How to reduce chipping and get cleaner cuts
Using a main blade and matching scoring blade can reduce the chipping and give you cleaner cuts.
Chipping of material can be a real problem and can ruin a woodworking project. Using a scoring blade along with your main blade can greatly reduce the chipping that can occur at the bottom of the cut.
To most effectively reduce the chipping, use a scoring blade held in precise alignment with the main blade and turning in opposite directions. The lower surface is scored by the smaller scoring blade before the main blade completes the cut. The outer surface of the material has already been scored and will not chip when the main blades makes the final cut.
When it comes time to sharpen your blades, it’s important to keep in mind that the scoring blades should only be sharpened on the face of the blade so that it can maintain the same kerf. The scoring blade must cut a kerf of the same width as the main blade. With each sharpening the main blade becomes shorter and narrower. In order to maintain that the scoring blade and main blade keep the same kerf, the scoring saw kerf must be altered.
Conic scoring saws solve this dilemma by adjusting the depth of the cut. The conic scoring blades have conic shaped teeth that make a v-like cut in to the wood, so the deeper the cut, the wider the cut. Before the main blade is sharpened, the conic scoring blades must cut deep to match the wider kerf of the main blade. As the main blade gets sharpened and the kerf becomes narrower, the conic scoring blade must make shallower cuts so that the width of the cut is narrower.
With split scoring saws, it is also imperative that the scoring saws cut the same kerf as the main blade, but they accomplish this a different way. With Split scoring saws, spacers are used to control the kerf of the scoring cut. As the kerf of the main blade becomes narrower with repeated sharpening, spacers (or shims) are removed from the split scoring saw so that it matches the width of the main saw.
Popular Tools makes high quality scoring blades for a wide range of various machines and in a wide range of widths or kerfs. Their choice to use thick, advanced grades of carbide ensure that your scoring blade, as well as your main blade, will have a very long tool life and will yield clean cuts every time.
Tags: conic scoring saws blades, Popular Tools, scoring saw blades, split scoring saw blades
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