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What blade stiffeners do you prefer to use with Shane's fret saw blades?

I was using the blade with the 3" stiffeners from Woodcraft, and was ripping a binding strip off a back plate (bad move probably, but the blade was in the saw already.) The 3" stiffeners were not enough to keep the blade from warping or wandering. I haven't used it yet to saw frets, but want to do a batch of 4 boards soon, so I'm wondering what's optimal?

Thanks,

Jim

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Lee Valley stiffeners for me.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

I use the 3" woodcraft stiffeners also. This blade is just too thin to do anything except cut fret slots. The heat generated by cutting anything else will definitely warp the blade.

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Reguards,

Ken H

[QUOTE=JJ Donohue] Lee Valley stiffeners for me.
[/QUOTE]

3-1/2" or 5" ??

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

5" Lee Valley here.

I only use the blade for it's intended purpose, to cut FB slots. Anything else I use the 7-1/4" diablo

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5" for me. I tried 3" ones but they weren't much better than using nothing at all. The 5" stiffeners made a world of difference.

5" it is. Thanks guys!

Jim

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

So Jim, how warped is the blade? You may be cutting to wide of a slot even if it's only warped by a couple of thousanth's    That would suck. If you don't mind my suggesting, test it first, it may be no good for fb slots anymore.

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

[QUOTE=Rod True] So Jim, how warped is the blade? You may be cutting to wide of a slot even if it's only warped by a couple of thousanth's    That would suck. If you don't mind my suggesting, test it first, it may be no good for fb slots anymore.[/QUOTE]

I will do that - I think it lies pretty flat on a surface.

I'd hate to have messed it up. I've only been doing ebony boards, and the S-M .023 has been way too narrow as far as I'm concerned, so I really wanted to use the .0245 of Shane's, which I gather is going to drop to .024 on his next batch.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Jim (and Ken!),

You need the 5 inch stabilizers. The blades really need that much support. You can get them almost at every woodworking store but most, including me, get them from Lee Valley.

I am hoping that the new blades will be ever so slightly smaller but barely noticeable. If they are too tight then the next order will go back up to .0245 but I really think they will be perfect!

Good luck

Shane

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Canada