V-shaped skilsaw blades

[RichardBlake]

There was a wooden boat article (nr. 98, Feb 1991) on wedge-seam construction, mentioning several builders using V-ground skilsaw blades to cut/clean up seams. Are they available in the US off-the-shelf? Hugely expensive? Only custom-made?
Any tips or info on these blades and using them gratefully accepted. With the right dimensions, maybe I can get one made up here in the Netherlands, if they're not a production item. Serious toolmakers/dealers over here tell me I'm by bo means the first to enquire about these blades, but they don't exist... reminds me of a TV commercial for Guinness in Britain, years ago:
Two young men walk out of blazing sunshine into a little English country pub, sweat on their faces. Walk up to the bar and say "Two Guinnesses out of the cooler please". Barman says: "No guinness on the cooler, sorry." The lads ask why not. Barman says "You must be the tenth person I've told today - there's no demand for it!"

All the best
Richard

[ken mcclure]

:D

Like the restaurant that was too crowded so nobody went there anymore.

The only blades I've heard of have been custom-ground.

[Bob Smalser]

I just did one to cut caulking seams in a boat that didn't originally have them.

I just took a regular non-carbide combination blade I had handy and hand ground the cutting teeth into 60-degree bevels. I just eyeballed it, and it worked fine....but for more precise cutting, a large commercial saw-sharpening shop like the one that does my big sawmill blades would be able to do it perfectly on the machine that trims brazed-on carbide teeth.

[warwick]

Splining blades are available in the U.S. they are expensive. I cannot remember the name of the company that produces them Carbotec or something similar, perhaps if you do a search in the forum it will come up. I had a quote to have one made locally $AUD300 plus tax.

[Popeye]

ya, went through that exercise too. ended up using a bent file to clean bevels.

Somebody once complained to the theatre manager that the lineup was a bit too long , could something be done? Yes, he said , everybody seems to show up at the same time. (true story)

[RichardBlake]

Thanks for the responses, folks. Sorry I've been silent - computer down for 2 days.
Please bear with my not being very bright about this, but I'm finding it hard to visualise this blade - if you need to cut/clean up a big caulking seam say five-eighths deep, the 'shoulder'of the cutting surface, at the widest part of the V therefore, is going to need to be about a quarter-inch wide, yes? So are we talking huge carbide tips 5/8 by 1/4 ground to a point? I'm trying to visualize your regular combination blade, Bob, and not succeeding. Or were you making far finer seams than I'm thinking about?
There's a company here is happy to make me one, but only with technical drawings.... Oh, dear!
All the best,
Richard

[Bob Smalser]

No. No carbide tips. An old-fashioned high-speed steel blade with no tips...the cutting teeth are uniformly parallel along their length.

All that's really important is the bevel.

If your plank gaps are huge then more than one pass with the saw can be made. Otherwise....if the planks are still touching you live with the 3/32- 1/8" of sawblade thickness at the top of the seam when you do one pass made to the depth of the bevel....if the bevels are wider than that then they can be raked with a raking tool following the pass with the saw.

[Popeye]

i think he wants to easily machine consistent 10deg bevels, this would make splining (wedge if you like) much more accurate and reliable.

[Bob Smalser]

Another alternative I thought of at coffee this morning....when I retip my 21" sawmill blades myself, I start with 3/16th" carbide blank tips, silverbraze them on, and grind them to spec on a special jig made for that blade.

A large sawsharpening service does it the same way on blades of all sizes. You could have an old carbide sawblade retipped and reground to the shape you desire....the machine used in such a commercial shop mounts the blade on an arbor, hammers the blade true and grinds both the sides and tips of the teeth...I don't see why they couldn't adjust the bevel on the side grinder for more taper, as that is a variable dimension on most blades.

[ 10-10-2003, 10:32 AM: Message edited by: Bob Smalser ]

[RichardBlake]

Popeye, that's it exactly. I'm just lazily looking for a one-pass solution for a 10 degree V bevel cut, sometimes shallower, sometimes deeper. So are a couple of other folks here who stop to chat while I work on our boat, and moan about all that raking of 30-year-old putty they're going to have to tackle soon. A few of us are hoping to pool our resources and get a dedicated skil-type-saw with a special blade.

Bob, your last post about the coffee-time thoughts gives me something to take to the toolmaker without sounding quite as dumb as I really am! Thanks.

Oh, well, now back to plugging nasty old screw holes!
Trans-atlantic greetings to all
Richard