United Kingdom 2011 - 4 | Page 17

B L A D E S Which blade is used as the base for RazorTip? DoubleHard material is the base for blades of 32mm and 38mm width and SilverTip material is used for 45mm, 50mm and 75mm wide blades. Are the teeth of the base blade hardened before application of Stellite so that the blade can be used as a 'normal' blade when the Stellite has been completely ground away? No, this is not possible with the set pattern being applied. Enough quantity of Stellite is applied to allow the blade to be sharpened several times. When the Stellite is worn away, some customers do keep the blades to use on logs that are likely to be contaminated with metal, to avoid the risk of damaging their normal blades. Where the Stellite has been applied to DoubleHard base material, the blades can be used in normal cutting operations and are equivalent to Wood-Mizer's 'professional' (nonhardened) range, which has served many customers very well for many years. Is the kerf of RazorTip blades greater than the kerf of DoubleHard and SilverTip blades because of the thickness of Stellite on teeth? The Stellite overhangs the side of the tooth by approximately 0.3mm, but the kerf is the same as standard blades. The sides of the Stellite are ground straight to allow the customer to re-set the teeth and maintain the kerf. This is a great advantage over blades where the Stellite is applied to unset teeth and the Stellite itself is shaped to provide the kerf width, because this type of blade loses performanc