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Kerf
Clearance between the bandsaw blade and the sawn surfaces is
necessary in order to eliminate friction. This clearance is achieved by swaging
the tooth tips. Wider swage is necessary for softwood than hardwood.
Teeth are normally deep-swaged for softwood sawing but
tip-swaged for hardwood. Some rule-of-thumb figures on the necessary amount of
clearance are given in the figure below.
It is obvious that the gullet will spill sawdust to some
extent no matter how the calculations are made. The clearance given by the swage
will allow for that.
Increasing the swage is one way of utilizing faster feed. This
method will allow the gullet to spill more sawdust without affecting the
accuracy of the cut. It is a common way of sawing softwood at high feed speeds
in North America. However, the recovery figures will be reduced due to the
increased kerf loss. The economic results of course very much depend on the cost
of the raw material.
Clearance given by the swage
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