by two numbers since the tooth pitch and the gullet depth varies.

Tooth Types are determined by tooth shape. Examples are Regular, Hook, Skip, and Variable Tooth. Tooth types are designed to do different kinds of sawing. It is essential to match the blade to the job.

**Standard Tooth Styles**

Regular Tooth Regular Tooth Blades are the most commonly used for all general purpose metal sawing. The face of the tooth is straight, i.e. 0 degree rake angle.

Hook Tooth Hook Tooth Blades are ideal for sawing large sections of steel, wood and plastics. Hook teeth are designed with a 10 degree positive rake which gives a cutting action of digging out full chips instead of scraping. The rounded gullets permit chips to clear with ease.

Skip Tooth Skip Tooth Blades have widely spaced teeth with a large gullet capacity. This tooth design prevents clogging when cutting soft, sticky materials such as Aluminum and Magnesium.

Modified Hook Tooth Modified Hook Tooth blades are most often used to cut wood, but are sometimes used to cut Aluminum. The difference between this blade and the regular Hook Tooth is in the gullet style. The Modified Hook gullet acts like a chip breaker at the base of the tooth to help prevent clogging.

**Tooth Sets**

Raker Set Raker Set is one tooth tilted left, the next tooth to the right and the third straight. Raker set blades are recommended for the majority of sawing being done.

Wavy Set Wavy Set blades have groups of teeth set to the left and to the right alternating throughout the band blade. Wavy set helps eliminate tooth strippage when sawing thin sections such as tubing, pipe, sheet stock, etc. These are recommended for most light duty sawing machines.

Alternate Set In Alternate set blades, each tooth is set alternately left, then right and so on. Alternate set blades are generally used in woodworking.

Tooth Pitches Tooth pitch indicates the number of teeth per inch. Teeth per inch is determined by counting the number of gullets in an inch, measured from tooth point to tooth point. Tooth pitch (teeth per inch) is an extremely important consideration which is determined by cross section and hardness of material to be cut.

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